Where do I even start …
On the plus side, I’ve had a few lovely short walks, some good food and I got a decent amount of work done. I was wandering past a preschool today as a few kids were arriving with their parents. There was laughter, there were a few tears. The staff looked so happy to see the kids.
But the news…oh, the news today has unleashed waves of fury and despair. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling this way. And that’s without looking at the news in the US as that just makes me want to cry.
This morning we were told that there was a delay to publication of an inquiry into the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities. Sky news reported from ‘Westminster sources’ that this was due to global protests in support of #BlackLivesMatter. Huh? It seems that I wasn’t alone in not understanding the logic.
This afternoon, the report was published.
Downing Street is now scrapping the daily briefings on weekends because the viewing figures are lower than they are during the week.
The UK Statistics Authority has written to the Secretary of Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, on Covid-19 testing numbers. And just a few of the issues include: lack of clarity about how much testing has been done versus how many testing kits have been sent out; figures on the overall number of people tested are no longer available; and the figures are presented in a way that is hard to understand.
The numbers seemed a little fudged yesterday and did account for 400+ further deaths. The figures had been added to other days without explanation. Today a further 324 deaths bringing the total of deaths to 39,369.
But, and there’s another but, this fails to account for deaths where Covid-19 hasn’t been confirmed, but indicated on deaths certificates. Figures from the Office for National Statistics add about a further 10,000 deaths in England and Wales. At present it looks like we’ve passed 50,000 deaths as a result of Covid-19 in the UK.
A company called Faculty are providing data analytics services to the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Faculty is an AI company who worked on the Vote Leave campaign in the Brexit referendum. The tender was not competed due to the emergency nature of the work requirements. It remains unclear as to how they will use confidential, personal, data.
And this afternoon, MPs are debating and voting on whether or not Parliament will need to sit in person. Rees-Mogg, Leader of the House, has put forward a proposal to end remote voting. About 50 to 60 MPs will be able to sit at any one time. Just to get the voting done, while maintaining social distancing, the conga line of MPs stretches for about a mile.
If this proposal passes, it means whole swathes of MPs will be unable to take part in the business of the House of Commons. It will of course disproportionately impact on MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, any MP required to shield or live in households with someone else who is vulnerable, any MP who needs to homeschooled, and many others. The House of Lords will be conducting business virtually.
I think I might need a few days off from the news. This goes far beyond living through ‘strange’ times.
So that’s it for Day 71. Stay safe, stay well, and stay home!