The Road To Spring 28: Change We Must

Two months down. Spring is knocking at the door. Can I afford to open it? Everyone else has, if the streets are anything to go by. People seem to have, perhaps unknowingly, decided that lockdown is over. The weather has been quite pleasant in recent days and, with a few blips, appears set to continue. Combined with the pace of rollout for the vaccine, the end is inevitably in sight. The end of something anyway. 

The tragedy of the vaccine is that the government will take, and are taking, credit for the success. Labour compound their endless failure by failing to oppose this narrative. They have failed to oppose anything so far, which renders them pointless in the eyes of the electorate; never mind a socialist alternative. The real success is the hard work of the frontline staff and the people on the ground delivering it, in all aspects (including the car park attendants shepherding thousands to each site daily, a thankless and necessary task undertaken by not the ruling class). It is imperative that the government are not allowed to take credit for this apparent success, they do not deserve it. Success that has come in spite of the best efforts of the Tories to mismanage and kill. They have done both.

It is the end of Winter, more or less. More, as it happens; this weather is a welcome shift. Hopefully it will not change. Something has shifted, thanks in part to our dying climate. We cannot go back. In 23 days it will be a year for this wayward blog, and, more importantly, for that which it chronicled; a year of unparalleled travail and change. Not sure what I do after that milestone. 

People are clamouring for a return to normal, but is that what we want or even what we need? What was so great about the beforetimes. Normality in those terms simply means once more acquiescing to the inevitable turn, backward, of Capitalism's great wheel. Conspiracy theorists have spent the last year talking up their interpretation of the pandemic as 'the Great Reset'. All bollocks of course; the only reset that will happen will be to restore the wealth of the ruling class. Austerity for us.

There will never be, until the next crisis, another opportunity. We owe to the tens of thousands dead to change things and stop the Tories.

The Road To Spring 27: Spring Is In The Air, Let's Hope Nothing Else In It

So they buried old Sir Captain Major Tom. What's one more death in the scheme of things? One out of voer 100,000 no more or less important. But he perambulated for us. What a tragedy, that an old man felt he had to waste his dotage during a pandemic to make sure people got the health care they deserve. Correction: while everyone deserves health care as a fucking birth right, the health service is paid for out of the common purse. It's not some privilege granted by the great and good. It's ours. That doesn't stop the Tories selling it off. A massive contract in London has gone to another American firm. Hundreds of thousands of patients, under the brand name of the NHS, now being cherry picked for profit. The difficult/poor (what a conflation) will be sent to the back of the queue. Poor doors for your health.

This won't change until revolution. It is the only answer. Even if Labour weren't such a mess. Even if their leader wasn't such a shambolic quisling, that fact would still remain. Nothing wrought through Westminster will fundamentally change things. It's up to us; either we fight for it or we lose it. The Tories are not going to suddenly curtail their privatisation agenda just because we are in a pandemic, it's in their DNA.

Sadly efforts such as those undertaken by a frail old veteran (and no disrespect intended) will always be exploited. As long as they remain within the confines of the overton window - what is acceptable under capitalism - they are so vulnerable, and are thus useless. Intentions unfortunately count for nothing. It's good that people like Tom care, but caring alone, or in concert with good intentions, won't save the NHS. In fact the ruling class can use people like Tom as a safety valve; get everyone clapping. Pretend you care by clapping alongside the proles. But nothing actually changes, except everyone's dopamine levels. Everyone except the staff dying for lack of food or PPE. Tom's garden excursions have done nothing to stop nurses needing foodbanks, but instead divert what should be outrage from fermenting into revolution.

Spring is definitely in the air, which is a good thing. Unfortunately (perhaps) so is the end of lockdown. Wait, what? I mean that there are loads of people outside. The lockdown Boris' roadmap entails isn't the one I'm seeing. One of the local pub landlords is selling barbecue food/burgers from the car park. The play area is full of parents and kids. People are everywhere, walking with friends/family/bubbles. There is no going back from this. I can only hope these are responsible and healthy (more importantly) people because the genie ain't going back in the bottle at this point. 

Only a week before kids go back to school en mass as well.

The Road To Brexit 26: Thoughts On Brexit

Was in a meeting last night on zoom with socialist comrades and Brexit was the topic of discussion. I have decided to clarify my thoughts here. I didn't get to articulate myself as well as I'd liked and have more to say on this so why not waste your time by getting you to sit through it :D

The idea is that the left should have voted Brexit. I disagree, now, with this position. At the time I abstained, but the damage from Brexit, on reflection, has led me to think the best choice would have been remain. That is clearly in the interests of the working class, while diminished horizons, poor terms and conditions, and the general exacerbation of hard right politics and ideology, are not. Those are the only consequences of Brexit; it was never about nor for the working class. It was a Tory/capitalist civil war. We should have left them to it, hence my original position, but with the caveat that we also explain to voters - the greater working class cohort, that the Brexiteers won over instead - what was really happening. That their class interests, their very livelihoods, were not served by those people. Instead those interests were used and their concerns - fears - stoked and manipulated to the point of murder.

We are where we are, now. Brexit has happened. This reinforces the need for us to speak to our comrades and explain what is happening. To prevent them falling for more divide and rule politics. This is what will now happen: as Brexit fails and businesses collapse Brexiteers (and, importantly, their media cheerleaders) will seek to blame everyone but themselves. It will be the fault of the stodgy oppressors in Brussels, the Trade Unions for demanding the impossible, foreigners for stealing your jobs (see Brussels), or just people for being lazy, unwilling to accept less. This latter will be pushed while the hard right government enabled by Brexit will strip rights and increase bureaucracy. All in direct contravention to what was promised. No sunlit uplands; no hundreds of millions for the nurses and doctors dying to keep us alive at this time. These are people so hungry for the opportunity to wage class war that they pushed a Brexit deal they didn't read at the threat of breaking international treaty law, risking civil war in Ireland, all during a pandemic. There could still be civil war as there are still those who oppose the Good Friday agreement now jeopardised by the Tories. We still aren't out of the woods when it comes to the threat of No Deal. As the interest of the ruling class are increasingly served by diminishing terms and conditions we risk jeopardizing regulatory alignment and acceptable standards in the eyes of the EU - our largest trading partner now - which could break the crap deal Boris 'won'.

Brexit has been a Pandora's box for the far right and the fascists, not just locally buyt globally. Farage was hailed, at an early Trump rally in 2016, as the 'architect of Brexit'. Seen as an advocate of 'freedom' (ill defined) he was cheered, and is still seen as the 'man of the people', despite obvious charlatanry and xenophobia. Farage, along with the ERG and the Tory government we now have, are not themselves fascists, however they are the government and the people that fascists want in charge and love to listen to. They are the compost that gives rise to the weed of fascism, and it is growing.

This is what a revolutionary position on Brexit should have pointed out. Our job shoudl not have been to take sides in a capitalist civil war. One only instigated to facilitate Cameron winning an election; temporal power at best. This demonstrates, at best, they ruling class simply doesn't care about us. THe consequences have been highly divisive and destructive; Cameron didn't care. He thought he, a remainer, would win. 

Our job was, and still is, to point out to our comrades that Brexit is a power play. That, while we, the working class, have been ignored by politicians - of all stripes - and have been taken for a ride, the problem isn't one side of capital. It isn't the EU versus Britain. It's capital versus the rest of us. Our class interests must come first. This proposition, Brexit, offered us nothing and lies were used to convince us otherwise. We are not stupid, working class people are not fools, we can understand the truth, no matter how unpalatable, and the fact is remaining is best for us. Not the emboldening and elevation of a hard right government that will strip us of what even the EU, for all it's many faults, offers. That is the hard reality of Britain in 2016-21. Don't fight the class war on their terms.

As a result of Brexit, leaving the EU hasn't become more popular across the EU states. But it has emboldened the far right. The allies of con artists like Farage (and explaining why we see him as such is also important; debunking his populist persona). What will happen is that our society will continue to be divided. People wont' naturally see the situation for the disaster it is for the same reason they didn't see it coming; they have been lied to and manipulated by powerful interests. James O Brien says the same thing, but we also have to recognise that sneering centrists like that (and centrists shift with the restless centre point, which is now drifting ever more rightward) also do not have our class interests.

The only people that can salvage this situation are us: the working class. We must recognise that supporting Brexit was an error. But we should not do so with O Brien's brand of arrogance, nor recrimination and division. We leave that to the ruling class while we vicariously enjoy their hopefully self-destructive squabbling. That's all capitalism can offer.

