Beautiful Flowers

This is part of a lovely bouquet of flowers gifted to me by a friend. They’re gorgeous and I intended to photograph them ‘properly’ with my camera, but got caught up in a load of IT admin - sorting, converting and copying email folders ready to load on my new PC (a long story!). 

Day 686 / Day 5 Post Plan B (for my record only)
The Sue Gray ‘partygate’ 12 page report / update was published today with details held back at the request of the Met Police. Whilst the detail wasn’t there, I was interested in these  conclusions:
- ‘some of the behaviours surrounding these gatherings is difficult to justify’
-  ‘there were failures of leadership and judgement by different parts of No.10 and the Cabinet Office at different times’
- ‘the excessive consumption of alcohol is not appropriate in a professional workplace at any time’
- ‘some staff wanted to raise concerns about behaviours they witnessed at work, but at times felt unable to do so’
- ‘the leadership structures (No. 10) are fragmented and complicated and this has sometimes led to the blurring of lines of accountability’.
As expected, the PM whilst saying sorry, does not appear to think this is his personal responsibility, but will implement the ‘report’ findings and restructure No.10. I have done some work on culture in Banking, and I can assure you that culture comes from the very top and a poor culture undermines any control that is deemed to be in place. Former PM Theresa May said ‘either he (Boris) had not read the rules, or understood the rules, or thought they didn’t apply to him….which was it?’ A good response to the PM’s statement by Keir Starmer and strong challenges from all other opposition party leaders. I was also struck that Tory MPs were largely not wearing masks, but opposition party MPs were - I know it’s no longer compulsory, but case numbers are still incredibly high and to me this shows the ‘couldn’t care less’ about anyone else culture.

The PM says it’s ‘absolutely clear’ that NHS and social care workers should get vaccinated. However, there is speculation about a u-turn on mandatory vaccination and the Health Secretary was due to address the Commons half an hour ago. No doubt the 100k vacancies plus 70k still unvaccinated is cause for severe concern. The methodology for new daily case statistics has been updated today as unbelievably it didn’t include reinfections (I.e. if you tested positive in Mar 2020 and again in Jan 2022, it was only counted as a new case in Mar 2020). It’s now deemed a new infection if 90 days or more from a prior infection. The much delayed daily cases reported today were xxxxxx and the cumulative total increased from 16.4m yesterday to XXm today - still not published at 10:45pm. All Formula 1 staff (including drivers, teams, hospitality and media) must be fully vaccinated for the new season (tennis take note). Spotify is to add a ‘content advisory’ to any podcast discussing Covid and Joe Rogan has pledged to try harder to offer more balanced views.