Covid: UK virus deaths exceed 100,000 since pandemic began
January 26th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
There are three main ways of calculating the death toll from coronavirus: those who died within 28 days of being tested positive for covid (the official government measure announced on the media each day); those who had the virus mentioned on their death certificate (a wider measure from the Office of National Statistics); and excess deaths (a calculation comparing the level of all deaths in a given period to an average of the same period over the previous five years).
Some time ago, deaths from covid in the UK passed the 100,000 mark on the measure of excess deaths. Now the 100,000 figure has been exceeded on the ONS measure. In the next few days, even the Government’s measure will go over 100,000.
Any figure would represent an absolute tragedy for the people who have died and the families and friends whom they have left behind. But, when you remember that – at the beginning of the first lockdown – we were told that we would do well as a nation to keep deaths to 20,000, the current figure is heartbreaking. It is one of the highest death rates in the world.
The UK death toll should start to level off as the vaccines have their beneficial effect, but this nightmare is still far from over. And, if anyone tells you that lots of people die from seasonal flu each winter, remind them that a typical death toll from winter flu is 8,000.
Footnote: Later in the day, the government announced that, by its measure, the death toll had now reached 100,162.
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“A Promised Land” by Barack Obama (5)
January 25th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Obama campaigned for the White House as an anti-war candidate: he had opposed the invasion of Iraq and, in the presidential election campaign, he argued that the war in Afghanistan had been neglected as a result of the focus on Iraq.
Once in the White House, however, he quickly found himself having to back the withdrawal plan for Iraq signed by Bush a month before inauguration and agreed an extra three months for withdrawal of combat troops compared to the timetable he had proposed in the campaign. He took longer to review the situation in Afghanistan but eventually agreed to the deployment of 30,000 extra troops there.
Obama had something of a reputation for taking his time to make decisions and being very deliberative about the process. In these memoirs, he explains that, over two months, he presided over a series of nine two-to-three-hour meetings in the Situation Room to evaluate the military’s plan for Afghanistan.
The irony was that, a mere nine months after becoming president, Obama was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. He acknowledges “the tension between getting a peace prize and expanding a war”.
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What is a fronted adverbial?
January 23rd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Apparently this is something that kids are learning at schools these days as discovered by parents who are having to homeschool in lockdown. I confess that I’d never heard of the term until I read an article in today’s “Guardian” newspaper.
Even then, I had no idea what it was and I’m a reasonably well-educated and well-read senior citizen. But I’ve now looked it up.
Adverbials are words or phrases that give more information to the sentence.
“I discovered fronted adverbials, earlier today.”
‘Earlier today’ is the adverbial.
“Earlier today, I discovered fronted adverbials.”
A fronted adverbial is when the adverbial word or phrase is moved to the front of the sentence, before the verb. So here, ‘earlier today’ is a fronted adverbial.
Now you know. Admit it: you’re feeling better.
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A review of the 2017 film “The Circle”
January 22nd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Based on Dave Eggers’ best-selling novel, this movie explains how a powerful information technology company with a huge worldwide customer base – the Circle of the title – plans to introduce a series of clever innovations that seem to solve a social or political ill and introduce transparency and accountability but massively undermine personal space and individual liberty while defying any public or political control.
In the words of the public face of the company Eamon Bailey (Tom Hanks – and who wouldn’t trust him?): “Knowing is good, but knowing everything is better”. Completely taken in by the company’s vision is young newcomer Mae Holland (Emma Watson) who declares: “Secrets are lies. Secrets make crimes possible… Secrets need accountability”.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book but, in spite of some fine leading actors, the story does not seem to work so well on the screen as the shortness of time makes for a simplification of the arguments and the lack of drama is more noticeable in a film.
Link: my review of the book click here
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“A Promised Land” by Barack Obama (4)
January 22nd, 2021 by Roger Darlington
There is a famous quote, usually – but wrongly – attributed to the German politician Otto von Bismarck, which was in fact written by the American poet John Godfrey Saxe: “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made”.
This observation was in my mind as I read the 50 pages which Obama devotes to explaining the tortuous process which finally led to the enactment of his signature legislative achievement: the Affordable Care Act (ACA) often called Obamacare.
To most non-Americans, the case for reform would look compelling: in spite of the US spending a lot more money per person on healthcare than any other advanced economy, the results were similar or worse and, in spite of Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for the poor, more than 43 million Americans were uninsured.
Even Obama thought the argument was powerful: “When I think back to those early conversations, it’s hard to deny my overconfidence. I was convinced that the logic of healthcare reform was so obvious that even in the face of well-organized opposition I could rally the American people’s support”.
But the legislative process in the US is much more complicated than in other democratic nations, mainly because of the constitutional dispersal of power, the financial clout of lobbyists and campaign funders, and the bitterest political divide in the nation since the civil war.
So the process took over a year and the Bill of 906 pages was only passed with a final vote margin of seven. Even then, a substantial series of compromises was forced on Obama, such as abandonment of ‘the public option’.