The Road To Lockdown 25: So Close Now

It's turned out nice, which as it turns out, is oddly confusing. I'm in a funny mood today. Perhaps because I went to town to do my shopping. Something that is going to have to be more regular, simply because local alternatives (when not stricken by covid) are lacking and expensive. It remains cheaper to travel into town and shop in the supermarket. Fortunately the shopping experience is much more pleasant; it was considerably less busy today. The shopping centre eerily so. Only a few, essential plces, open within (including a bakery somehow). The fact that Tescos isn't rammed is also a blessing. However it's left me oddly restless. The weather, turning somewhat nicer, is also confusing. My inner clock wants it to be Spring. The sunshine offers an appealing illusion, but the stiff breeze reminds me otherwise. We're nearly there though.

I saw that the Jobcentre was open. It didn't seem to have any 'customers' so I expect they are open to specific appointments and administration. I received a letter over the weekend telling me, once again, that I had been placed in the Work Related Activity Group. I've no idea what that activity could look like at this time, neither does Fedcap Employment who are frankly useless. At least it will look positive for my inevitable imminent Work Focused Interview that I'm 'working' with them. I don't know when that will be, it should be now as the last one was six months ago, just after the last such letter. I'm assuming that they are deciding people's cases remotely (in some cases) every six months depending on the external conditions. I also think they have cut down on the number of WFI's they are having as well, again conditions depending. I could well be completely wrong, but my guess is that, now, I'll hear again in the Summer. The uncertainty remains problematic; you just don't know. I don't find that acceptable.

Sunak the destroyer has his budget next week. Other than the usual economic tinkering, playing with the frayed edges, there's the question of the Universal Credit 'uplift' (nothing about UC is uplifting). Currently only UC claimants receive the £20 extra granted during this period. The rest of us, on legacy benefits, get nothing. I complained to my MP about it, he wasn't interested of course, he's John Penrose. Tory arsehole. The talk was that he was going to cancel the uplift and just give a flat £500 to (not) everyone instead. It would be a bitter kick in the teeth to be denied that, but given that it's cheaper for him to do so - and certain to win plaudits from the working class - I think it highly likely. Just as likely as not giving that same sum to everyone else on benefits. They don't care.

Finally the government has rolled back from havign testing and mask wearing in schools. Tis is no surprise. They were never ready to implement this, but obviously couldn't admit this, in their rush to start another outbreak. They are encouraging schools to do so. But schools haven't been equipped for this, which is the reason for the rollback. Consequently when schools refuse to do so they will be blamed as irresponsible and recalcitrant. It's class war once again. But the truth is that schools can't obey; the facility isn't there. Never mind the extra - unpaid - burden on staff. 

Not that creepy Gavin cares.

The Road To Lockdown 24: Pass the Port

There is talk of a covid passport. An entry to places in the honeymoon of the vaccine rollout, facilitated by your ability to prove you've been so treated. Honestly, not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, we really cannot continue to allow the virus to spread. It has been argued there is precedent: travel to certain countries necessitates receiving shots. It's not quite the same though, and one should  always question a scheme when it's being delivered by the likes of the Tories. I don't necessarily think the slippery slop fallacy applies, but none the less it would be naive to think no good can come from it. Indeed one might argue that we don't need passports every flu season, but on the other hand I started carrying hand gel each winter precisely because I got sick of getting sick from exposure to other people's germs on buses and out in public ever winter. The threat of covid is worse because it's perennial.

However where I definitely draw the line is the use of mobile phones. Not least of all because my phone isn't powerful enough of running the OS necessary to operate the covid app. While it's easy to assume everyone on benefits spends their money on the most expensive smartphones, it would be a false one to make. I certainly don't, and I don't want to. I'm not a fan of phones. I find them intrusive, plus I barely make calls so what's the point. The cheap one I have, which I am proud to say is the cheapest smartphone I could find, I use because it plays my mp3s. That's all I need it for. Besides I really can't see essential services, or entry to essential shops, being denied on the basis one hasn't clicked the app or even had a vaccine. It's not really in the interests of capitalists to deny themselves profit. As for the safety of their staff, in exposure to the virus, we've seen they don't really care about that.

I don't know what else to discuss today. I'm trying to avoid discussing Labour, or thinking about them, because they are utterly irrelevant. Keir Starmer is a clown pretending to be an authoritarian. He's naive, easily played, and behind the curve when it comes to attacking the Tories. A year into his leadership and it's not going to change anymore than Boris is, so screw him. It's nearly spring, I missed celebrating Imbolc (I'm trying to be a good pagan), we're nearly there.

The Road To Spring 23: Detailed Plans for Lockdown #4

Pretenidng to be someone important, a bumbling oaf with a piss stained thatch spoke in front of a camera. Oh, that's the Prime Minster? That's embarrassing!

Schools to re open a couple of weeks before they have to shut again, because it will be the Easter holidays. Is there really much sense in that; wouldn't it be best to wait a month and allow for a greater reduction in cases as well as further output of the vaccine? Not to creepy Gav. He doesn't care about your kids' health, nor that of the workforce. He hasn't so far, so expecting that to change seems naive. The problem is, as I said yesterday, any spread in the virus will not occur immediately. It's not like when you touch a hot plate, ouch! You yank your hand back quickly. They say they are allowing three weeks' breathing space between 'unlocks' (achievement unlocked: You are a Twat PM), that's something at least. But it took longer for even the scientists to spot the problems following the same degree of opening in September. It then took the governmorons until January to act (not counting the insufficient November lockdown that was still to little too late).

This overshadows all the other pit stops on the Boris' Roadmap to Ruin. I mean allowing people to meet for coffee in public is great except it's been happening throughout. Local cafes never stopped selling takeout. People never stopped talking to one another in the street, out walking dogs etc. You are never going to stop that anyway. I have to wonder what lockdown the government are referring to now because it's not the same one I'm living. On one hand they institute rules too little too late and on the other no one obeys them anyway. The problem is a complete lack of credible authority. 

We still aren't listening to the science because if we were at the very least there would be a phased return to school. This is the biggest aspect of all this. I'm sick of hearing about the importance of education, especially when teachers haven't stopped. In fact more has been expected of them than ever before. all with no support - and the continued, baffling, class hatred perpetually waged against them in the media. Then, when it all goes tits up and we're in Fourth Lockdown, the usual suspects will be back with their stage managed anti-lockdown/anti-science outrage. What a fucked up society we live in.

I could talk about the other aspects of the plan, but what's the point. Everything that comes out of Johnson's mouth is toxic and baseless. Lies come easier than the expulsion of carbon dioxide. Anyway it all hinges on the outcome of schools opening. I imagine we'll hear how much work the government has done to facilitate that, or whether they just say shit and expect it to happen; minimum wage overstretched teachers having to do it all while playing dodgeball with covid. That's Johnson's MO.

The Road To Spring 22: Nearly There

The sun is out. Somewhat bashful, slightly obscured by crowds - there are a lot of people with the same idea, walking outside while it's still nice. The forecast is hopeful, weather that will be reflected in the grasping aspirations of our PM later remains to be seen. It's easy to want everything open, it's also foolish.

For now the virus seems to be threatening mood music. Omnipresent. It isn't quite suppressed to allow Boris and his clown cronies their sunlit upland. Their parole. But he will make a good fist of it, which means he will make a mess of it. 

The problem is, as long as the virus remains in the community to any real degree it will surge again. It doesn't care about economics, personal feelings, or the desires of confused politicians. It certainly doesn't care about children nor their education. This is why zero covid is the only strategy and, as sure as the sun on my shoulder (and part of my screen) is my witness, I do not believe Boris intends to follow it. Nothing else will work; at best we can open a few things. At worst we will open too much, sooner or later, and I'll see you here for lockdown number 4....5....6.... you get the picture.

It isn't difficult to understand this. Without suppressing the virus sufficiently, tracking and tracing cannot work. Without tracking and tracing we cannot possibly keep a lid on future outbreaks. And there will be future outbreaks; covid is in the world. It's not going to leave for a long time. It will take a global effort to fully eradicate it. That requires successful worldwide freely available vaccination technology. It takes years to eradicate diseases, never mind those that are highly transmissible. Ebola, frightening and deadly, isn't a threat like this because it's too deadly, killing before it spreads. While we are in covid's grip it will mutate and spread its misbegotten children. Another reason for zero covid. We can't let it evolve against our vaccines. 

So the situation is quite serious, actually. It isn't merely an inconvenience for swivel eyed Tories, liek tiny faced pub simpleton, Tim Martin, or any of the backbench cranks in the 'Covid Recovery Group' (an excuse to leech more expenses, just like the 'European Research Group'). It is fundamentally an ongoing cycle of increasing despair. We cannot continue the cycle of lockdowns, but there is only one solution. Unfortunately it's not one the Tories like.

