the socialists have won an outright majority in the snap portuguese general election. as far as horsemouth understands it this is bad news. the socialists were mainly responsible for volunteering portugal for more austerity measures than the banks and the EU required until they were forced to stop by bloc izquerda and the communists.
'economist filipe garcia, the head of consultants informacao de mercados financeiros in porto, said investors were likely to appreciate costa’s new strong mandate, given the government’s record cutting of the budget deficit.'
it's the two year anniversary of the last of the final countdowns towards brexit.
it's nearly imbolc.
it's two years ago and horsemouth is still tacking blithely towards the pandemic. there was the news from china, the WHO announcement, but the thing that really decided him was the lockdown in the north of italy. soon he will be upping stumps and back to the pavilion, beginning his shutdown (horsemouth is staying in and is advising everyone he knows to do the same) ahead of the government lockdown (the government is telling horsemouth and everyone else to stay in).
many people simply do not even have that option. they are the working class they have to do the work so that society can function (and they can get paid and eat) plague or not. later horsemouth will be doing a fair bit of working from home (and trying to work out how to do that on the fly) but he will still doing some face to face when required. at the end horsemouth and his co-workers will be thanked for their efforts (that should have tipped them off).
and then they will be made redundant.
and society is saved by the internet and by the fact that many jobs in the west are bullshit. despite the best efforts of capitalism to par its costs to the bone (long supply chains, just in time, casualisation) people continue to be fed and entertained and have toilet paper to wipe their arses with.
and the food banks continue their operations.
and at the end of it (if we are at the end of it) capitalism becomes unsure as to whether it needs the workers back in (so they can be properly inculcated and surveilled and forced to purchase coffee and snacks at inflated rates) or whether it is just as happy with them working from home (and then those pesky offices can be sold off).
horsemouth is not convinced (help he just typed COVInceD) that we are at the end of the pandemic
the end of the pandemic is one where it becomes a mere epidemic and people merely die without it disrupting the efficient running of capitalism. but the government clearly is because it is busy dashing about destroying the trust and the mandate needed to run prevention measures. this they are doing on the basis that it's no big loss (er. because clearly they won't be needed again) or that they were never needed and always actually harmful and only old people were ever going to die anyway, or perhaps because that seems the most politically expedient thing to do, when you have been caught breaking lockdown regulations yourself, is to create the impression that they did not matter.
saturday horsemouth plays a gig. he will test on the day before he goes. he will travel down there masked up and then perform (and then travel back masked up). he is unclear how things will be run in the venue. howard (as usual) wants to go on early. martin has them going on late. horsemouth essentially doesn't care. he thinks it's good to be further up the bill.
he thinks if you have ghosts (then you have everything) is a runner. he will probably get in johnny remember me, high rise strutter's ball, something's on your mind and sometimes our dreams (float like anchors). he's just got to sit down and rehearse a range of songs (like the new ones and like all his usual songs just in case).
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