The road back

Yes. If proportional hospitalisation rates are well below the first and second waves and remain low then the vaccine is working and we should get opening asap. Hopefully the very low rates will continue despite the rise in cases.

I quite like not having to plan.

I quite enjoy planning mountain biking trips I suppose. Not majorly keen on the idea of having to think about when and where to fill the car up though. That tends to coincide more with needing a pee and a five minute random opportunity. Quite a lot of the time I don't really know where I'm going to be or for how long, I'll have a rough schedule in mind but it can change several times in a day. Sometimes, what was looking like an easy day can morph into an 18 hour non stop marathon, or what was supposed to be a long day can end by lunchtime. The joys of a sales role eh? Never mind, it makes me more than a few quid mostly. 😉

I keep thinking that for reasonably well educated people living in the West, the late 1980s/early 1990s were probably the best time to live.

Cars were probably at a peak of reliability due to simple designs refined over the years (1992 Honda Accord being the ultimate expression of sophistication and reliability, closely followed by the Lexus LS400). Eastern Europe totalitarianism was being defeated without any war. There was a reasonably strong economy with increasing communication but no 'social media' to create arguments where none really exist. You could just do things at the drop of a hat without any worry.

Now we are talking about having to plan journeys to fit in with a car's charging requirements; you can't say anything to anyone without offending someone; the gap between rich and poor is getting larger and those of us who are well educated, in the professions but not real entrepreneurs, are considered as commodities and our standard of living proportionately has declined.

The pandemic has made this worse, as the working class continued to work hard, mainly delivering stuff to those forced to WFH, whereas the ultra wealthy seemed to be unaffected. Have a private jet and really you could go anywhere, especially in 2020.

Sorry for the rant, but just today I have had to deal with some berk who thinks that he can click his fingers and I will email people for him and I can issue a detailed valuation report within 24 hours of inspection. And he has ignored my Out of Office saying I am taking my first day away as a proper break from work and home life since probably late 2019.

Nah... This is not political, it's global society and governments of all shades have not managed to control the handful of global (mainly US) brands who now rule our lives.

But it is interesting that people who don't frequent the Twittersphere and such like appear to be less aggressive and less fundamentalist on various political issues. The North for instance just says 'give over' on the crap produced by Stonewall and the concept that a bloke can simply say he's a woman and we all have to agree with him.

In the real world where people have jobs and need them, the most important thing is food on the table, a roof over your head and health for your family. That's why the 2019 election went the way it did. It doesn't matter if you think the current government is poor at it, it's what the electorate think a party will do.

For 11 years only one party has argued that successfully. They are not perfect but clearly more and more people (in England) think that the other parties could not do as good a job or are more interested in things which are far less relevant to their daily lives.

The 2024 election will be interesting as a lot of things will have happened by then. If Boris doesn't mess up the end of Covid and Brexit is seen to be reasonably successful it is hard to see him losing. But there are lots of buts in the way....

By the time the next election rolls around in 2024 one party will have lead 32 out of the previous 45 years. I don't think you can disconnect that from the state society is in.