The Road To Spring 21: Tired of the Grey

Sundays now are like when I was a kid; slow days with nothing to do. 

In fact I have things to do, that isn't the problem. I just don't like having no choice but to do them all day at the exclusion of everything else. Even going out is difficult now. It feels like a chore, a considerable effort. Everyone else is out, just like a Sunday. Whole families going for a walk at exactly the same time as me (which makes needing to take a piss behind a bush rather difficult - doesn't help that lockdown locked the public convenience). It should be social, but I don't know these people, so it isn't. Instead I'm just glad to get back, but going out is necessary for my sanity.

I've been redduced to this: moaning about trivia. I have noticed a decline in my temperament since the start of the lockodnw, perhaps even before. I have less tolerance for tedious minutaue or trivial inconveniences. It's stupid really, which makes it all the more frustrating. It's the time of year; the slow death of winter, hopefully it will pass peacefully. I'm tired of the grey. The never ending grey. Even when it's mild and calm, like it is now, unseasonably so, it's still unavoidably winter. I can't wait for when things change, when the world becomes warmer and things start growing again. Even if the lockdown continues, which is highly likely, or at least necessary, the weather and improved climate will be just the tonic. Winter is difficult at the best of times, it tests you. Living through the worst of times doesn't make that any better. We all knew a winter lockdown would be horrible. I'm here to confirm; it is.

Tomorrow Boris gives his lockdown 'roadmap'. Frankly, I don't care. He's a proven liar. He could say anything, it's just words. None of it will mean anything. Without a zero covid strategy, which he has no interest in, there's no point. Nothing else will work. Sure, open schools in two weeks, it will be disastrous. All this will do is cause the virus to surge again. Same with any major undertaking to unlock. If the virus isn't driven down; without an aggressive test and trace scheme, there's no point because we'll be back here in a couple of months. Again. The worst part is that it will take several weeks for the numbers to reach crisis point, by which we will be doomed. Again.

So I'll just catch the highlights. It's just words at this point. The government will never learn and certainly never change.

The Road To Spring 20: Grey Days and Good News

Just another Saturday, which is to say, just another day. They have all merged into a grey mirage. Even though the weather isn't horrifically cold, it is still unmistakeably winter. Even though the weather was horrifically cold, it would be incorrect to believe the climate hasn't changed. I remember more consistently colder, frostier, winters as a kid. Perhaps my memory isn't accurate, but what we have now is just miserable weather. It is uncharacteristic, and lacks the chilly charm of a proper winter. Those days, if they ever existed, certainly don't now.

This is the canvas of our lives. The worst possible moment for a lockdown. Sometimes I wonder what I'd be doing today if things were different. It is unlikely I would be making music. There are definitely some decisions that have been facilitated by these conditions. Seeing the DWP effectively back off, though I'm sure they'd wish otherwise, means I can be more brave. As a result I have invested in my creativity in a way I probably wouldn't have done otherwise. 

Conversely, there are no places to go. Where I would have gone, I do not know. But everything is like the worst possible half day closing. The legendary days of old when shops would shut for half a day, allowing staff time off. Those days are long past, now it's a 24 hour society. But I walk past places that would otherwise be open and of course they are not. The bubbling undercurrent of human activity that, even without direct participation, is a part of the experience is not present. Like a reassuring background noise, it's absence leaves you unpleasantly deaf and insecure. 

Today I received some good news; my ESA case has been decided. Again in my absence. They are going to continue paying. However I'm returned in the Work Related Activity Groupe once again. This is of course no surprise, though what such activity can occur and be reasonably expected right now I do not know. It's not as if you could volunteer at the local charity shop. I've been expected a call from the DWP about another Work Focused Interview since the start of the year. One is due, perhaps this wil be the catalyst. It's not knowing when and where these decisions will be made, nor what they will be, that's always the problem. It makes planning ahead difficult. Now I can, for a while at least. But one uncertainty is always replaced by another.

The Road To Spring 19: Too Covid For Comfort

Following yesterday's bacterial intervention, another ha appeared. The local shops have been affected by Covd. This could lead to a serious outbreak though hopefully that moment has passed. The local butcher has been shut all week because of an infection. OI don't know who or, perhaps more importantly for everyone else, how. But still seeing people walking into shops, specifically the bakery next door, without masks is now all the more galling. I don't think that's what happened here since the butcher doesn't sell takeaway food the same as the bakery and they insist on people wearing masks. However the neighbouring Coop convenience store has also been infected. They are running a skeleton crew with reduced hours because staff had tested positive. The obvious conclusion is that it spread throughout the precinct. This is scary stuff given the potential for community transmission.

I had hoped, throughout all this, we'd be spared locally. Of course that's everyone's hope, but so far, at least to the best of my knowledge, we had been lucky. But this isn't like the first lockdown; play areas are open, with kids in them, people are socialising, somewhat (to be fair), much more than before. More takeaway options are available, and people are using them. It doesn't seem that much effort is required to seed and (hopefully not) spread the virus. Needless to say I won't be visiting the shops for a good long while, but luckily I don't have to. However I don't know how far this has spread, even among the other shops. None of them are going to want to shut of course, which is the other problem. If they did, the community would struggle.

People have got to start taking it seriously, it is never too late. Having just been jabbed I certainly don't want this virus. What rotten luck would that be? However I can't help thinking we, as a society, have reached the limit of what we are prepared to tolerate. People are, understandably, fed up with all this, but what's the alternative? They want schools open in two weeks. At the rate the infection has been falling the best we can expect is about 5000 daily infections. That's way higher than it was when schools opened at the start of the academic year, and we all know how that went. Unfortunately we also know what that creep Williamson will do. He's a nasty piece of work; instead of working to ensure schools are safe, he's waging a culture war against an non existent enemy.

To be honest I'd feel much less apprehensive if I hadn't had the jab, with the covid now in closer proximity than ever before. It just goes to show how easy this shit can spread. Now that I have a path to protection, I'd hate for that to be ruined (I don't know what happens to the vaccine's efficacy if you are sick int he period it's kicking in). Nowhere is safe from this virus, least of all the egos of fragile toxic masculinity. 

The Road To Spring 18: A Shot In The Arm

And so it was that I got jabbed. 

I still feel a little weird about it, not in a physical sense. Other than a slightly sore left arm, where the needle did the deedle, I'm fine. I just wasn't expecting to be invited for months. Also the experience is a little strange; not because it went badly or was in some way terrifying. Just that it's unusual. It's not every day that you get, what is essentially an emergency medicine injected. That just reinforces the difficult nature of these strange times. As someone that copes less well with disruption, I am reminded of that strangeness even more.

I was expecting simply to turn up at the relevant surgery and, maybe wait a little while, get jabbed, then leave. That's not quite how it works. In fact the venue is a surgery that's out the way. Fortunately there is a community transport service, used to help the less mobile in less febrile times, that gave me a lift. But there was no way the local surgery could cope. What you realise is that this is a vast and impressive logistical exercise. They are processing over a thousand people a day, using either the Pfizer or Astrazenaca medicine. I don't know how it's decided and I didn't get a choice (Pfizer in my case). I doubt it makes any difference.

There is a constant stream of traffic in and out of the surgery. A large facility in a more rural (than rural) area. THere are marshalls directing that traffic; like a major celebrity had turned up to do an event and sign pictures or something. It's a little crazy, adding to that strangeness again. Upon arrival you are shepherded in a group into a waiting area, asked for your particulars. They also ask if you have any allergic reactions and have ever taken, iirc, Warfarin (I may have gotten that wrong since I'm sure that's rat poison). Once that's all processed the nurse comes over gets you to expose your left arm and injects you. That's done in seconds. It took her about a couple of minutes to get around eight people in a largish waiting room (in normal times). Then she explains the potential side effects, tells us that in a couple of weeks we'll have 85% (ish) protection, but can still transmit and receive the virus. 

Finally we're given a 'covid passport' (ish). An official card recording the date and time of the injection which will be completed upon receipt of the second jab. I think it's good to have this, despite what the antivaxxer crowd would say (they say nothing about capitalism's every daily oppressions, of course). We can't leave until fifteen minutes have passed. Just to make sure everyone's settled and not having a weird reaction. This isn't the case with the Astrazenaca medicine, but apparently you can't drive for a little while afterwards. I guess if that's the case they'll tell you before you travel otherwise...!

