Masks Debate Resurfaces During Super Flu

 
With the Christmas social season just getting going this is the best time to be a virus as people mingle and spread god knows what to each other which is why the NHS are warning that a record number of flu patients are currently in hospital and people should weigh up the merits of wearing face coverings.
Downing Street have said only that wearing a mask to help prevent the spread of respiratory illness: 'Was something people can consider' but they are urging those who haven't already had the flu jab to drag themselves somewhere with a nurse waiting for them with a syringe.
The problem this year seems to be that the Flu version currently doing the rounds is particularly transmissible and i have heard it referred to as a 'SuperFlu' by medical professionals a few times already which sounds scary as anyone who has had a non Super Flu will know, it is not fun and can be downright dangerous and have long lasting effects so if we can do something to prevent giving the misery to others, why not?
Wearing a mask when in close proximity to others is something simple we can do and as we found out in the Covid years, getting vaccinated, washing and sanitising hands, wearing masks and keeping our distance works and shouldn't be controversial although there are some whack-jobs who will try and argue otherwise but we know how that ends up, ask Meatloaf but you would need to do it via a Medium because just after wanging on about Covid being a hoax and all the precautions unneeded, he sadly discovered it wasn't a hoax and they were very much needed.
So what is so super about this particular variant when flu season it is an annual event anyway?
Professor Meghana Pandit, NHS national medical director, explained that this partuclar variant, influenza A/H3N2 to give it the proper title,  has been around since 1968 and there have been over a dozen such changes in that time but what is so special about this type is that it has started earlier than normal flu season which usually peaks after the Christmas get together's but this time has reached the numbers you generally see peak in early January and that means it is much more in circulation before getting its Christmas Bonus of parties and get together's.
Based on the data from the UK Health Security Agency, it is younger people getting infected more as their immune systems are less experienced at dealing with flu viruses and this particular strain is great at finding an immunity gap in children that isn’t present in other age group so adults are less likely to become infected overall, as they typically have an immune system which is more experience and resistance with the influenza, having already been exposed to many flu viruses over their lives.
The recommendations from the NHS this year are therefore getting vaccinated is still the best thing you can do to protect yourself and if you are sick, stay home and rest and take sensible precautions to avoid spreading the virus to others which includes masks which as we found out during Covid, are worn not to prevent you from catching a virus but to prevent the wearer from expelling virus-laden respiratory droplets into the air when coughing, speaking, or breathing for some other poor sod to breath in.

Venezuela Moved Into Trump's Gun Sights

Donald Trump's proto-fascist government seemed to have moved on from blowing up ships off the coast of Venezuela based on the evidence that they are boats off the coast of Venezuela, to stealing their boats full of oil like modern day Pirates whilst making all sorts of absurd allegations that Maduro, the Venezuelan President, is some sort of kingpin in the drugs trade.   
Obviously no evidence is forthcoming which makes a change to the previous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan when the evidence presented was just a made up fantasy but the American gunboat diplomacy against Venezuela continues anyway with promises of more to come.
I assume the end goal is the removal of Maduro and a nice, more American friendly President installed, one that will wave through the pillaging of the World's largest proven oil
reserves, estimated around 300 billion barrels  and the latest move to manufacture a war with the South American nation has gone down very well with Venezuela’s opposition leader and Trump patsy, María Corina Machado, who has poked her head out of hiding to say how she supports the US seizure of the oil tanker.
I imagine we will see a creeping of more warlike actions and it will eventually break out into a shooting war so what with providing backing for the Israeli genocide, attacking Iran and setting the military against his own civilians, will assure Trump has as much chance of winning his coveted Nobel Peace Prize as he has of winning the rear of the year award.

Oval Office Christmas Eve

Scene Oval Office,
Date Christmas Eve
Present are Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth: Sir, wake up, we got a southern border violation by an illegal alien

Trump: It's those damn narco-terrorists again from Venezuela

Hegseth: We have sight of an unidentified craft loaded with suspect packages.

Trump: He looks like a bearded male, about 300 lbs. What do we know about him?

Hegseth: Our intelligence shows that he plans one big shipment a year and he's going to sneak into every kids bedroom at night. What shall we do Sir?

