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.