horsemouth calls for unity

sylvain sylvain has died. horsemouth likes the photos of him. he's 69 he's fat. he's old. he's got a guitar. he looks happy to be doing what he does. he likes the earlier photos of him (he's very stylish). 

“my best friend for so many years, I can still remember the first time I saw him bop into the rehearsal space/bicycle shop with his carpetbag and guitar straight from the plane after having been deported from amsterdam, I instantly loved him,” david johansen. 

it's the morning. horsemouth is up. he's turned the radiator off (it was too hot). 

now what would horsemouth (the armchair general) be saying I told you so about? 

'england is like some stricken beast too stupid to know it is dead' - william burroughs. 

well brexit probably. we are in the foothills of the 'teething problems' and once we are over those we are into the long term disadvantages that the additional paperwork and costs will bring. the fish are rotting on the piers, there's a border in the irish sea, supermarket shelves in northern ireland are emptying, the dutch customs are confiscating lorry driver's ham sandwiches (in a friendly humorous way you understand, 'welcome to brexit' they go). 

fortunately for the government the problems with brexit are hidden by the deathtoll from covid. 

phew thank fuck for that they must be going. 

so covid.  the last time horsemouth checked the deathtoll was about 1500 a day and it still hadn't hit top. having been in humanity for a while the virus is starting to pop out some interesting mutations. if we are lucky the vaccines work against them all. and if we aren't lucky they don't. horsemouth guesses we are nowhere  near global top,

the government are plotting major reforms  to the NHS having discovered they love it they are going to destroy it in order to save it (oh and no pay rise for the nurses and doctors). 

uk top for new infections showing up at hospital is probably two weeks away at best (so feb 1st?) and thereafter two weeks later (feb 15th) peak death. 

horsemouth doesn't think you did this to yourselves people. no. he blames the government. repeatedly locking down too late. rinsing its trust with you. failing to set up a working track and trace. and generally dicking around getting you to eat out to help out and back to school and back to work . they've put nadhim zadhawi  in charge of vaccinations - who if horsemouth remembers correctly was the education secretary taken out by an educational contractor to the dinner of the presidents where even hardened showgirls were horrified by the shoddy, sleazy behaviour of the VIPs. (horsemouth doesn't expect much from him). 

however, at some point, somewhere beyond the peak, he expects enough old people to have been vaccinated for the death figures to start properly dropping off. (at which point the government will try and get us all back to work). 

and in other distractions. they have started the hunting down and imprisoning jamiroquai and the other bison who rampaged through capitol hill. being a sacred beast  jamiroquai requires organic food and lo, no white privilege involved, a judge has granted it him. the rioters turn out to be off duty cops and ex and serving military people, one brought a tazer to the party, another ziplock ties, they can't have been thinking of kidnapping anybody can they? there seems to be footage of republican staffers opening side doors, republican representatives texting where their colleagues are, and tales of panic buttons being removed from key senators offices. there is, to quote bob hoskins in the long good friday, 'the stench of disloyalty' about proceedings. 

whether that will be enough for republican lawmakers to actually impeach trump or not is another matter. or maybe it will be enough for them to sort of repudiate the insurrection and make a few calls for unity.