These are very trying times.
Firstly, dear reader, I hope that you and yours are well.
In a period of great danger, it is usually wise counsel to keep your loved ones close to you.
However, today that would put them at potentially deadly risk.
Please, please, please, maintain a safe distance.
Covid-19 might not kill you, but it could end the life of another.
It is highly contagious.
That is why your humble correspondent is in lockdown.
Thankfully I have the company of old friends on my bookshelves and my kin looks down on me from the walls of my study.
This is a time to remember who you are.
There are many stories that are showing people in their true selves during this crisis.
Some are offering exhausted frontline medical staff free accommodation near to a hospital
While others reveal their complete absence of humanity.
Most people will have a story about trying to buy hand sanitizer and finding out it has rocketed in price.
This is simply war profiteering.
Shame on them
Thankfully not everyone in business has had a humanity bypass.
Across the world, some are stepping up.
Here is yet another reason to love Cuba.
Venceremos!
Unsurprisingly, the current incumbent of the Oval Office saw the pandemic as an opportunity to play the race card.
His largely elderly blue-collar base will hear the “Chinese virus” dog whistle very clearly indeed.
Tragically it is older people with pre-existing health conditions who are most vulnerable to Covid-19.
The Google Analytics thingy tells me how many of ye are out there reading this blog.
More than once I have asked my tech guy to check whether or not there is some sort of glitch in the system.
My view is that there can’t be that many folks coming here in to read me.
He always tells me that the figures are accurate.
The late Alvin Toffler would smile that this success story in the “de-massified media”.
We are all part of the Third Wave.
Moreover, most people on the site have been here before and keep returning.
Therefore, I hope that some positive relationship has been built up as these words blink to life in Dún na nGall.
I really have no idea why this site has become an accidental success in terms of traffic, but I will try and make it a force for good.
What is happening now in Italy with heart-breaking regularity can be on your doorstep very very soon.
Please stay safe.
The professional advice is very clear.
Wash your hands and keep your distance.
If that is all you take away from me today, then I will be satisfied.
Even on notoriously parochial Planet Fitba, there is only one story.
In an amazing development, the Daily Radar’s star turn has finally got it last night.
I could not let it pass.
Of course, Mr Jackson has some credentials when it comes to “utter stupidity”.
His gushing world exclusive on Craig Whyte a decade ago was funny and it has followed him ever since and rightly so.
It is rare for churnalism to be so massively found out that quickly.
Consequently, he has deserved the sniggering derision ever since.
Of course, in 2012 it was just a football club that died and a particularly unpleasant none at that.
So no biggie.
However, someone with his platform playing the mindless macho card about Coronavirus was anything but amusing.
“Knickers in a twist”.
Good grief.
His ahem “column” today will no doubt feature in the Brass Neck Awards at some point.
If you really must then you can read it here.
Before I was aware of his latest award-winning pish, I was sent a WhatsApp message from a trusted friend in Fair Caledonia.
He’s a fine journalist in his own right, mainly in the broadcast sector.
This is what he sent me:
“Self-serving apologies don’t count. NB Keith Jackson!”
As usual, my buddy was on the money.
The last truly global pandemic that battered our species was the misnamed “Spanish Flu” a century ago.
The disease did not originate in Iberia, but the Spaniards were the first to report it accurately.
All of the combatants on the Western front were too busy lying about the deadly influenza outbreak.
The governments knew that their troops were carrying it back to their homes as they were loaded onto trains and troopships.
I have often thought that the chaps on the sports desk would be lost if they could not use military metaphors.
For example, their low brow output regularly has references to teams being “put to the sword”.
Of course, most of this hyperbolic nonsense does not matters a jot.
However, now is the time to deploy the lexicon of war.
For that is what it is.
As ever, it is the young who are sent to the frontline.
I will soon have family deployed to the Irish front of this war.
Baby Doctor will sit her finals in a couple of weeks.
This was not what she had anticipated only a month ago.
At the moment her daily routine is simply “eat, sleep revise, repeat”.
She’s already had the practical exam part of her finals done and dusted.
The reason this unprecedented upheaval in the exams schedule is that quite simply the doctors who would have assessed her at the end of April will not be available then.
You see the Tsunami is coming dear reader.
These are the faces of the frontline fighters in Italy.
We all have our part to play and that includes those involved in journalism no matter the platform.
At times like this, the quality of information is important.