So here we are. An extraordinary logistic exercise pulled off with considerable efficiency. These guys know what they are doing. There was no fuss, no mistakes. Injections delivered very quickly. I'm always impressed by a nurse's ability to stab! It was all delivered with a smile. I'm sure, in private moments, they've all had their moments, but for now the staff on hand were courteous and pleasant. None of the patients were difficult or obtuse either, fortunately. I hope that's the case everywhere.

And that is the story of how I came to be partly vaccinated in the second year of the plague. Afterwards I was chauffeured very kindly back home. It is good that community transport is available. Again, I hope that's the case everywhere. Along with the surgery staff this entire effort, from door to jab, is a success of working people. Sadly, Tory supporters will happily use this as an excuse to let our incompetent PM off the hook for thousands dead.

The Road To Spring: Vaccinus Interruptus

Somehow, I have been invited for a vaccine. I wasn't expecting this for months, perhaps even a year. I wouldn't have really minded either given that other people are way higher priority. But I fall under the people with health conditions thing, which I'm assuming is related to my mental health. Let us hope, then, that other people, with mental health problems are getting similarly prioritised, and let us also hope that this isn't at the expense of more vulnerable people. Whatever, I would be foolish to rebuff this opportunity. Everyone needs to take this medicine. 

It is impressive how this has been rolled out. As with all aspects of the infrastructure arising because of the pandemic, it is not the government that are responsible, but the workers. Matt Hancock won't be jabbing me tomorrow, nor will he be driving me to the surgery. It will be working people helping each other. We cannot let the government take credit for that, but they will want to, and need to, in order to maintain their hegemony. It's part of the capitalist ethos: the brave entrepreneur risking his all, the capitalist go getter. In truth it is neither; the worker provides the value that is stolen by that brave go getter. The worker risks economic security (and has no choice) on the dreams of an entrepreneur and if the latter fails, it will be the worker left with nothing more often than not. If you're in the position to be that entrepreneur you likely have capital and protection from liability to fall back on. Why else do we film the plebs begging change from rich scum in the 'Dragon's Den'? Obscene programme. It is literally porn.

There's a danger, now, that the infection rate is slowing, perhaps levelling off. This is my concern right now. Time will tell. But it makes a kind of sense to assume this is likely, but I hope that's just a feeling because I think lockdown has reached its limit. When even WHSmiths are open (!) you know it's gone as far as it can. You'd be forgiven that life in town was just some weird bank holiday: people out and about, buying takeaway food and drink (the smell of hot donuts ffs doesn't cleanse the covid air). People aren't prepared to give anymore. Sadly neither are the government; Boris believes no other leader could have done as much as he and his. Sadly further that he believes such weapons grade bullshit.

The Road To Spring 16: Division

The laughably named Covid Recovery Group (the only such group I trust is called the NHS instead) wants everyone able to enjoy a picnic in a month's time. This is ridiculous because it is already happening. People are already associating: families out together playing ball in the park or taking the dogs for a walk. People are already buying takeout food and drink to eat publicly. It's happening everywhere. This lockdown is the ragged edge of what is acceptable. Whereas in the first lockdown the rules were more rigidly enforced, play areas taped off for example, business are now employing whatever means they can, such as clock and collect and takeout. Who can blame them, they've had no support. Worse our society has not changed. It should have. Division is the end result.

The mismanagement of the pandemic (still thus) has led to greater division within the working class. It just shows the innate power of divide rule; a consequence of capitalist class divisions. Working people are forced to choose between business - economic survival - and their community. When there is no support for either, there is no correct choice, and whatever you choose causes division between people. 

The Tories are acting out of fear. Something all the anti lockdown crowd believe of their opponents. They claim we should stop living in fear, but this isn't fear. It is the correct response to an existential threat. They then have to disbelieve such a threat exists and so the rabbit hole deepens. The correct response is the rational response - the opposite of fear. But when Covid Recovery Clowns tell us we should open up, they do so recklessly, because they are afraid. Mostly of losing power. They certainly don't care about the real consequences of lockdown. These they correctly identify, but only to use them for their cause. As is clear the Tories don't care about mental health, nor the economy (Brexit, anyone?).

What makes the Covid Recovery Group so pernicious is their use (as all antiloxxers do) of the mental health crisis. They are weaponizing it in their class war. They don't care about actual mental health; this government has had ten years to address it, but won't because a) that involves investment and b) it also requires a fundamental societal shift. Mental health is intrinsically linked to capitalism, which means that, in order to heal our sick society, we must address it. And remove it. The Tories obviously don't want that, the CRG especially as they are it's most crank fringe. Yet they are happy to use the crisis of mental health (and it is a crisis) to get their way. Disgusting.

In short the Covid Recovery Circus is another excuse to fleece the taxpayer and further the increasingly fevered capitalist agenda. Fuck 'em.

The Road To Spring 15: Blame and Glory

Yesterday a morning came a smile upon your face, morning glory, Caesar's palace, silly human race

Those may be song lyrics (of a sort). Sorry.

Yesterday we appear to have got the infection rate down to about 10,000. Still it was Sunday so we can't be sure if that's accurate or sustained. Time will tell. 

If and when we get this virus down - we - it will be because of us. Not the ruinous powers above our heads and over our lives. They will seek to take credit for this. They will seek to reward their own (Hancock will be shuffled upstairs and someone new will take charge, he won't complain, be glad to be out of there). We must not let them get away with that. They cannot co opt our efforts as they have our applause. This has not been a communal effort because we were never all in this together. When the time comes, when the all clear rings out, they must be marginalised. Put their heads on spikes, a warning to future generations. This will be our victory because the only ones that fought for it were the working class. All effort in spite of the malevolence and corruption from a government happy to starve children. Twice.

Today, apparently, our graceless Chimp in Chgarge (that's unfair to primates) will bless us with another live miserycast. I look forward to an evening of platitudes and bullshit. Who is he persuading? Us, who have been living with this crap for almost a full year, or his lunatic backbenchers and their thirst for economic savagery. How stupid are these people? There aren't numbers enough to answer that. The roadmap out of this entirely depends on us. Not them. We are the power here. 

It has been a lovely day. In stark contrast to last week's ice-laden misery, of which I shall never tire of bemoaning. It is how I function, which is admittedly kinda sad. But I'm out walking (not right now) in the fields without a scarf or gloves! Beach ready! Still there's plenty of time for another icy plunge; that is how winter seems to operate these days. One last chilly touch before the good times. Just to keep us in line, in a world burning up.

I was in town, caught a bus for the first time in almost....weeks. There really is no alternative if I want to get a decent week's shopping done. Can't order online they are booked up for weeks. Oh well. It is so strange; everything is in direct contrast. An obvious dichotomy. On one hand the non essential shops, which are most of them, remain closed. Yet everywhere else, right next door, is business as usual. Fortunately most people in them were masked. Outside there's plenty of people; walking around with nary a care it seemed. People strolling the promenade, walking dogs on the beach. Human activity as normal. Yet all around them, the new normal. Eventually one of those realities will win. Whichever it is, we must be in charge of.

The Road To Spring 14: The Pyramid Scam

A couple of days ago, Rishi Sunak, the world's deadliest chef, tweeted that, as a youngster, he aspired to become a Jedi. Presumably not like his, nor anyone else's, father before him, since Jedi are fictional space wizards. He is neither: fictional nor a wizard. Though, probably like his father before him, he is beholden to a financial understanding that is ignorant of how sovereign economies work. A believer in the absence of a magical money tree, except when it comes to him and his class. As demonstrated by the abject wealth within which he is cocooned daily. 

The tweet was nothing more than an advert for the tired notions of hard work and effort. That, within the space of less than two hundred characters, the reader is meant to gain an understanding of how society really works. Particularly when it comes to the lives of the elite. It's simple: work hard and apply yourself and you too can become Chancellor of the Exchequer. Keeper of the illusory magic money tree. Fail to work hard and your much deserved reward is factory work; a lifetime of drudgery and disappointment. That is what the ruling class thinks of you and the work you are raised to do. Essential work, in many cases. Much more essential than one single high profile position. That it is treated and rewarded so contemptibly; that those who do it are so poorly regarded is of greater educational value than the world's deadliest chef's just so story.

Society under capitalism is a pyramid scheme. Or perhaps scam. There is only one position labelled Chancellor. It is not earned either. It is appointed. This means you must earn the favour of not just the ruling class, but the party of the ruling class. The party perennially in power. Consequently you will never get to be appointed if your economics do not align with capitalism. Thus Sunak is a capitalist, an ex banker (of course). There is no way the ruling class will ever pick a Marxist or a progressive to manage their system. What this in turn means is that the capitalist ideology reinforces itself. Replicates itself. 

