Day 25 of UK lock down: preparing to race to the bottom

There are several convincing economic forecasts that suggest we could be heading for a post-pandemic global recession as bad, if not worse, than that of the 1930s. We have also recently seen how lack of cooperation with the EU has led the UK to be even further behind in procuring adequate amounts of PPE for NHS and care workers.

Nevertheless, the cabal of fuckwits in Downing Street have concluded that, somehow, Covid-19 increases the case for avoiding regulatory alignment with the EU and for hastening down the path towards a no-deal Brexit, with all the additional economic damage that will bring.

Whether this is a true reflection of what they are pursuing, or just some mad and divisive negotiating stance designed to disorientate their EU counterparts, probably won’t be clear until Hogmanay, but neither option bodes well for the future.

https://www.newstatesman.com/covid19#update-324263

Day 23 of UK lock down and counting

One of the few silver linings to the clouds looming over the UK in the last few months has been that not just Corona but Brexit, the meltdown of the Labour party, and the Resistible Rise of Boris Arturo Ui Johnson, have all deflected attention from the deranged and sociopathic man-child currently occupying the White House. 

Sadly, just like the climate and ecological emergency, and our addiction to consuming global resources, the problem hasn’t gone away, and Trump is still nominally in charge of, at last count, 2,821 nuclear warheads, and a war budget of nearly $700 billion, as well as the well-being of 330 million US citizens. 

That’s the same Trump who, yesterday, lost the plot spectacularly and incoherently when confronted by some mildly critical questioning from journalists at a press briefing. Ye gods !

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/13/trump-coronavirus-meltdown-media-authority

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-governors.html