That is the role of the Fourth Estate.
Consequently, they should consider their responsibilities in this matter.
Indeed Stuart god bless all earthly angels who are working locally and globally in order to save lives and promote recovery. As a species we need to fecking wise up and stop destroying the garden of eden I pray that that one day we will live in harmony and nurture nature
hail hail and god bless x
World-wide deaths from Corona up to yesterday – just over 15,000. Deaths from seasonal flu this winter in America alone – 23,000. Average number of deaths each year world-wide from seasonal flu – 2.5 million. Still, as the legendary (mythical?) old, newspaper editor said, “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.!
It is good that some companies are helping out in some way. However, let us not mistake this opportunistic corporate virtue-signalling and brand aggrandising for the milk of human kindness.
Brew Dog, in particularly, are notorious attention seekers. But their sanitiser wheeze is a good idea, much better than their usual infantile antics.
Personally I have never felt the staff of the “Golden Calf” NHS need their egos inflated any further. They are doing their well paid and well resourced jobs, that’s all. (Including my relative who earns close to 100k for a 4 day week). We are not dealing with Mother Theresa here.
Yes the NHS is vital at times like this but, if we are to clap anyone over it, let us clap the taxpayers who fund it.
Feel better? You started off OK but proved to be an arsehole in paragraphs 3 and 4
I take it your relative must be one of top consultants or maybe even a pen pusher what a chancer you really are . The biggest majority of NHS staff are minimum wage earners probably getting their low paid wages topped up with tax credits or working tax credits. You better hope you don’t become ill through this Coronavirus because it will be one of these so called high earners your slagging off who would be treating you and NURSING you back to good health . Grow up .
At times such as this, it is difficult to find any positives from it. The obvious lesson that we should hopefully have learned is to be proactive, not reactive. I also hope that people learn to be less selfish, especially the panic-buyers. But, there is one positive that I particularly would like to see, and it is this…
If our government decides to offer support to those on the big economy and zero-hours contracts, I hope that their forecasts are do wildly inaccurate that it almost bankrupted us as a nation. That way, those fatcats with their tax-avoiding offshore accounts, the financiers, and the government itself finally sit up and take notice of how dependent our economy is on these workers, and they either take steps to give them recognition through proper financial support being made available at all times. Either that, or they abolish these sharp business practices. To hell with these investors with their begging bowls out, seeking g massive dividends at the expense of the poor sods who have to work their fingers to the bone for a pittance – and be thankful for it.
Before I left Glasgow in the mid-80’s to seek work in London, I was in a job where conditions were not great because of an arsehole of a boss, who basically told me that I was lucky to still have a job (I worked as a store man for Boots at that time). I simply told him about ying and yang, which is that one man’s good fortune was another’s misfortune, and wished him all the best in finding a qualified proctologist, to locate my job, so that he could offer it to somebody else, if you catch my drift.
Sure – some people might actually be happy working in a job with flexible hours, but I’m sure that the majority of people on the gig economy would prefer to be in a permanent full-time job that offers a greater degree of financial security.
Let’s see how things plan out once we get over this pandemic!
As I write. I’m still suffering from the virus. It’s been a horrific 3 days. But hopefully on the mend. Hh
Sorry to hear that.
I hope that you recover.
Ger well soon.
Keep fighting it and get better real soon…good luck.
Donald Trump has been talking about a new
Vaccine that works and the plan is to vaccinate all the Americans first. He was live on YouTube telling them that they gave a
Patients with the virus and he is now in recovery . Hopefully this is the start of this
Unfortunately for us is how long will it take to
Get enough for every single person in our world.
I have no doubt long enough for the majority of the elderly and infirm to be affected.
Capitalism has not time for the “spongers” in Society you see,
They used to fight Wars to keep population under control but wars are very expensive.
Much cheaper to let nature take its course.
How long have China been aware of this and does anyone find it strange so few have died there by comparison to Italy?
Something isn’t adding up here.
I’ve actually got a theory as to why the Italian death rate is much higher than anywhere else.
When it broke out in China initially it started as a couple of cases and it was only when people started getting seriously ill and dying that they realised this could be major. It was however still a relatively small number. Five or six weeks later, by the time the Chinese New Year came round there were thousands. Maybe only a few of them displaying the symptoms but still carrying it.
Then people from all over the world descended on the place for N.Y.