But, in spite of four years of Trump’s efforts to destroy Obamacare, it survives and President Biden now has a foundation on which he can build.
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What are the 17 executive orders signed by newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden?
January 21st, 2021 by Roger Darlington
A couple of months ago, I did a posting explaining the role of executive orders in the American political system and suggesting that, once in the Oval Office, Joe Biden would enact a slew of such orders to undo some of the worst features of the Trump presidency.
So it has proved to be. But what have these 17 executive orders done? In summary:
Mandate federal employees and contractors to wear masks
Re-enter the World Trade Organisation
Restructure the federal government’s Covid-19 response
Extend moratorium on home eviction and foreclosure
Extend freeze on student loan repayments
Rejoin the Paris climate accord
Restore environmental regulations
Root out systemic racism in federal government programmes and and institutions
Restore counting of non-citizens in US census
Preserve and fortifying protections for Dreamers
Reverse the travel bad on 13 Muslim-majority countries
Repeal of Trump executive order on interior enforcement
Stop construction of the wall on the US-Mexico border
Defer enforced departure for Liberians
Prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation
Mandate an ethics pledge for executive branch appointees
Restore regulatory actions by the government curbed by Trump
You can find more information on these 17 executive orders here.
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A review of the 2019 documentary “Knock Down The House”
January 20th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This documentary looks at a little-covered feature of American politics – primaries for the House of Representatives – from an unusual viewpoint – that of four progressive female candidates challenging the establishment incumbents.
Directed by Rachel Lears, it follows the 2018 insurgency campaigns of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) of New York, Amy Vilela of Nevada, Cori Bush of Missouri, and Paula Jean Swearengin of West Virginia. Only AOC was successful, defeating Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent (she went on to become, at 29, the youngest ever member of Congress).
However, what the film demonstrates is the passionate commitment of all four women and the phenomenal work involved in a grassroots political campaign.
Catch it on Netflix
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A review of the 1949 film “All The King’s Men”
January 16th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This classic film – which was remade in 2006 – is based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Penn Warren published in 1946. It tells the story of the rise to power of charismatic and populist Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford) who storms his way to becoming Governor of a Southern US state in the Depression era.
Along the way, a host of characters, including narrator and political journalist Jack Burden (John Ireland) and campaign assistant Sadie Burke (Mercedes McCambridge), bend to his will, even when knowing just how venal and corrupt he is. The movie won three Academy Awards – one for Best Picture and others for Crawford and McCambridge – but nothing for writer, producer and director Robert Rossen.
At the time of the film’s release, viewers would have seen in the morality tale a reflection of the career of Louisiana governor Huey Long. Today, so much of the dialogue and so many plot points seem eerily prescient as the playbook of President Donald Trump.
Towards the end of the film, Stark is impeached by the state’s House of Representatives and, as the Senate decides whether to uphold the charge, it is surrounded by baying, ultra-loyal Stark supporters. It is entirely a coincidence – it just happened to be on television – that I caught this movie the week that Trump fanatics stormed the Capitol and Trump was impeached (for the second time) by the House.
Jack Burden explains how it’s done: “Appeal to their emotions. Make them laugh; make them cry; make them mad, even if they get mad at you. But for heaven’s sake, don’t try to improve their minds.” And Sadie Burke states of her boss: “He’ll ditch everybody in the whole world, because that’s what Willie wants. Nobody in the world but him!”
Remind you of anybody?
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“A Promised Land” by Barack Obama (3)
January 15th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
Barack Obama’s presidency began at the height of the subprime mortgage fiasco in the housing market which occasioned a triple economic crisis: the worst recession since the Great Depression, a near collapse of the banking system, and an impending bankruptcy of America’s leading car manufacturers. The stock market had lost 40% of its value and unemployment would eventually reach 10%.
The recession was addressed by the 1,073-page American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which was passed in the first month with “precisely zero Republican votes” in the House and just three GOP votes in the Senate in spite of Obama’s heroic efforts to reach across the aisle.
The housing crisis was countered by the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). The banking system held up following a bold formula of institutional stress tests carried out by the Federal Reserve. And the car industry survived with General Motors being restructured and Chrysler going into partnership with Fiat.
Obama acknowledges that “my administration’s handling of the financial crisis still generates fierce debate“. He explains that: “For many thoughtful critics … the fact that I had engineered a return to pre-crisis normalcy is precisely the problem – a missed opportunity if not an outright betrayal”.
He is honest with readers: “I wonder whether I should have been bolder in those early months”. But he concludes: “my first hundred days in office revealed a basic strand of my political character. I was a reformer, conservative in temperament if not in vision”.
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Just how deadly was 2020?
January 14th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
“Official statistics released on Tuesday showed 2020 was the deadliest year in England and Wales for more than a century. More than 608,000 people died last year, 81,653 of whom as a result of coronavirus.
Deaths exceeded 600,000 for only the second time on record, and the toll was just behind that of 611,861 in 1918, the worst year of the flu pandemic.”
This is a quote from an article in today’s “Guardian” newspaper.
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