Trump: Jeffrey told me sneaking into kids bedrooms at night is fine but i don't agree on this occasion. We got to stop him.

Hegseth: Missile fired and .....Neutralised. Woohoo.

Trump: Hang on, he's still alive and clinging to the side of his craft, looks like you just winged him.

Hegseth: My favourite, a double tap. Second missile fired and....Got him.

Aide runs into the Oval Office.

Aide: Sir, Sir, Mr President, someone just killed Santa.

Trump: It was him!!! I wasn't even here at the time.

Reverend Lucy #2: When the Wise Men Swiped Right

Welcome to this years Christmas Eve Service with me, Reverend Lucy, and i was thinking what Mary, Joseph, and a herd of donkeys would look like in a world of TikTok dances and smart fridges today so this is my reinterpretation of the Nativity story through the lens of 2025, or 'When the Wise Men Swiped Right'.
So here we are traveling in our minds back 2,025 years to a small town in the desert, but we’ll also stay right here because although the story may be timeless, but the Wi-Fi isn’t.
So the Angel Gabriel sent a text to Mary: ‘Your pregnant with the son of god, put a reminder in your Calendar for 9 months, December 25th' so Mary would have checked her schedule and realised she should have to cancel her yoga class and bring forward that Zoom meeting.
Next was the trip to Bethlehem and when then Joseph would have had to have rounded up a Donkey for the trek, today it would be an Uber to take them along the Dusty Road and Joseph frantically tapping 'Accept' on his smartphone.
Obviously no room at the Inn's and Mary would be nagging him for not booking an Air BnB in advance so we are back in the Stable but this one would have 'Smart Facilities' like charging points for the phone and Wifi if you paid the few extra Shekles but Mary drew the line at Livestreaming the birth on Youtube.
So in the soft blue glow of the phone charging light, the baby Jesus swaddled in a blanket embroidered with the phrase 'Made in Bethlehem,' and a QR Code was laid in a Manger while a group of Shepherds who had received a notification that the Lord and Saviour had been born, entered and with each holding a smartphone and texting about the birth and reminding people to subscribe for their podcast for further updates on the angels and the forthcoming announcement of peace on Earth.
The Stable was by now becoming more cramped than a flashmob in a toilet cubicle and the Angels were explaining how from this day forward our memes will be kind, our comments constructive, and let's maybe try and cut back on the emojis when three wise men arrived, or to give them there correct name, Influencers, who instead of having followers, they would have… well, actual followers and they would say that Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh was so 2000 years ago so would leave Amazon Prime subscriptions, Spotify playlists, and a smartwatch.
By now the 'Battery Low' icon on Josephs phone would be flashing so let's end this story by agreeing that the Nativity story is still relevant, miracles can happen in any era, even today, even when wrapped in Wi-Fi signals and notification pings which when we strip away, we find the same message.
And that message is may your notifications be few, your Wi-Fi strong and your hearts ever-open.
My final message is the original star that led the Magi was a beacon of hope, and our modern stars might actually be be GPS satellites, the screen of a phone or a LED fairy light on a Christmas Tree but so be it.
Merry Christmas!!

Reverend Lucy

Welcome to this years Christmas Eve Service with me, Reverend Lucy, and it is nice to see so many new faces in the congregation tonight as we celebrate the reason for the season as the young people say, the birth of a rather special baby in a stable 2025 years ago.
As there are so many of us tonight, some i recognise as regulars, some i haven't seen for a long time and some i am meeting for the first time, my philosophy is generally as long as you don't nick the candles or drink the holy water from the font it's all good but it may be worth issuing a reminder of Church etiquette before we begin.
Firstly, unless you got too close to a candle and you are telling someone that their hair is on fire, we prefer silence during the service as people are here to listen to tales of that first Christmas and they will struggle to hear the message from the pulpit if all they can hear is you discussing how you are foregoing the Brussels Sprouts this year as they give you terrible wind.
Secondly, as it is December and very cold outside, headgear is fine to be worn inside the Church although wearing a turkey or Christmas tree shaped hat will probably obstruct the view of the person sitting behind you.
Thirdly, Mobile Phone's should be put on silent as the sound of the 'Ride of the Valkyries' echoing around the building during Hark The Herald Angel is very off putting for the organist.
Regular church goers know that during the service there will be some standing during certain parts. There are reasons they stand up or sit down during the service, they are not just playing a game of musical chairs so just follow everyone else's lead.
As this is the midnight Mass and unfortunately the Nativity Scene can drag on a bit, the usual human reaction is to nod off but unless you have a medical condition, such as narcolepsy, could you please at least try to stay awake and especially if you are a snorer.
Finally, when the collection plate comes around remember to put in and not take out and make sure that you don't walk out with more candles than you came in with and no matter how thirsty you are, the font water is not drinkable, many babies heads have been dipped into it and it will taste of a mixture of baby shampoo and cradle cap.