That is what Sunak is doing in this tweet. Hard work is a cipher for corect ideology. If you start with a view that capitalism is unfair destructive and exploitative, as one objective look around the world will confirm, you have already failed the applicatoin for Chancellor. You will nevber get to the positoin of being a candidate for the ruling class to appoint you. Never mind having to sign up to their ideology, joining their party. If you don't, you wont' be chosen. Boris was never going to pick a Chancellor from outside his own party. Though of course he, and the ruling class, rewards those that ally and support their cause - class traitors (in most cases) - by stuffing them upstairs, in the Lords.

So if you have a desire to follow the Chancellor's example you have to accept their ideology in order to even begin working hard. Anything else is of course laziness. This is the fundamental point of this article: if we try and engage capitalism on these terms we will already lose. We will have to accept the premise that there are no rewards for those that don't work hard. We hear this all the time: "beggars can't be choosers", "nothing comes without hard work", or, my personal favourite, "the world doesn't owe you a living". These trite tropes are trotted out ad nauseum, serving as little more than thought terminating cliches intended to shut down dissent (essentially). They are repeated so often, and with the help of the powerful toxic media, that people now don't question them, but we must.

Of course hard work and effort are important. But they are a natural extension of performing tasks that we are naturally invested in. I work hard when I wash the dishes because I want them to be clean; that is the reward. I don't get paid for it. But it is essential labour that capitalism taints in the form of reproductive labour. What is often called, with derision, women's work. Is it any surprise our society's ingrained misogyny when such work, vital to the survival of capitalism, isn't even deemed worthy of a wage?

But I digress. The world may not 'owe' us anything, in the convention sense, but it is a world that has all we need. The problem isn't abundance, or the lack thereof, it is that, through historic means, a powerful elite has taken control of those resources and the means of producing them. Were that not so, capitalism couldn't exist and thus goods and services, including women's work, could not be reduced to commodities, denuded of creativity and worth. Dish washing then becomes a chore, not a task necessary that can be shared and, even, enjoyed as one working with equals friends and family can enjoy. Such as when a community works together to overcome a problem; build a new farmhouses for example. A little trite perhaps, but even so.

So one doesn't aspire to be Chancellor. It is a job you are given for supporting the ideology of the ruling class. Anyone that genuinely wants the job will end up being a class enemy simply by virtue of what is required to do the job. The position itself is therefore not neutral. Instead, like the rest of the state machine, we should reject and replace it with something direct and non authoritarian. It shouldn't be the job of one person to dictate to us how much we are allowed. Wether kids can eat during a pandemic. Even if one could apply for the job, how many people would you be competing with? Capitalists will argue that process ensures the most qualified person gets the job, but that's a lie. The people that oversee the selection process will simply ensure their ideological preferences are maintained and that is the problem: the hierarchy of capitalism. All Sunak has achieved is to reinforce that.

The Road To Spring 13: Halfway through the February of Shit

Saturday again. Still freezing cold. A week of this has felt like an eternity. I have become preoccupied by it. Hopefully that will change as starting tomorrow milder weather is forecast, at least. 

On the 22nd our useless PM sets out his 'roadmap' for easing restrictions. The most optimistic predictions come from the much maligned professor Ferguson who thinks that, if trends continue, with infections halving every couple of weeks or so, we can have schools open in March. Then, a month later, we can lift other restrictions. That's going to be three months, at best. I'm not remotely anti lockdown; I agree they work. The problem is that they are a blunt instrument that cannot be repeatedly used without consequence. That is the problem here; as reluctant as the Tories have been to shut the economy, putting us into the situation, they cannot just keep relying on them to clear their mess up. Sooner or later something else will have to happen. They cannot keep screwing up like that.

They will of course. It's the only thing they can be relied upon. Already the latest shambles is emerging; the scheme to quarantine people following entry into the country is just a cash cow for Tory hoteliers. The staff managing newcomers have no idea what is to happen, and how many are going to try and pile into the country prior to the scheme's proper launch?

So of course it comes as no surprise to hear that, again, some Tories want pubs reopened by Easter, which I believe (but can't be bothered to check) is at the start of April. These clowns will never understand. They don't want to. All they care about is profit. One of these jackals even thinks we should "suck it and see" when it comes to relaxing restrictions; because it's just like tasting a boiled sweet ffs. Except it isn't, and we know what will happen. It's happened three times before. If they don't get it by now, it's pointless pretending they ever will.

My fear is that there is no infection rate low enough to safely open up anywhere near where the governmorons would like. That, when things do open, during Spring, the virus will pick up, once again. I just can't see how we can avoid that. We might be ok with shops, but the hospitality industry, as far as I'm concerned, is a goner. How can it possibly return with what happened before? I take no pleasure in that, but how can it not be so?

The Road To Spring 12: A Difference of A Few Degrees

Could it be? The weather getting marginally less cold? Seemed so, as I went walking in a two shirts, a hoodie, a hat, a hooded winter coat, a scarf, assorted underwear and two pairs of trews. You think it might be tough to tell, so attired. But I feel the cold even under all that. Never have I felt quite so cold as I have this week. To be sure it's been this cold before, probably quite a lot, but my resilience has tumbled since the start of the pandemic. 

The autistic spectrum service has gotten back in touch, asking if I would still like an appointment. I don't think much of their service and I doubt I'm ever going to get a fair hearing from them. They will stick with their inappropriate testing system. However they are not to blame for the effect the pandemic is having on provision. Consequently I think I would rather wait until a proper appointment is available. I don't think remote viewing is going to be satisfactory. Better to wait than be diagnosed poorly I think. 

When, if not during a crisis, is it not a good time for another top down reform of the NHS? Apparently the new top down reforms are going to undo (some of) what came before, following the Tories' winning in 2010. We all know what this really means: further privatisation. They are going to shrug their shoulders and say that, because of the effect of the pandemic, that it can't be avoided. That, in order to survive, the NHS must undergo this change. No one will care enough to stop this until it's too late, or even then. Here we go again; our health is just a political football. A product they can offer up in the grubby marketplace of capitalism. This of course will be tragically exacerbated by staff resining after their harrowing experiences on the frontline this past season. I can't blame people for that, but it should never have come to that.

In other news, Priti Patel is still a thoroughly unpleasant far right loon. A hateful authoritarian dripping contempt from every corrupt pore. Of course she hates protest. Why can't people just go along with whatever unpleasant shit the Tories come up with? How dare they question their betters? She has a massive inferiority complex it seems to me. To be clear, she defends, as the status quo, the right of racist memorabilia to stand. This itself is racist. There is no neutral space: if you think that statues of racists should remain intact you are defending racism. She either refuses to or cannot see this. I don't know which is worse.

Lots of people, ignoring government advice, have "rushed" to book their summer holidays. Of course the tour operators were all too happy to take their money. Someone somewhere will be getting disappointed later i the year, while someone somewhere else will be making a lot of money out of them, and keeping it.

The Road To Spring 11: Swabbing the Deck

I will never understand why wearing a mask is so troubling for some. Like all the tradesblokes and manual workers who pile into the local bakery for their pies and pasties. Or the old boy behind me in the shop coughing while his mask straddles his chin. Or the lad that works in the same shop who only seems to wear his as a fashion accessory and never practically. I find all of this desperately frustrating. It's a situation wherein nothing can be done. Either you'll provoke antagonism, potentially of the violent kind, or you'll be told they have a health reason and be left with no choice but to leave it at that. Who wants to bully people who may well have a genuine exemption (other than Tory politicians).

Today may well prove the coldest day on record. Certainly if my old bones are to be any witness. Yet there are still people, in the midst of this pandemic, forced to live outside. They are forced; it's never a choice. You wouldn't choose these conditions. Yet the Tories and their scummy ilk have to believe tht in order to avoid the even greater realisation that their system doesn't work for everybody. Sure it works for the few, but that's not just ignorant of the many, it's at their expense. You don't get rich under capitalism, and have power within it, alone. You become that powerful through exploiting others. No matter how much responsibility the capitalists appeal to, no matter how ethical they try to appear, capitalism always wins out. They are its slaves, never its masters, and we are theirs. If there was such a thing as responsible or ethical capitalism, where tycoons did things like use their profits to help employees or society on a rainy day, don't you think that would be happening right now? It isn't, they don't, they won't. They can't.

