1984

"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. ... Power is not a means, it is an end. ... The object of power is power. ... There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party."

On both side of the Atlantic, the parties in power are trying to grab yet more power. At least in the UK there's not much evidence they know what to do with the new powers they crave, other than to have it for power's sake. What we can say so far is that people like Cummings having unfettered power has shown how important scrutiny is, and how unsuited to being in power, any kind of power he and Vote Leave actually are.

Latest news is over here that regulatory jobs in the media are being offered to people like Paul Dacre, someone who hates the BBC. The main reason for these stories is, for the same reason as in the US, it triggers the Libs. That is where we are, and yet at the same time, the framework of our democracy, this time the state broadcaster is under threat because it is perceived as being too left wing, yet Brexit having happened and Nigel being on programs like Question time more times than anyone else.

Students at Manchester University have been told this weekend that they are forbidden, by law, to leave their rooms to either mix, go shopping, go to lectures, anything, under the threat of being arrested and fined.

Only it seems that none of the 53 or 54 pieces of emergency legislation issued as SIs actually have such powers, and that the University might actually be breaking the law themselves, as there is no restriction, let alone law, that forbids a person, even if tested positive, from travelling, let alone be a prisoner in their room.

@AdamWagner1 has been keeping track of the legislation passed, keeps them in a spreadsheet with all the clauses: he seems to be the only person in the country doing this, keeping track of what might and might not be against regulations or against the law. He says that the e mail sent to students: "This message would not comply with the statutory requirements as it does not state the legal basis of the lockdown. If this was the only message received by students I don’t see how they have been lawfully locked down (even if they could be)" in that it does not state which legislation has to be complied with. They have to self-isolate for 14 days.

Meanwhile, Sky Sports are reporting: "A Test and Trace source says the speed of spread in schools came as a surprise." "Schools have been a disaster. The amount of calls, volume of cases. Within only days of schools going back... It swamped health protection and risked other stuff being missed."

And Brexit ploughs on with more talks between the UK and EU this week, though there is talk of a breakthrough, which will probably been Johnson blinking and agreeing to what he has currently said is unacceptable. But we have heard that before.

The Government hasn't the bandwidth or required skills to cope with one crisis at a time, they have at least four: COVID, Brexit, war on Civil Service and the collapse of the legal system.