Sad Faced Rev

My blog partner asked me if i was writing any Christmas themed posts this year and i answered that i must have pretty much exhausted every Christmas related aspect there is, from Atheism at Christmas to whether to say Happy or Merry Christmas so probably not so many which made him do his sad face because he was keen to nick whatever i wrote to include in his December services.
It's an agreement we have, i write the posts and he does all the posting and techy stuff and has carte blanch to pilfer the best lines for himself, sanitize them to remove the religious sarcasm and then passes them off as his own and gets all the 'Oh Rev, you are so witty/charming/inciteful' comments from the congregation.
Obviously, as this time of year is all about Santa, Snowmen and red nosed reindeer, his Bethlehem gang gets very little look in these days and when they do, it is in a pretty sarcastic tone.
I said there was a couple of posts i wrote in 2015, one in 2017 and another in 2021 which are Christmas Eve sermon's by the Reverend Lucy and he is welcome to bastardise them but as he said he already did.
Not to worry Rev, I got you covered if only to avoid looking at that sad little face all bloody December.

Ceasefire In Name Only

The Qatar Prime Minister said today that the Gaza ceasefire negotiations were at 'a critical moment'.
Today alone seven Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone attack and since the ceasefire was announced on 10 October 2025, Israeli forces have killed more than 360 Palestinians in Gaza so not much of a ceasefire then but Israel have always been murderously rubbish at not killing their neighbours during ceasefires.
Since the ceasefire with Lebanon in November 2024, Israel has killed more than 330 people, 127 in one attack last month, and maintaining forces inside its territory which were meant to have been pulled back.
What we have then is more of a reduce-fire from the Israeli's rather than a ceasefire although October's slaughter of 104 Palestinians including 46 children at a refugee camp in a single day doesn't point towards restraint although this was dismissed by the Trump administration as: 'a little skirmish' and that the peace deal was holding.
What is becoming apparent is that the ceasefire has led to a situation where Israeli forces can inflict outrageous violence on Gazan's and Lebanese without consequences which Amnesty International describes as: 'A dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal but what has in fact happened is a mere reduction of the scale of Israel’s attacks'.
The UN has noted that Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, which Israel continue to control 58% of, are suffering with aid trucks not being allowed to enter and attacks continuing with infrastructure continuing to be destroyed
UN Special Rapporteurs point out that Israel continues to operate beyond the agreed withdrawal line, in clear breach of the ceasefire terms and the International Force has not been agreed on yet so Israel continues to act with impunity and backed by the Americans who are bending over backwards to take whatever Israel stick to them, the Palestinians and Lebanese are expected to just humbly submit to their oppressors and accept a ceasefire which sees them continuing to be murdered.
Banning them from the Song Contest should be the very least we should be doing to a nation continuing to commit a genocide before our very eyes.