Now the North of Italy is the country’s industrial powerhouse and includes the factories of the major fashion chains which employ thousands of Chinese workers. These people generally go home en masse for the N.Y.
They in all likelihood arrived back with a considerable number, if not most of them, incubating the virus. When it surfaced it was all over the place at once and pretty much immediately out of control.
In firefighting terms, China started off trying to put out a fire where some vandal set alight to a bush. Italy started off facing multiple full blown forrest fires.
The Trumpet doesn’t happen to tell lies, does he? HH
Donald Trump hasn’t a fecking clue. This is bullshit. He’s playing to the galleries of the dumb republican rednecks to garner political support for the upcoming election. Nothing more. A pure gobshite
I’ve just had friends from South Africa on to say that they go into lockdown on Thursday…with no relief for businesses etc.
I have travelled extensively over there…and its a classic have and have not society.
Spare a thought then for the have nots…because if you think you have it bad over here…believe me, compared to them…you haven’t.
Now listening to BoJo…we are also now in lockdown….
Good luck to you all…
Take care…stay safe.
Brilliant, sums it up perfectly the situation that we are in. You will know more than most the gravity of the situation, and the anxiety those that have accepted this reality are feeling. Thank you for using your platform for trying to get the message through that this is not a false alarm. As a man in my forties I am under no illusion that this is a crisis the likes of which I have never seen before. Again, to use your platform to help spread this message is vital, and I hope appreciated by your followers.
Then you have the clown that is john james, not misunderstood, not a voice of reason, a clown, who with the biggest health crisis the NHS has ever seen on our doorstep, comes up with an update that is basically look at me, I’ve got a pal, we’re not worried, aren’t we clever. How anybody can bear to pay this clown money I dont know.
Its satire ,look it up
It’s not satire. It’s a feeble, self-congratulatory attempt at humour. He’s a very self-important smugster.
It’s funny how much he really hates Neil Lennon, bearing in mind that he’s a royalist, unionist, tory. Coincidence? No. He just can’t stand a successful Catholic from Northern Ireland, no matter how much he insists he’s ‘on the fence’.
His laughable backtracking on the Lawwell front, now it’s obvious how saving a bit for a rainy day is prudent, emphasises what a shit pundit he really is.
It’s not the first time JJ has told us it’s a right good juicy bit of news/gossip on his password protected sight and that it will be in the press in the coming days only for weeks to pass and we hear nothing about or of the sort . It’s a KERCHING way of earning a buck . Let’s stick with Phil and the facts DOWNFALL proves that. Watch for JJs next article where he will slip a sly dig at us believing Phil’s true facts and information against his fake news. JJ does not take to well to constructive criticism .
John James thinks (in his own wee heid) that the narrative on every subject starts and stops with him.
Serial fantasist who is out to make money by telling gullible folk exactly what they want to hear.
His target audience lap it up like zombies supping brain matter from the fabled loving cup.
A fucked clock tells the right time twice a day every day.
His attempt at humour while OUR NHS struggles is simply deplorable
Hopefully everyone makes it through this, but am afraid they won’t, The death toll in Italy has been devastating to say the least. I only mention them as I have many friends there. God help all the other nations suffering from this devastating plague upon us. But guess what? I the good old Brits go out to parks and beaches for Fks sake, be the same morons who are emptying shelves.
We have an unprecedented convoy of camper vans heading for the hills, mainly the Highlands and Islands. The Western Isles has a large population of older people and if it reaches here it may well be another clearance but not for sheep this time.
The Ferry’s have been alerted to stop the Armageddon Campers.
Never mind the league might be made void.
Stay safe and remember it’s only a game.
Really good article Phil but I’d like to think that most folk already give Keeech Jackson a very wide berth.
The way frontline workers are being treated by the Government and the greedy stockpilers defies belief but shows what a self-centred society we are. Things really are going to change. HH
Absolutely excellent article Phil. Thought provoking and humbling. We owe these medics everything. We must all remember this when this is all over.
Jackson is a proven dick. He wrote the ‘Whyte Motherwell Billionaire with wealth off the radar’ article without a single shread of evidence to back it up.
He should have been sacked on the spot but the blood letting would have then involved his boss and all the way to the top, hence no sackings.
