Another Month - A look at January 2021

Well, January just whizzed by and it has been an action packed month -  2021 is doing everything it can to be as good* as 2020...

 

1st January - Brexit happened

It was a sad day for me, as I am one of the 48% who voted to stay in Europe. We are yet to see the true impact of Brexit, the cost, the confusion, the administrative chaos... Currently, everything has been masked by Covid-19, but who knows... lets wait and see.

On a positive note we had got to one million people being vaccinated by the 1st.

3rd January - Schools to Closures

It is decided that schools will close again to everyone except key workers children. This continues to be a talking point, but with the raising infection rate and increasing daily deaths the Government had not choice.

4th January - National Lockdown Announced

6th January - Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol Building.

You can't help but think - if this is who was voting for Trump there is something very wrong in the USA. The other questionable thing was the lack of police available to stop this happening, even though the authorities were well aware of what was planned. Had this been a gathering of black people would there have been more police...? I suspect so.

8th January - Rising Infection Rates

The number of people tested to have Covid and those dying each day are rising exponentially - at this point are people questioning some of their Christmas and New Years decisions? 

You can see the numbers on this little graph I made using the Government data sets.

        

        

In other news - America prepare to Impeach Trump (again!) 

9th January - Enforcement

The Government claim they are going to enforcing the lockdown restrictions more, well forcibly. Meanwhile Trump gets chucked off Twitter for good. Hah! this makes me happy...you got to get the happy wherever you can.

13th January - Free School Meals 

We discover that what is being provided to our children as a 'free school meal' is a joke. With the amount of food wastage in this country you would think someone could come up with a better solution. And, it is a terrible day when a footballer has to highlight this to get any traction (fair play to Marcus Rashford).

14th January - Covid Deaths pass 100,000 

A terrible day for this country. We have managed the Covid Crisis worse than most European Countries and even America - you can see how we compare here. It's a pretty grim comparison.

16th January - UK finally shuts travel corridor

Hooray! Finally, we are going to tighten quarantine restrictions - but how long does this actually take - The Government continues to argue about who is paying for the hotels to quarantine in (as of 08.02.21) Imagine I am holding my head in my hands.

18th January - The NHS is at breaking point

Not only are they running out of ventilators, beds and resources. A large number of doctors and nurses are suffering from PTSD. The system is broken and the people on the front line are suffering - And although I don't want to compare it to war - you can't help but think about all those soldiers on the frontline in the 1st World War getting trench foot because they didn't have the right equipment. As a country will we never learn? We are a nation of prevaricators we must start to recruit leaders who can make decisions quickly, effectively and efficiently. 

20th January - Jo Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the USA

And we all take a little breath of relief - He immediately signs 17 executive orders, addressing climate change, racial inequality and the pandemic. These including rejoining the Paris Climate deal and cancelling Trumps wall. 

The day before Trump issued more than one hundred pardons to some very dubious characters...including Lil Wayne and Elliot Braidy - weird.

22nd January -  Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is imprisoned

Alexei Navalny who survived being poisoned returns to Russia only to find himself imprisoned.

23rd January - New Covid-19 Variant is more deadly

Boris lets us know that the latest variant of the virus is likely to be 30% more deadly and 70% more transmittable - fun. So for all of us already shielding and hardly leaving the house that was great news*.

25th January - The UK Floods

Yet again, people have to leave their homes as flood defences fail. 

27th January - One hundred million Covid Cases have been registered Worldwide

And 2.1 million deaths. The Spanish Flu had over 50 million deaths worldwide and over 500 million cases. Its a grim comparison but it's all I've got.

31st January - Exports have allegedly reduced by 68% since Brexit

So, is this the start of what will be the UK's financial descent? 

             

It hasn't exactly been a great start to the year, but as of today we are at 11.8 million people having had the first dose of the vaccine, me included - admittedly the initial joy of getting the jab has slightly dampened with the news that it may be slightly less effective against the next new variant from South Africa (I had the OxfordZeneca Vaccine). 

But I had the vaccine so, in a week or two I have less chance of death or hospitalisation because of Covid, so I won't be a burden on the NHS if I get it - probably - and neither will the other 11.8 million - Ultimately, if we haven't got hope what have we got? 

So, I will continue to knit, and write drivel and keep going... because that's what we do. 

Stay safe folks.

  *Sarcasm

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