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Croeso I Cymru: 23rd October 2020
As from 6 pm tonight (23rd October), Wales goes into a 17-day “firebreak”. It is important to note that this is not a lockdown, but something totally different. How it differs no one has explained, just PR rephrasing at work to make it seem less threatening.
During the firebreak:
- Supermarkets can sell only ‘essential items’
- Pubs and restaurants are closed
- You can only leave the house to shop for food, medicine or take exercise
- Household mixing is banned indoors and outdoors
- Most secondary school children will stay at home once the half term ends on October 30
- You must work from home wherever possible
- You must wear face masks indoors and on public transport
Now we get to the problems. The Welsh government have stated that it is too difficult to list essential and non-essential items and that supermarkets will have to make the decision. The police are in a difficult position as they don’t know what they are policing. They will just embark on trolley searches and make checks to ensure that the stores are complying with the ill-defined regulations. This is now the death knell for small shops. They are compelled to shut, and the loss of trade will be another nail in their coffin.
The English police have announced that they will co-operate with the Welsh Police and Gloucestershire Constabulary are setting up roadblocks. This is more expense for the Gloucestershire force. Why didn’t they refuse to co-operate and let the Welsh police do the job themselves? At least that way it would come out of the Welsh budget. A word of warning for the Welsh government (which happens to be Labour) – the natives are getting restless. There is increasing dissatisfaction with the government in Cardiff. They don’t believe that this will be the last lockdown despite the Welsh government’s assurances. They make Victoria’s Dan Andrews look competent. I have just had a horrible thought – what if Victoria’s police were acting on such slack criteria as exist in Wales?
Meanwhile, in the far north, the delightful Nicola Sturgeon is having fun. She has also ceased having lockdowns and instead is introducing a circuit breaker. She has introduced a 5-tier system of graduated lockdown and this can be applied regionally. She also admitted that this would mean the permanent closure of some restaurants, pubs and other businesses.
She has been given an extra 6.5 billion GBP to help with the COVID-19 problems, this is in addition to the funding to operate Scotland under the devolution agreement. Despite this and other funding such as an additional 700,000,000 allocated in the past few weeks, it is not enough (she claimed). In typical socialist fashion, she said that as they only received handouts (what you and I would call a budget) from Whitehall and did not have their own borrowing capability they would run out of money. Typical SNP – blame London for everything. Another option would have been to trim spending, but of course, that is not the socialist way.
After hearing her senior medical advisor disclosing that hopes of a traditional festive gathering at Christmas were dashed, she had to appear on tv and assure the nation that Santa delivering presents was an essential journey and he would have an exemption from the lockdown or whatever it is called now.
Meanwhile, back at Downing Street, Boris Johnson is beginning to show the strain. The discussions with the EU have resumed with leaks suggesting that the EU is softening its position. The sticking point is the fisheries question. Macron of France has commented that just because the UK has territorial waters, it doesn’t mean they own the fish as they were spawned in France. Macron is holding out on the fisheries question as the ports in north-west France are the ones that would lose out. That region is supportive of Marie Le Pen, the right-winger and the loss of the fisheries would see her support increase just in time for the next elections in France.
Boris is busy with this, Covid and the economy and is looking weary and worn out. Whatever one thinks of Boris, he has been dealt an awful hand.
It highlights the problems of living in a country with four governments, each with its own agenda. It has been impossible to get national co-ordination on Covid and the public are showing togetherness by being thoroughly fed up with all politicians. The country is in a total mess.
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