Sorry,I forgot to mention the NHS SUPERHEROES,we can all now see who is essential in the day to day running of our country.Doctors,nurses,ALL NHS staff,at these trying times must be remembered by a government that has form for doubling back on their word.WE citizens should ENSURE they get what they deserve,NOT the pittance usually doled out by the entitled tory party.💚☮️🌎
I have no idea how much this pretend ” journalist ” earns in a year…but I’ll bet its in excess of two or three times that of a front line NHS Nurse or Paramedic.
The world is truly up its arse.
Let’s hope the Tsunami turns out to be nought but a ripple on a puddle.That’s all we can do,hope.
Although,I’ll give reading jackass a swerve,thanks,but,no thanks.
Thanks for your slant.🍀Stay safe folks✅
Reason for the popularity of yer site? It floats effortlessly between the worlds of Fitba, family life and politics.
Many thanks. Keep safe. Keep well.
You’ve hut the nail oan the heid Lewis…
Ah wiz oot playin’ keepy uppy in the back gairden ma wife shouted fae the kitchen windae…
” Haw you…ya Independent voting bastart ye….yer dinner’s ready …”
Sport…politics …and family sharing and caring.
Just as you said…:0)
Stay in … stay well. I have three close family members on the front line. They all say the same thing.
I think this should be the wake up call that the government needs that they should pay our NHS properly, they save our lives for feck sake.
Just noticed jackasses handle @tendermeatballs what a plonker. Not into Twitter yet myself, hard to keep up with all this social media stuff I’ll just stick with yourself Phil if you don’t mind.
Stay safe out there.
Hail Hail 🍀🍀🍀
For the first time i feel fortunate. The good people of social services, fitted a clos o mat (b’day) for me. I remember our wee toilet in Dunree, and the bucket, newspaper, me and my brother started a game of turd throwing. Phil as ever much appreciated, tell baby doc we are all indebted to her and all staff who are doing their bit during these unprecedented times, we must include the staff of the small to large shops for keeping the shelves stocked.
Stay safe out there.
Hail Hail
I think the best way to repay the NHS staff is to remember their sacrifice the next time the negotiations for their salaries is up for discussion!
Indeed so…
Well said always enjoy your posts. Read that the spanish flu came over with the american troops as the first reported cases were in the military camps in Kansas before they shipped over.
Phil, I’ve just my MoP questioning why front line NHS staff are getting paid less than the state paid private sector stay at homer’s £2500 a month. So much for supporting the front line workers – both public and private !
Ps I wasn’t implying that the front line should also get the £2500 but questioning where the limit came from given that sick pay is only £360 a month ! Who the hell needs £2500 a month to live as even their mortgage payments are suspended at the moment? Bring the limit down to the living wage and let people see what’s its really like at the sharp end
Keep safe and well and sane at this time of madness. Here Fran, ( my wife) and I have already been in isolation a week due to underlying conditions and are just plodding along. Luckily blogs like yours bring light into the darkness which seems emphasised by the sheer stupidity of the selfish ones. From this Sassenach, May your Higher Power keep you and us safe and well.
If we all place our utmost faith in the medical and scientific professionals, we will all get through this pandemic. Unfortunately, we will lose some that will succumb to this – that is why is is vital that we all listen to, and follow, the directives that are being issued, even if those directives come from the mouth of Boris Johnson.
As for the panic-buyers – shame on you!! Under normal circumstances, an average family of 4 will go through one 4-pack of toilet roll in around 3-4 weeks. Therefore, there is absolutely NO NEED to bulk-purchase loo roll! If you have this overwhelming urge to empty the shelves of it, at least try alternative methods of dealing with your chronic diarrhoea, such as bulk-purchasing Imodium and Dioralyte. It might also be a good idea that, after gorging yourselves on all that food you’ve deprived others of, caused by your selfish greed, you keep your mouths firmly shut, rather than moaning that you e become a fat bastard, and cannot for the life of you, figure out why you’ve put on so much weight!!
The rest of you, please stay safe!!
Absolutely spot on.
Thank you Phil, all the best to you and yours
well said phil,i agree wholeheartedly with everything you said
Nice one phil.
Take care everyone!
Nice one phil.
Take care everyone!
We have a saying, unsure if it’s colloquium bit I think it fits Mr Jackson well. Wanker
Sad thing is Bandito they are all the same when reporting(demonising) anything associated with Catholicism or Glasgow Celtic FC using any depraved angle they can to push the establishment driven agenda, that’s why I haven’t bought one of their news papers for about 25 years
God bless all those angels and kings of the NHS and health services. A loyalty bonus should be given to everyone of you.