My test kit came today, I was invited to participate in the REACT study. I'm doing my bit for queen and country. Neither in fact, those two are outdated anachronisms, but if participation helps then all good. I certainly don't think I have Covid, but if I do, and it would certainly be asymptomatically, then knowing is probably a good thing. My mother still hasn't had the second, and thus complete, dose of the vaccine. It's taken them a week to send the package to me, but the turnaround is very fast. I have to complete the test in the morning ready for same day collection. Oddly I'm nervous about it; I don't like gagging so swabbing the back of my throat won't be fun. Still I'd rather do it than Nurse Ratchet I guess. It's strange, but when it comes to medical matters I am actually very squeamish. They will email me the results about a week later. This means a fortnight will have passed which, if I were (or am!) infections, would be a problem. I presume some latitude is being allowed for this specific process, and they probably don't expect everyone participating ot be infected, as it's a study, not test and trace per se. But even so, if they do turn up active cases they would have to act quickly.

It is impressive how the machinery of state has marshalled together these resources. I get the test kick, the packaging, an instruction booklet, and even an online video to watch to walk me through all this. It's presented reasonably simply taking great pains to make sure you do it right, for obvious reasons. If only this degree of effort could have been made by the government throughout all this. But that's expecting too much.

Oh how I wish people would just wear their damn masks. 

The Road To Spring 10: Keep Your Back Straight While Lifting

There is no doubt I am losing it. Aren't we all? No? Just me then. Well, probably not.

I'm not about to don a straitjacket, but I'd be lying if I said this situation hasn't affected me. I'm less resilient, never was to begin with. I frustrate easier now, and things are more of a chore than they have any right to be. I think the fundamental problem is this period, winter. Enduring it through the medium of lockdown has narrowed the opportunities available for coping or even preparing for it. Now we just have to live with it, bruised and battered to one degree or another. 

Unfortunately, when we coume out of, not just this lockdown but the pandemic in general, there won't be an investment in support. I sincerely doubt the Tories will invest in a renewed mental health system. Certainly they could have been doing that already, but instead they piss it all away on Brexit and crony contracts. All of which have proven disastrous. They could even have invested in providing greater degrees of youth support, although the kids around here seem to be out playing as normal. Though it would be gross and naive to assume none of them have suffered. I can only hope not, but when I see signs of what could be vandalism, broken fencing, for example, or an uprooted church message board, I wonder. I have no idea, could just be the wind. I sincerely hope it's not frustrated kids. 

One of the most depressing aspects, interacting in the socially distanced world, is when people jump out of the way when you walk past. Or just conspicuously give you a wide berth. If I'm in a shop, browsing the aisle, there could be someone who, ordinarily, would just walk past, but now they (not always) stand there. It's unsettling, I can't lie. Just walk past me, I think. I may end up saying it. Just like I may end up saying something to the idiots who, still,  don't wear masks. That wouldn't be a good idea, it's liable to gift me a smack in the gob. No one wants that. Least of all me. But that's the tension I now feel. Just walk past me. Is that the right attitude? 

I'm not against social distancing, certainly not against wearing masks, but the abnormality of it all is tiring. That's the problem right now. It's all just exhausting. It's not helped by the presence of our shambolic government, one that, despite everything, sseems perenially popular. There just isn't opposition. Every day I observe them: reading the headlines to see what fresh hell awaits us. This isn't healthy, and it is also tiring. Life right now is exhausting. I simply can't wait for the weather to ease, and for spring to arrive. I'm like a crackhead for the season. I need my fix of mild, pleasant, warm weather. Where I can go out without having to dress up like an astronaut preoparing a spacewalk. Hopefully then I will feel better, we all will.

The Road To Sprin 9: Yep, Still Bloody Freezing

The weather has broken me. I'm sure, before, I've coped with this degree of blustery cold, but not now. During better days I enjoyed freewheeling throughout the countryside. Now the arctic wind is against me. I don't even like going outside, it's just that I enjoy staying inside even less. I require a break.

My next appointment with Fedcap Employment is next Friday. I have heard nothing from them since the last appointment. It's a joke, frankly. If they are meant to be operating in this pandemic then they are doing a piss poor job. If the pandemic is a problem, and that's understandable, then they should have the integrity to come out and say so. Anything else is just profiting: despite being unable (or unwilling) to help, they are still profiting from our relationship. This is still an active case.

I think it unlikely I will continue past that appointment, depending on how it goes. I have only remained thus far because I was assuming an impending Work Focused Interview. That may still happen; the DWP will write to me whenever. I have no control over that, which is one of the most frustrating aspects of dealing with them. You simply don't know where you stand, making it impossible to plan ahead as you don't then know where you'll be financially. This is wasteful and inefficient.

So the government has finally announced it's plans for international travellers. Let's get the obvious out of the way: the rich will be allowed to circumvent these rules at every turn. All it takes is one person to disregard a quarantine and become a super spreader. They have contracted 500 odd hotels, which ones they are not, reasonably i guess, saying. Weirdly people being quarantined will have to fork out nearly two grand for the privilege. Thus no impediment to the rich, and only to the poor. You may wonder why anyone should be travelling, but that doesn't justify this classist approach. Corona doesn't discriminate on the basis of wealth. This is the problem with our government, we need to manage borders right now because of the pandemic, and I say that as an open borders person, but doing so on the basis of class and wealth is wrong headed. It's also indicative of where the government wants to take us afterwards. Although it's nothing new: it's just the poor doors for international travel.

Oh, and if you break the rules, you could go to jail for ten years. What a joke. That just points to how shit our system is. How inadequate it is at responding to this crisis. Prison? Solves nothing. I suppose it's intended as a deterrent, but are they really going to use it? Why would you even allow the possibility of breaking the rules in the first place? Would it not be best to just shut down non essential travel (and by non essential I mean even oligarch's checking their property portfolio in Whitechapel, etc) entirely? Again, it's just loopholes. There is zero chance anyone wealthy will be in prison for being a covid chancer.

The Road To Spring 8: Inclement Weather of our Times

Winter's here for another week, that's for sure. I don't remember how I felt last time we had this weather, which I'm sure was a year ago. This isn't unseasonal or abnormal weather. I've gotten 'soft', though that's the language of toxic masculinity, the same culture that compels white van man (and it's only him that I see) to forego masks (and trousers). It's the pandemic. There is going to be a vast culture shock when this is all over and whatever passes for normality rushes in, filling the vacuum like air escaping a baloon.

Let's be clear; the government's bizarre heel-dragging over the issue of borders is because they don't want to stop oligarchs and their lackeys. They want their money. Buy up working class properties, all at the behest of people claiming to care about the working class, like the Labour mayor of London. Despite all the racist shit he has to put up with, he's just another crony capitalist. London needs that money, it's in a permanent state of financial transfusion. 

I'm not the first to say it, but say it I must. To add my voice to the chorus: if you want to honour the memory of Captain Sir Tom (or is it Sir Captain?), then fund the NHS. If. Of course they don't, anymore than they want to honour the memory of an old fella whom no one had even heard of (especially the Tories) prior to his perambulations. In fact they only learned who he was because of their failings: he felt compelled to act because the NHS was, is, in dire straits. That it remains so shows how his and their ideology fail alike, though for different reasons.

He failed because he bought into the state supported notion that one must act within the system, thereby serving as a pressure valve. Taking the focus away from where it should be: government inaction. His intentions were beyond reproach, but the dismal spectacle of an old boy wandering around his garden for charity evoked sympathy which more than the cause itself compelled a response. If the cause was the primary motivator for donations then people would have acted directly. They haven't, and won't, and that is the problem with acting within the system. This isn't to castigate Tom, but he's a product of this system and its culture, even more intensely given he was a soldier. Don't question things.

Now he's a hero. Ok, why? He's a hero to the ruling class for precisely the reason I've just said. As far as I'm oncerned he's a well meaning decent old guy who's life was stolen by him by the people he ended up supporting. It's tragic beyond words. His effort didn't protect and it didn't help save the NHS. There's no doubt it will do some good, which is commendable, but this is an all or nothing deal: either support the NHS properly, campaign directly and fight the Tories, somehow, or be co opted through the system by them. Now they lionised him. If he was truly effective then he'd have been a threat to this system, and thus a real asset. Such people don't get statues or the praises of the confused and the little Englanders on Twitter and in the Daily Mail.

It's sad that his last days weren't spent in luxury and comfort (in whatever way he would have wanted). Instead, the government his actions unwittingly supported put him hospital from where he never returned.

The Road To Spring 7: Storm For a New Week

Winter has its revenge. Curse me for seeking warm weather and a respite from this horrible period. That is to say, it's bloody cold! I wouldn't like to admit it, but I enjoy complaining about the weather. Certainly more than I enjoy the weather itself, which, right now, has taken a turn for the worse. Another storm. It's to be expect, indeed was predicted. But I can't cope with it. I see people out running, even wearing shorts, and I wince. Not for me this time.

