A thought for waiting staff

While it will become compulsory for you to wear a mask in shops, waiting and bar staff aren’t so lucky.

Even though they will be easily coming into contact with comparable numbers in their working lives wearing a mask for them will be optional.

If you are attending these establishments please make sure you are without Covid 19 symptoms and you register with anything they have set up.

Britain really needs track and trace.

Vaccines should be global

Russian hackers are attempting to steal coronavirus vaccine research, the American, British and Canadian governments said on Thursday, full article here.

Is it just me that thinks a race for a vaccine should be a global effort?

I am surprised that all nations aren’t working together on this.

After all, it doesn’t really matter who discovers the vaccine so long as it is discovered.

Is scientific pride really this National in the face of a pandemic?

The Queen’s letters

Buckingham Palace has protested that conversations between the Queen, her prime ministers and governor generals should remain private.

Letters released after a four year court battle finally proved that she played no part in the controversial sacking of the Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1975, full article here.

This is an interesting case in regards to privacy.

While many ordinary Brits would baulk at their private letters being read, she is no ordinary Brit.

Though over intrusion into the lives of the rich and famous is damaging to the principal of privacy, she is a very powerful woman and this is just the kind of information that should not remain under wraps.

The phone hacking scandal proved how invasive the media can be in people’s private lives, but this is a slightly different matter, whether she is innocent or guilty this information should reach the public domain.

Black power rises again

Lewis Hamilton gave the black power salute at the Syrian Grand Prix this weekend.

It is interesting that he is doing it only now and not choosing to kneel.

Kneeling was the gesture favoured by Martin Luther King, while the fist in the air (black power salute) was popularised by the Black Panthers and Malcolm X.

Hamilton has said he is committed to fighting racism, full article here.

However, the salute he is choosing, though perhaps more powerful than kneeling, is attached to a violent and at times racist movement.

So what am I saying!

Simply that I hope Lewis Hamilton hasn’t fallen in with reactionary Black is best politics, as the Black Panthers sometimes suggest.

He is a symbol of black achievement and that in itself is a powerful force against racism, it could be argued he no longer has to put his fist in the air, but maybe he feels he does.

Candlelit Vigil to commemorate 65,000 deaths

Roughly 30 protesters gathered at St Thomas’ Hospital Westminster Bridge at 9pm to light 65 lanterns, one for every 1,000 Covid-19 deaths.

The protesters spanned the bridge before moving off for a slow walk across it to Downing Street.

The group stopped twice on the bridge before assembling at Downing Street to read out the names of over 200 health care workers who have died as a result of Covid-19.

The demonstration was attended by a number of pacifist and NHS protesting groups including Keep Our NHS Public and the People’s assembly.

Demonstrators extinguished their candles at Downing Street after the names had been read out and dispersed, leaving the message that 65,000 deaths is a scandal.

Stop the raving

Raves are the epitomy of opposition to authority, they are the wild undercurrent to the club scene and closely linked with right to roam.

However, we are in Covid-19 times now and it’s time to stop.

If you want to show that ravers really wish the best for their fellow man, then calling off the raves is the way forward.

Show ravers can be responsible and be responsive to a global pandemic.

A free party is a great thing, but not if it overloads the NHS and endangers loads of lives.

Go with the cops for once, call off the raves.