Author: telboy2

Lockdown Football and Hope

Possibly the biggest goal in Brentford’s history:pic.twitter.com/iqIZSwpQfB— Essential Brentford (@BrentEssential) July 17, 2020

As the saying goes currently…”we live in strange times ‘.

Football in the Championship as well as the Premier League has restarted behind closed doors as a result of the pandemic.

Brentford have come back after the lockdown break so well with eight wins. They have slowly pulled in WBA and this is the round with 2 games to go. It started .. and ended.. with WBA one point ahead with the Bees having a better GD.

But the Baggies have screwed up by losing to Huddersfield – so now Brentford have the future in their own hands. Four points needed from their last two games. One tomorrow v Stoke away and then home to Barnsley who a rooted at the bottom of the table.

So now a big, big game tomorrow.

Down to the Globe in Windmill Road to see the outcome.

I’m cycling this week too:

Tube use in London down 50%

Vikram Dodd

Vikram Dodd

The Guardian understands the latest figures for transport use in London shows sharp falls since the government urged people to stay home on Monday.

Use of the tube network is down by almost 50%, compared to its normal level, with bus use down 40%.

Figures reported by some UK media earlier on Wednesday, showing a fall in tube use of 19% and bus use of just 10%, come from earlier in the week, sources with knowledge of the figures say.

The beginning of the blame?

Quand l’ex-responsable du plan pandémie se plaignait des atermoiements face au coronavirus

Dès le 29 janvier, l’ancien secrétaire général de la Défense et de la Sécurité nationale tirait la sonnette d’alarme auprès de quelques journalistes.

Par Vincent JauvertPublié le 17 mars 2020 à 21h56  Mis à jour le 18 mars 2020 à 03h57Temps de lecture 2 min 

Louis Gautier, l’ancien patron du SGDSN, le 18 mai 2017 à l’Elysée. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
Louis Gautier, l’ancien patron du SGDSN, le 18 mai 2017 à l’Elysée. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

« Je ne comprends pas : pourquoi n’ont-ils pas encore déclenché le plan pandémie ? On perd un temps précieux ! » C’était le 29 janvier – onze jours après le premier cas de coronavirus déclaré en France et une semaine après le confinement des onze millions d’habitants de Wuhan, en Chine. L’homme qui parlait ainsi à quelques journalistes il y a un mois et demi s’appelle Louis Gautier.

Coronavirus

The world has moved on since I last blogged.

The viral infection is spreading widely, more clearly seen in some countries than others, as a result of looking and testing- or not.

France is in ‘lock- down as is Italy. Slowly the UK response is in keeping with other countries. It had tried yo delay the imposition of social control- banning meetings. sports and art events. By default is if happening now.

In comparison the street’s of Paris are now nearly empty.

Things are going to become more restrictive and worrying here soon I think.

The supermarkets have already had a run on certain types of food and toilet paper!

Travel has been limited by many countries- EQ could be stuck in Germany.

This pandemic is going to be a huge problem for a long time to come.

Leave Day

At 23-00 today the UK leaves the EU- after all this anst, anger and division. All of which is likely to continue. As many have said this is the end of the beginning, there is much to decide and clarify from now and there is again a time pressure to have many major decisions made by the end of the year- the transition period. There is a major decision point in June I believe which is to decide if an extension of the transition period is wanted and to apply. Already BJ has said there will not be one. As before the UK is boxing itself into a corner regarding the timetable, which result in pressure and more so on the UK side I expect. It would seem that this lesson has not been learned from the last 3 years of negotiations.

The newspapers have big editions today. Brexiters should be happy. I expect they will not be in future when things do not turn out swimmingly. They will look for someone else to blame.

A taste of the headlines, very positive in the Torygraph and how they beat the ‘establishment’. Enough to make you laugh:

and the future is clearly bright!
more sanguine from the other side