Speaking of toxic masculinity, for what else compels people to dress so inappropriately (it's never the ladies, only the blokes), there are some people still not wearing masks. The one local shop that gets the most passing trade (and nothing else) always has people like this in attendance. What can they do? Risk a smack in the mouth? It's a terrible situation but there appears nothing that can be done, confrontation is not for the risk averse. So I fulminate behind mine.

But Spring will come. All that can be done now is to hold on. We must take heart, for what it's worth, that we have survived this. Many have not. Others are struggling with a heavy toll in blood sweat and tears. It's not the government, though they will take credit, that has achieved this. It's us, and I bet they are deathly afraid of that. We hold the power, and hopefully now people can see this. It is in spite of the Tories that we have gotten the peak down so considerably over the last four nearly five weeks. Hopefully, hopefully, it won't be much longer. Of course the greatest concern is the Tories wanting to fling everything back open before it's ready. This would inevitably lead to a fresh surge, and, dismally, a fresh lockdown. I for one can't go through this again. I hope to Hades we don't see another winter like this.

Not Like this!

As spring draws, slowly, closer I find myself pining for last spring. A strange thing to say and I certainly don't mean pining for a time of crisis and death, though compared to now it was a much less horrible time. Which is the point. The weather was nice, life was a little less oppressive and we hadn't been through two and a half lockdowns and beaten senseless by governmental malevolence. 

Now, after ten months of keeping up with the daily figures, the deaths are just numbers now. Fortunately, for me at least, none of them are a personal loss. Unfortunately, for those directly affected, that is not so. Every single one of those, every digit, is a life cut short. A family devastated, not just emotionally but economically. It's the government that refuses to understand and thinks a trite glib apology will suffice. Imagine; how insulting is that? Boris thinks he can just buy us off with the favour of the ruling class. They've learned nothing and it will be the rest of us, the working class as ever, left to count the cost. 

We must not let them get away with this.

The Road To Spring 6: But Never Far From Home

Cases are going down. Lockdown is working. All in spite of this hateful government. What government? They are nowhere to be found as a positive force in people's lives. They just exist like a spectre to haunt us, to remind us what they think we owe them. They can go to hell, I am tired. Winter is long.

The weather looks to turn once again. Is this winter's traditional last gasp? Unlikely this early on, but Spring grows nearer with each passing day. I'm not sure how much longer this can continue. There is no support, nor is there any likelihood of any. Nothing short of ending the lockdown, which would be disastrous in other ways, can change things. We are stuck, placed here by the arrogance of idiots. Speaking of which, here is the always ironically named James Cleverly on why the borders should remain open.

https://twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1357604492603252736?s=20

Charlie Stayt - Where is the next mutant strain of the virus coming from?

James Cleverly - I don't know

Charlie Stayt - So you don't know... so the obvious conclusion is to close the borders to all countries. #BBCBreakfast pic.twitter.com/mlt4Xljdc6

— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) February 5, 2021

How is it that, when faced with the opportunity to be Tory, they bottle it? I don't want border controls. I'm an internationalist, but this situation necessitates some kind of response that involves restricting travel. Maybe there are better ways to do this that won't, inevitably, allow the rich to dodge the rules, which they will of course. There is no doubt oligarchs and oil barons will use this period to get through, 'fast tracked' by the government into their gentrified estates and mansions, equipped with 'poor doors' preventing them from the clearly depressing site of paupers. 

James is a Tory because he's too stupid to be anything better. He's just saying what he's been told to say. Although it's so spectacularly stupid it's possible he dreamed it all up himself, thinking he'd sound smart. He's a thug; a Tory boot boy. 

 

The Road To Spring 5: Down An Old Lane

Somewhere I haven't been for a while. In the rain, I've been in that many times though. Always depressing. Even though its touch is light, it is still unwelcome. Like touching a sensitive sore. Makes me wince. I think we've had enough rain, thanks. 

A walk into a part of the village I go so rarely. At the edge; a liminal point that fades into fields. The sort of route that, as you progress, takes you further out of familiarity. When you look back at how far you've come, the place you know is so distant as to be unrecognisable. Even though it's barely a couple of miles out of the way, it feels like another world. There is a palpable shift upon returning. A point where you know where you are, stepping back onto the map, so to speak.

It is a pleasant area, this. Particularly if you are of the generation that could afford the kind of home I've just walked past. That's old money, in the sense that successive generations, especially now, will never see the like. When their owners have gone who will be there to afford them? I'm sure a few well to do types will have the money, buying up the place, and so the community changes. Perhaps for the better, perhaps for the worse. I, as a long standing resident, won't be able to afford it. 

What does this all mean? Nothing, really. I just like taking walks in places that are a little bit out of the way. Hopefully the residents don't see me as a cul de sac invader. Why would someone walk down here in the rain, only to walk back, in the rain? Are they planning to rob me of my tennis court?

It's a slow day. The only kind. I have nothing else to talk about, but I am committed to continuing this project until at least March, possibly April. A year in lockdown, in other words. So, till then, you're stuck with me. These are increasingly difficult weeks. Spring will feel like a breath of fresh air. Warm weather (hopefully) and windows open will expand my horizons beyond the skeleton of winter. I don't enjoy going out in the cold and the wet, but the irony is that makes it all the more vital I do so. The days are an increasing pressure born of limitation. I have music to occupy my time, which I very much enjoy, but that there are limits on what I can does make things difficult, simply because I cannot do them.

And if you are interested, this is a piece I have worked/working on. Thanks for listening.

The Road To Spring 4: For A Walk

The only reason they want a Sir Captain Tom statue is because they think statues will offend the loony left. It's provocation. Probably.

The alternative is that Boris is proposing (according to the Daily Fail) an idea that effectively immortalises his failings. Sir Captain Tom only became famous because he campaigned for the NHS. Something he shouldn't' have had to do, and wouldn't have had it been funded properly. So the idea just advertises the failings of this idiot in charge. Of course, as we have seen with statues, they are very good at whitewashing the truth; it will highlight him, and obscure the root of the problem. 

Watch how the ruling class and its state machine engulfs him to skew a legacy into propaganda. He was a good sort; an ex soldier. He even did their job for them: perambulating around his garden to raise money. People have already paid money for the NHS: taxation. No doubt Tom acted with good intentions but he was fooled into doing so. We shouldn't have to be depending on the good will of old boys to save something that we already own. The moment we buy into this, they have won a victory, taking a piece away. Now we are exhorted to commemorate his ill conceived sacrifice by once more clapping. The socially acceptable protest that the ruling class allows precisely because it is ineffective; we all stop at clapping on the door step. Never actually going out and making trouble. They know it. We know it.

Only on this mad island do we have a situation where, in one of the most feverish areas of right wing policy, the Tories become gun-shy. Yet the entire country seems happy, for once, to give them a blank cheque to shut the borders. Do it! Screams the entirety of the chattering classes. Instead, we get this gem.

Amongst all this, Labour entrenches into a pathetic shadow of right wing politics. It is currently being exhorted to appeal to base patriotism and flag waving. It has already released a shocking ad campaign to persuade the government to shut the borders. It is not subtle, it will stoke racism. Without context, without understanding of the social fabric of our society and the relations between different communities - the history of empire - Labour will descend into mediocrity and disappear in a dark rancid puddle. Starmer has no ideas. He is simply uninspiring and insipid, and so this nationalistic nonsense will intensify. The end result will be to abandon working class solidarity and give in to the worst aspects of our society. Those that rise at times of crisis.

The Road To Spring 3: Still, It's a Nice Morning

When we get them, in winter, it's always a tonic. Like coming up for air. Winter is a deep doive. Always a trying time of year; a crucible of sorts. Especially now. While I'm sure the weather will turn once again, we can enjoy it for the day or even hours it lasts. We're coming to the end of the season, as such winter always intensifies. The last gasp before the spring.

It was pleasant earlier. I even took my hat off walking back with my groceries. Oh the luxury! It didn't last though. The rain has returned along with a stiff breeze. I don't like that. On a less pleasant note I received a reply from my MP (the useless John Penrose) regarding why legacy benefit claimants still haven't been given the same extra £20 that Universal Credit claimants are receiving during this time. I will quote it here because, you guessed it, it's full of shit. His response starts by quoting the DWP minister to whom he put the question:

"I am replying as the Minister for Welfare Delivery Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has introduced a raft of temporary emergency measures to help the hardest hit, including the furlough scheme, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, and the temporary £20 per week uplift to the Universal Credit Standard Allowance. The Chancellor has confirmed the Universal Credit uplift until March 2021. It is right that we wait for more clarity on the national economic and social picture before assessing the best way to support low income families moving forward."

