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The position just gets madder and madder. The latest revised guidance from the Welsh government now states that it is not permissible to buy a non-essential item unless it is essential to buy a non-essential item. They still haven’t produced a list of non-essential items but say it is down to the common sense of the retailers concerned and the general public to follow the guidelines. I occasionally attempt to write satire and even I couldn’t make this up as it is beyond my imaginative power.
In an incident in Newport, a man walked into a supermarket wearing only underpants and socks and shoes. When challenged, he pointed out that he was wearing all the clothes that were available that day and he could not buy any replacement clothes.
The First Minister of Wales would do well to remember one of my mother-in-law’s favourite sayings: “Diwedd y gann yw’r geiniog”. For the non-polyglots amongst us this translates as “at the end of the song comes payment”.
From his actions and attitude, it should come as no surprise to learn that Mark Drakeford, the First Minister, was a staunch supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and is a member of the far left Unite trade union. If we look into his background, we discover that he was a lecturer in applied social studies at the University College of Swansea rising to become the Professor of Social Policy and Applied Social Sciences in 2003 at the University of Cardiff. When will we ever get a leader who has had a proper job and life experience that lets them relate to the electorate?
As a welcome distraction from Covid and assorted government incompetence across all the 4 home nations, we have the story of the oil tanker Nave Andromeda. It was on its way from Lagos, Nigeria to Southampton with a full load of oil when after being discovered, 7 stowaways resisted being locked away and decided to threaten the crew. The crew retreated to the safe space and informed the authorities. Unfortunately for the stowaways/hijackers/asylum seekers/illegal immigrants the ship was only 40 miles from Portsmouth, the main UK navy port and 50 miles from the HQ of the SBS (special boat squadron), the naval equivalent of the SAS. 10 hours after the captain reported the incident, the 16 SBS marines using helicopters and SIBs boarded the ship and quelled the incident without any injuries. From the command “go” to taking control took 9 minutes. A good training exercise for the SBS. Pity they can’t use them against the French naval boats that escort illegals into British territorial waters (allegedly).
Anyway, it was a welcome diversion from all the Covid tales, and it was good to see that there are still parts of the UK authorities that display signs of competence. I am just surprised that on their arrival back onto UK land some jobsworth didn’t try to quarantine them for 14 days.
As a final comment, the natives are getting restless. Leaked national government reports indicate that people are getting fed up with confusing, unclear directives and are losing confidence in the government. There is frustration at the lack of leadership (as opposed to being TOLD what to do by the scientists) and more people are reported as being willing to defy some of the more stringent regulations. There is also a definite feeling that there is one rule for the elite and one for us peasants. This has accentuated the north/south divide and as I keep harping on about it, the conservatives have lost the north. It is telling that Labour hasn’t exploited this and regained the north. The main beneficiary of all this has been apathy. There is a distinct atmosphere of ennui, which should please the social scientists such as Mark Drakeford.
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