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January Ramblings #13 – UK Today in Coronavirus, Latest BREXIT Impacts, Trouble in the British Virgin Islands

UK Today in Coronavirus

Image by Fungai Tichawangana from Pixabay

10 new mass vaccination centers were opened yesterday, coming after 4 million first dose vaccines had been surpassed, with the goal of 15 million of top priority by the middle of February. The new vaccination centers should speed up vaccines even further. Again it was stressed for everyone to continue following the rules.

The several aspects required to begin reducing lockdown measures were also reiterated, which include needing the number of deaths to reduce, needing pressure on the NHS to reduce, needing the vaccine program to be a success and finally there being no new variants of the virus emerge, all of these factors determine what will happen with lockdown measures in the future.

The governments vaccines minister has also said that he wishes to prioritize police officers, shop workers and teachers in the next phase of the vaccine rollout. The next phase is planned to begin from the middle of February if all goes according to plan with meeting the first vaccine target. This wish is of course not set in stone and the final decision will be made by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

Others are still yet to be vaccinated in the next part of the 1st vaccine rollout, after the four main priority groups are completed, these other groups in the first phase include in order of prominence, 65s and over; people between ages 16-65 who have underlying health problems and are at greater risk from the virus; those 60 and over; those 55 and over; and then those 50 and over. Of course this list is subject to be altered by decision of the government, including by factoring in other key workers/sectors.

Other candidates to add to the priority list outside of teachers, police and shop workers include first responders; military personnel; justice system workers; transport workers; and public servants important to the pandemic response.

Latest BREXIT Impacts

Image by Schwoaze from Pixabay

In the continuing fiasco of trade between seafood companies and the EU boiling points are being reached, as many companies have complained they could go under within a matter of days due to long delays related to new border rules.

In an interesting protest to further highlight the frustration, a number of seafood delivery lorries have parked on roads close to Downing Street, the home and office of the Prime Minister and other UK government officials. Some have wanted to reportedly go as far as dumping wasted products on to the streets close to Downing Street as a stronger show of protest, as a way to show what’s being lost.

Boris Johnson in response has promised a £23 million conpensation fund for businesses with genuine buyers on the European continent who face delays through no fault of their own. Although Boris Johnson has also put blame on lack of demand for seafood due to the pandemic, although this seems to have little to do with delays so it is rather odd why this was mentioned at all.

But many seafood companies believe they are not being taken seriously enough and warned that the problems were not merely “teething problems” like the government kept alledging, some such as Dominic Raab have even gone as far to say that the BREXIT Deal is not the problem – despite the problems beginning very soon after the deal went into operation.

Trouble Afoot on the British Virgin Islands

Photo by Henry aw from Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0. Source.

One of Britain’s seldom heard of overseas territories – of which there are many – has reared up into the news, although not for good reasons. An independent inquiry has begun into widespread claims of corruption and fraud that has involved millions of pounds of public money on the island.

The inquiry was ordered by the governor of the islands with backing from the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. One of the rather scandalous claims is that £29 million of money set aside for families struggling during the coronavirus pandemic may have been channeled to political allies. Other allegations include political interference such as in appointments and within the islands criminal justice system, inflated pricing and conflicts of interest. Further are misuse of public money on infrastructure and transportation projects, such as included large sums of money put towards an airline that never actually existed, and a whole million dollars spent on a school fence. Further even there have been claims of political intimidation against media and community leaders.

It is said many attempts had been made to address the concerns by local institutions but that the scope and seriousness of the concerns can no longer solely be addressed via local capacity or investigation.

Investigations like this have happened in the past but they are rare, the last took place on the British Overseas Territory of the Turks and Caicos islands in 2008.


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