[0762]

I regularly refer to the VI words, in previous conversations with my wife after another listen to some bbc radio news broadcast (or other media channeled grump about Covid), and the grumping that is attached to it from various angles/business sectors/educationalists etc etc for the past 12 months or longer. What does the VI acronym stand for? It means VESTED INTEREST and I can sincerely sympathise with lotsa parties who are casualties of this horrible crisis that has been imposed on us. I have the right to grump like lotsa other people who definitely have the VI words attached to them. I'm fed up, the same as millions of other people and I'm certain Nicola Sturgeon is one of them as well because I've listened to most of her addresses to the nation during this difficult time and she is pissed off, no doubt about it, and understandable!! I try to get on with it as best I can and I'm sure most other folk are "in the same boat". Note other countries in Europe are "locking down" again, The Netherlands is the latest one to lock down (no choice said De Ruiter, the Dutch PM!!), but The Netherlands, an independent country for a long time, has borrowing powers to deal with a further lock down; I listened to a restaurant owner in Amsterdam, similarly gutted because he was returning to his shop to dispose of all his fresh food and provisions to cover the Xmas period. Scotland has not hit that extreme yet!!! Scotland doesn't have that borrowing power either and we are dealing with an aggressive and disrespectful Brit govt trying to bizarrely "play games" currently in a fiscal situation where we are not interested in playing their silly RW games any more - that is part of this problem and the FM's position in dealing with businesses is as my wife has previously described it (she has no interest in the politics whatsoever btw) - a no win position - damned if you do, damned if you don't!! We are still in a pandemic crisis - just look down south at the London shambles that is unfolding!! Also my niece and her family have just been infected through the primary school Covid spreading threat - some infected, some not, but the Xmas visit to relatives down south totally scuppered and isolating now!! I repeat, we are coming up to the two year anniversary of all this shit and I AM FED UP!! Too much, but I'm still trying to lift friends and relatives as best I can and avoid grumping about it. Call it "keeping a stiff upper lip" during unprecedented times where I'm sure a lot more vulnerable people than myself must be finding this situation absolutely intolerable and stressful beyond belief. Also re the hospitality sector, lets hear from the workers/staff often paid low wages for long hours, not just the celebrity chefs who seem to be given such a higher profile and appear to be oblivious to the fact there is a pandemic - their sense of entitlement is gobsmacking and clearly evident that a lotta hacks must dine at their premises, giving them media fixtures to utter their sob stories while ignoring the fact everyone is struggling. Remember that line, "We are all in it together"???? You wouldn't think so when listening to the wailing coming from people representing an industry that is still notoriously immune to unionisation and workers rights. There are sectors and individual industries likewise wailing about their own situation as if they operate in complete isolation, a joke!! Each speaks of their own unique problems and how they are suffering terribly. HERE'S THE NEWS - WE ALL ARE!!! There is no separation between "public health" and "business". It's as if we have entirely forgotten that we have a collective interest at all - almost as if Thatcher's mantra that "there is no such thing as society" has come to roost 40 years on. Also the hospitality sector is a broad church where I have no doubt small, independent businesses are struggling far and beyond the big chains.