I'm sick to death of hearing this "it is right" bullshit. It's a barefaced assumption put forward with no supporting evidence, intended to end the conversation. In this case it's also bullshit: you're giving one section of the community £20 so you agree that money is needed (even if it's actually a pittance). Therefore it stands to reason that the other community, on the same money (just a different benefit) ought to receive the same. But suddenly we need 'clarity'. Also bullshit; we know what the situation is, we know what the finances are. This £20 uplift has been around for a couple of months now. Weasel words, and of course we all know what the best way to support people is: give them the means to live!

This is just excuse making; the Tories don't want to loosen the purse strings. Even though it helps fight the pandemic. They are too stupid and too far gone in their ideology to even see this. I'm not even addressing the issue of this support ending in March, with the implicit assumption that the situation will thus return to normal and so the extra £20 won't be needed (never mind the pittance that comprises our benefits).

"The uplift is just one part of a comprehensive package of support we have put in place to help people through this difficult period."

There is no package. If there is I haven't been made aware of it. Nothing has been sent to me offering a menu of government covid options. Am I alone in that?

"Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Income Support were all increased by 1.7 per cent in April as part of the annual uprating exercise following the Government's announcement to end the benefit freeze. "

That amounts to an extra £2, a tenth of the money I'm referring to. It's also meant to keep in line with inflation and so isn't an uplift or 'bonus' of any kind. Even then that's how it's being portrayed. How kind of them to end the benefits freeze, which they instituted as part of their austerity. The only purpose of which was to keep people down. Now, in the pandemic, how does that help?

"The Secretary of State has announced - as part of the annual review of social security rates - that these benefits would again rise in line with inflation at the start of the next financial year. "

Does he expect gratitude? This is the bare minimum. In fact it's not even that; it's what's required to keep up with the rising tide that is the cost of living under capitalism.

"In addition, we invested nearly £1 billion to increase Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of local market rents earlier this year. We are maintaining this support at the same cash level next year. "

The Tory trick of saying a large number in place of an argument. It's fallacious because it doesn't speak to the actual amount needed. That is what's important. Not simply saying "we've spent a lot of numbers".

"I hope the constituent will find this reply helpful."

He does not. 

"So I’m pleased to say there’s been a huge amount of (extremely expensive – it has cost £hundreds of billions) taxpayer-funded help already, to get everyone through the pandemic safely." 

Except this is a lie. Where is this support? I haven't seen anything. Two whole quid? Really? Ok, I'm not - yet - struggling. But that could change anytime. That's the nature of life on welfare. They think it's a paradise of indolence. Currently I'm expecting to hear from the DWP any day now about my next, imminent, Work Focussed Interview. I have no idea if those are even happening now, but I must assume they are. I have no idea; that's true of every interaction with this system. I cannot just assume my fortnightly payment will appear. It should, but who knows? Especially now.

I found this part quite galling. Not only is it a lie (about 70% of claims for financial support are being refused), but it shows the paucity of Tory ideology to fighting this pandemic. Aside from the mealy mouthed nature of "extremely expensive..." it ignores the fact that tis is, if you like, an investment; you're spending this money not just to keep people alive and housed, but also to fight the virus. If people can't take time off work, can't afford to self isolate and stay at home, they won't. These idiots just do not, and will never, get it.

"I should add that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has already extended an awful lot of schemes to last until next March, which ought to get us well into the time when the vaccine rollout will be starting to protect a big percentage of the most at-risk and vulnerable people, so we will be able to plan for a careful lifting of the covid restrictions over time."

Over time; except that he also says until March (next month). So that's a contradiction there already. What happens after March? We all know the one certainty: covid will still be around. Yes the vaccine is being rolled out, but only in part. Which is to say people are getting one jab, not the full treatment. That may have benefits, but to argue that people are being vaccinated is to play with the truth. Currently about half a million have been fully vaccinated - and that assumes the new variants joining the corona playground the Tories have built out of our lives and streets don't foul things up.

" Once we know more, and there’s a concrete proposal on the table for Parliament to approve, I’d be happy to discuss the rights and wrongs of whatever is being suggested in more detail. Let’s see what Ministers’ suggest!" 

That last part was Penrose himself. Let's wait and see, meanwhile you get nothing. Thanks for playing.

The Road To Spring 2: But It Could All Go Wrong

The South Africa variant appears to have arrived by natural selection into the UK. That is, the strain emerged independently due to the prevalence of the virus here already. A bit scary, but if people continue to obey the rules we should be ok. Clearly this sort of situation is going to be the normal now, the virus is here and it's going to take a long time for that not to be so. In the meantime it will mutate and adapt. Hopefully that means into something less fatal.

I have been invited to take part in the Imperial College study, the REACT study, testing people for the virus. My name was randomly drawn (yay!) from medical records. I could have declined but I guess it could be important. I will receive a test kit in a few days with which to swab myself and, having returned the kit, I'll get a result within a week. If I am positive, somehow, then by that point I'd be out of quarantine anyway. I haven't shown any symptoms, but of course it's possible I could be an asymptomatic carrier, though I think it unlikely. I guess we'll find out for sure, although the test isn't 100% accurate. I don't think anything should be read into that, no test is 100%.

What bothers me the most is the total lack of support from this government. I take it a day at a time, Winter is proving to be challenging. The weather most of all is the problem. Were this like last spring and summer it would be a more pleasant lockdown. But hte irony of the winter weather is that it just reinforces the conditions, taunting me to go out even when it's cold/wet/dark/windy/all of the above. I find it a real struggle to go out because it's so unpleasant, but I don'd want to sit indoors all day. Unfortunately there is nowhere to go but the same streets and the same puddles. It's taxing mentally. There's no denying this. Fortunately, each day takes us one step closer to Spring and, hopefully, some blessed relief. 

Throughout all of this, there has been nothing from the government. The reports I've seen say that most people, applying for help, get nothing. Most people aren't getting enough. Kids are, as I never tire of saying, being starved. Meanwhile these rich over privileged filth get everything. Do you really mean to tell me that, throughout the last ten months, they could not have come up with something to offer to people? Everyone is struggling, not just the people at the bleeding edge. I'm lucky in that I'm not starving, but even so, I'd be lying if I said this wasn't difficult. Especially now. Yet they have had all this time to do something, anything. Whatever happened to Sunak's helicopter money; pie in they sky I guess. Broadband communism. Just providing people with something to help them through. As much as I disagree with the deniers and the cranks, they are correct in that we can't go on like this forever. But nothing has been done, and I will never ever forget that, nor forgive.

The Road To Spring 1: We've Come So Far

And I looked and beheld the Guardian and it did fucking read: Jared Kushner, Kraftwerk showroom dummy, landowning billionaire scum and son in law to twice impeached wig enthusiast, Donald Trump, is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. So that's another worthless award we can discard. State power wins the day, again.

Johnson says we will be living with Covid for a while to come. Well that's rather obvious isn't it. Even with a rolled out vaccine, it's impact globally will mean we at the very least must restrict travel. But before and during this mass vaccination roll out there will still be outbreaks (assuming even the vaccine halts transmission, hopefully it does I honestly don't know). As long as it's out there, it remains an existential threat. No matter where in the world, and given how the poorer nations are being screwed over and trampled under the foot rush to vaccination, it will be in the world a long time. It didn't have to be that way.

Of course one of the many things Johnson and his headbangers could have done, but didn't, would have been to postpone (a charitable way of saying cancel) Brexit. No sane person would have disagreed, although that begs the question as regards the deluded nature of said headbangers. The desperate reality is that, in order to facilitate their gung ho economic disaster, they have to also push the anti-lockdown/covid denial narrative because otherwise how can they justify pursuing Brexit at this time. If they believe covid as serious a threat as all of science then they cannot put a priority on Brexit. 

That says it all regarding these people; they are ideologues hell bent on driving us off a cliff because they, and unfortunately they alone, stand to benefit from this. The rest of us stand to lose, as I discovered yesterday at the increased veg pricing in the shops. A considerable price hike which can only get worse as the situation bites. It's not going to let go either; these aren't teething problems, they are the direct consequence of deliberately putting barriers up to trade that was previously smooth. Now it isn't. For what?

It is the start of February, let us hope this is the final straight. Despite this South African variant, which I believe shouldn't be a problem if we're all obeying the lockdown, we have gotten the deaths and the infection rates now to less than 20 thousand. We have sacrificed so much. People have died and others have been stretched to breaking, through no fault of our own. Yet we have achieved much, as a community. All in spite of, against, in act, this dreadful government. That must not be squandered. It must motivate us to fight for what we have and not let those bastards take it to pay for their shattered system and their inexcusable mismanagement of this crisis.