Tag: COVID-19
-
The Icing on the ‘Cake’
This week’s European entertainment came to us courtesy not of the usual Vaudeville Euro parliament speeches, but of Poland and Hungary as they stuck the kai-bosh onto the EU’s bug recovery budget. And what a corker it was. Went down like a vomit gazpacho in Brussels. Well that’s democracy for you. Or to put it…
-
The Needle
Opposition politicians have awakened from their slumber and are demanding, ‘financial and criminal penalties for social media companies that fail to censor posts promoting anti-vaccination content’. Anti-vaxxing is nothing new, along with anti-everything. That’s democracy for you. But just let these calls sink in for a moment. Not in terms of whether you agree with…
-
Poise On
While it made the headlines, we did not witness the expected dogpile onto Dominic Cummings in the wake of his apparently premature evacuation. A few expected barbs from our old centre-left faves who momentarily broke away from their Diwali celebrations, and that was about it. The whole affair is characterised largely by stunned silence: the…
-
Publisher Be Damned
Earl Spencer has struck again – 23 years after his pulpit skewering of senior royals, he’s pulled the rug out from under serial toad Martin Bashir over some roguish manoeuvring to obtain a sit-and-chat with his sister, the inveterate jizz-whisperer, Princess Diana. Why the jackoff Earl opted to bash Bashir now has not yet budged…
-
Noes Out of Jaunt
The UK’s chief Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost, has told his opposite number, Michel Barnier, not to bother coming over for the final bout of trade talks unless the EU fundamentally changes its position. In response, Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission’s head Beurocrat has noted that her own team will go to London anyway,…
-
Tiers for Fears
Who are the most relieved people in the UK right now? No, apart from the Russian currency speculators? Retired epidemiologists. Like many other academics, epidemiologists have merrily nurtured careers and pontificated on their theoretical expertise, their forecasts, and their models, and then it all came crashing down. They became relevant as reality kicked in. Worse…
-
Mealy-Mouthed
Congratulations to Marcus Rashford on his MBE for his work to alleviate child hunger in a first world country. In these times, we might very well celebrate altruistic star leverage of personal influence. Most of them are out sharking social media and spouting fatuous twaddle in order to scoop up a sackful of Twitter or…
-
Dread Locked
So, batshit albino-bear Johnson gave his conference speech, which was less of a serious manifesto and more that of an acid-dropping ‘Generation Game’ contestant with a limited time to recall as much as possible on the political conveyor belt before the breathing walls closed in around him. And ‘Didn’t he do well?’ Well, no. The…
-
Nacho Concern
I had thought that the demise of Debenhams – entirely self-inflicted but precipitated by the COVID catalyst – would rest at the pinnacle of premier-league self-pity. And then I read about Cineworld who are temporarily battening down the hatches, ostensibly owing to further delays to the release of Bond 25, No Time to Die. Now,…
-
Bitter Ex
I made a trip to the opticians recently, which considering the now mandatory COVID re-engineering of processes went essentially smoothly. Professional and organised staff, hassle-free, and frames that nestled peacefully on my asymmetric features. To top it off, I saved a hefty chunk on my last similar purchase. A fat, juicy tick in the customer…
maxfrances.com 