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News and Comment August 2021

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3 August - Tonys beware!

Newspaper headline And about time too. I have been debating with myself if Boris Johnson has been the worst Prime Minister of my lifetime. Probably not but it is alarming that it is even a question.

Nearly all of his decisions on Covid have been wrong, currently the pingdemic, the traffic light travel restrictions, passports and vaccination bribes; all illogical and tyrannical in their various ways.

During lockdown with the variety of contacts necessarily reduced I found no one with a good word to say about Johnson’s handling of the Covid crisis, but the sample was small, just family and local friends and Birds of a Feather etc. may well have been a factor.

However this month the circle has widened considerably, a talkative cabbie and his family sitting next to me for half the day at the Oval, different members for the old pub quiz team, the first meeting for nearly two years of the electric vehicle early adopters club I was dragged into and at the low key end of the scale a spontaneous discussion in a medical waiting room.

Everyone seems to hold the same view; to quote one of the EV owners, Johnson is a “spineless twat”, a sentiment which was disputed by no one.

One of his more recent brainwaves is the vaccination booster jab. With one exception everyone I know has been double jabbed, the exception is a medical man who is concerned about the number of blood clot related problems being reported. He may have struck a chord with me because until jab number two I never suffered headaches and now I do. Coincidence? Who knows?

Here’s another coincidence - or not.

Until the beginning of June 2021 I had never known anyone who suffered a stroke. No matter how wide I drew the circle, not a soul.

I cannot say that any more. In only seven weeks I have been told of four. A second cousin’s spouse, an old neighbour, the brother of a friend and someone my children both knew well. Three out of the four fatal. Can it be coincidence? It is in some respects; all male, all double Astra Zeneca vaccinated, all over 70 years old and three of the four named Tony.

Right now I am not inclined to take a third jab. The risks from Covid are low and the risk from the vaccine is very low. One or two jabs may be a no-brainer but three? How many empty chambers are there in that revolver? And if Johnson thinks it is a good idea maybe that is a no-brainer too.

 

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