I received new bank cards in the post recently with the instruction to sign on the back and proceed to cut up my old ones.  Of course, that pre-empted the usual time-consuming search for that elusive black biro one keeps for just this – and other boring forms such as those required for passport and driving licence renewal.  Just me?  No surprise.   I know, everything is done online now but I still look to avoid it.  Anyway, found the pen – surprisingly, not dry – and squeezed my name into the miniscule box.  Look, I have an artistic bent to my signature which requires a freedom of flow significantly stunted by that miniscule box!  Isn’t it funny, though, that it matters what one’s signature looks like on these cards?  As with the inevitably awful passport photos which, somehow, always end up depicting some form of jail-breaker, one strives to autograph the perfect hand but … no matter.  The box is too darn small!

What happens when I, inevitably, go double-barrelled?  Then, I will be faced with the dilemma of which name to leave out.  Correction, no dilemma!  Excellent.  Now, to the point of the signature?  I mean, there is none.  Everything is contactless, these days, pinned or ordered online.  The signature is all but redundant and, let’s face it, security is such, now, that if somebody happens to steal or, accidentally, come into possession of one’s card, he/she can have a blow out here, there and everywhere!  £100 in one shop, and the next, and the next after that and … if the owner of the missing card is unaware, who knows the extent of the tab which may be accrued.  What’s wrong with a good old-fashioned cheque book and pen?   I think it died with Terry.

It struck me that most are, actually, unaware of how controlled we already are.  The word ‘app’ only serves to make me come out in a cold sweat but, realistically, it has only reached fledgling status.  Full capacity is about to hit with the unleashed mandatory Covid-19 passports set to impinge on every aspect of our lives.  Meanwhile, the displaying of robotic tendencies – conducive to such control – has abound for some time.  Google maps, step count, calorie count, blood pressure monitoring, everything requires an app.  More personal information punched into one’s phone, rapidly – and voluntarily – expanding one’s personal profile on the worldwide web!  God knows the hands it may slip into and, yet, it has become part of life – for most.  Not a question.  Not a thought.  Thus, it is that, not surprisingly, the Government thought the mandatory Covid passport would slip into use relatively unopposed.  Just another app on the device which contains, basically, our lives!  Programming successful.  Addiction complete.

Or is it?  There is dissention in the ranks.  Some are malfunctioning, refusing to comply.  Like stairs to a Dalek, it is one step too many and the argument for its necessity is getting more and more difficult to uphold.  Only today, Professor Allyson Pollock – a clinical professor of public health at Newcastle University and an ex-member of independent Covid advisory panel, SAGE – is reported to have called on the Scottish Government to scrap its ‘ridiculous and discriminatory’ vaccine passport scheme after a study in The Lancet found that double-jabbed people are just as likely to pass on Covid-19: ‘Even if you’re vaccinated, you may well become infected or re-infected and you may also transmit the virus.  So, passports make no sense.’

There’s the rub!  That video, which went viral, of the distraught care worker in floods of tears having been forced to resign from a job she loved, leaving residents she loved – also in tears – because she would not be coerced into having the vaccine … all for nothing!  She is no more likely to transmit the virus to her elderly charges than a fellow employee who has been vaccinated.  Moreover, isn’t it correct that the residents, themselves, have been double-jabbed?  Protected?  So, if there is a problem, what is that saying about the efficacy of the vaccine?  Rhetorical, of course.

There is no argument anymore.  Independent ‘rogue’ scientists and medical experts are slipping through the defences and telling the truth.  Mandatory vaccine passports are not viable and that was before the mention of boosters!  What?  Within the space of six months, following two doses, immunity has diminished to the extent that necessitates a third?  What’s more, regardless of the origin of doses one and two, dose three will be Pfizer.  Don’t worry, it should be ok!  Long-term data?  Well, once again, there is none.  There can be none.  Sure it will be fine but … if it’s not, neither the manufacturers nor those responsible for administration are liable.  Oh, and the Emergency Legislation is still in place both to enable the continued rollout of an unlicensed ‘vaccination’ and to enable governments to enforce, quite frankly, anything they want!  Any bets on another booster and another and another?  How could a Covid passport possibly work?  I believe those who have been double-jabbed and refuse to have the booster are to have their status ‘demoted’ to that of the unvaccinated.  Now, that is low!

Change of subject.  How about something completely different such as the brain capacity of bluebottles?  Recently, while getting ready for bed – and, remember, it has been freezing – I opened one of my windows a miniscule amount for a miniscule amount of time.  Who knew I was being stalked by a bluebottle and who knew it could find that tiny space, let alone squeeze through it!  Anyway, to work.  Open both windows wide and direct it through gaping space.  That should do it.  Into bed, all cosy, glasses on, book to hand and … buzzzzzzzz!  I don’t believe it!  Book down, glasses off, climb out, open windows wide and freeze.  All quiet.  Back into bed with note to self never to open the window at night again!  Too late.  Buzzzzzzzz!  They have multiplied in the time it took me to read one sentence – a scientific phenomenon!  Need I go on.  It was a torturous half hour – in the early hours – I shall never get back.  My questions consist of ‘Why?’; ‘The brain capacity of a bluebottle?’ and ‘The possibility of lasso-ing said insect becoming an olympic sport?’.  Answers on a postcard, please or, better still, why don’t we ask Richie?!

Finally, here’s a thought to end with …

Insomnia sharpens your maths skills because you spend all night calculating how much sleep you’ll get if you’re able to fall asleep ‘right now’!’

Anonymous

Who hasn’t been there?

This is Trish, signing off.