Sleepy Don

It is only 18 more sleeps to Christmas but more like 178 for Donald Trump because the guy seems to be falling asleep all the time lately.
My Facebook page is full of videos of him falling asleep at various meetings which once again has everyone talking about his health so i asked a doctor what did he think was wrong with the fat orange pedo's mate?
'He's a racist, abhorrent, misogynistic piece of shi....' began the doctor but i stopped him to say i meant specifically his health and why would he keep falling asleep.     
'Medically speaking' began the doctor, 'he is displaying obvious signs of cognitive and physical decline as well as being a racist, misogynistic piece of shi...' so i thanked him and checked my notes and saw that he is 145 and realised that was his weight in Kg and he is actually 79 and as well as keep falling asleep, we know he has elephant legs thanks to chronic venous insufficiency and there is that persistent bruising on his right hand which he has tried unsuccessfully to conceal with make up which shouldn't surprise anyone who notices that his make up choice tends towards Tangerine.
Trump has also undergone various medical checks including an MRI although he couldn't remember which part of the body was scanned and said he aced a cognitive test which he said was hard and it is, if you are unable to draw the time on a clock or knows what a camel looks like.   
Trump is apparently angry that so much focus is on his health and called the diagnosis that he is a mental and physical wreck 'bulls---t' but then he also said that he wasn't best buddies and hanging around with Jeffrey Epstein during his pedophile heyday so a man to believe obviously.

A Solution To Democracies Failings

Democracy has many problems, mainly that is only a Democracy for 1 day out of every 4 or 5 years but another is that every few years the Government changes and sets about undoing plenty of what the last lot did.
In the UK we have had The Conservatives and the Labour Party taking a wrecking ball to each others plans for decades but one thing which seems to have cross Party agreement is the UK's State Pension triple lock which is a policy to increase the State Pension by the highest of either average earnings growth, inflation or 2.5%.
The Tories introduced it in 2011 and Labour have maintained it since so if we could have cross Party agreement on Pensions, why not other things which are agreed upon by all parties and out of reach of whichever ideological party gain control?
There are some things which fluctuate such as taxation and pay awards so we couldn't tie that down and but we could have something like an agreement on the NHS Budget Triple Lock and the same for benefits and defence as well as Environmental targets which we do have but they are movable so we could tie them down securely.
If our main parties could get together and set in concrete some things which can only be changed by further cross party agreements, then we would be faced with such upheaval every 4 or 5 years and take the sting out of budgets every year.
I am sure there would be still be ideological differences and agreements between a very right wing Conservatives and the left wing Labour Party would be difficult (think Brexit) but the only alternative is to make terms longer so when a leader gets in they get a decade or two to build the nation they envision but that way lies something like a couple of decades of Boris Johnson and nobody wants that.
Then again, Democracy means that if a leader is a duffer, we get to kick them out but that brings me back to my initial point that the opportunity only comes once every 4 or 5 years and they can do a lot of damage in that time as we found out with Tony Blair and Liz Truss and she was only in charge for 44 days.
Maybe the solution is to remove humans from the chain of command and just plug in a computer and let Ai make the calls because i do believe that that day will come, maybe not in our lifetime but certainly someone will try it out somewhere.

A Smaller Eurovision This Year

Three cheers for Spain, Netherlands, Ireland and Slovenia who have pulled out of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in protest at Israel being cleared to compete despite their genocide going on in Palestine.
The United Kingdom's Eurovision Committee  has said that it was aware of the concerns over Israeli participation in the contest but are unlikely to withdraw while other nations such as Iceland and Belgium are considering whether to enter a song this year.
The vote to ban Israel was suspended following the ceasefire declaration but many nations were still angry that a nation with so much blood on its hands was being allowed to compete so they demanded a vote and the Eurovision Committee did a sleight of hand where they tagged the 'No Israel' vote to a clause for updating the voting system to make it fairer.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog obviously praised the decision, calling it: 'An appreciated gesture of solidarity, brotherhood, and co-operation, symbolising a victory over those who seek to silence Israel and spread hatred' which is another way of saying thank you for not punishing us for the genocidal mass murder and war crimes but there you go, at least he didn't say it was about Antisemitism which is the usual first straw grabbed at by anyone trying to defend the indefensible going on over there.   
I really hope the pressure grows on the British Committee to withdraw and we join Ireland and Spain in the dugout but it is throwing the Contest into turmoil and if a few more were to withdraw, it would have serious ramifications for the format of two semi finals and a grand final as well as financial but as Russia has been asked not to bother due to the invasion of Ukraine, it is hard to see how a nation like Israel and their abhorrent human rights record can be allowed to enter.