When a Plan Means – a Plan!

There used to be a time when a plan meant exactly that – a Plan. Mind you, it’s not very often that we expect such lowly things of politicians. After all, you could reason that if you want a friggin plan then go elect a project manager or planning manager (God forbid) not a lawmaker or PR luvvie or Donald Trump.

The problem, politicians might argue, is not their planning skills which are clearly as visible as the Corona itself – the problem is Coronavirus. You see, if Covid (the barbarian) hadn’t come along and spoilt their party/credibility/skill-at-pretending-to-be-at-work/ability-not-to-give-a-damn-about-anyone-else none of us would have had to experience the so called planning skills in the elusive chase for an exit to lockdown.

But, you see, every plan has a flaw. Germany’s flaw was opening up a little too gingerly in the name of Mercedes and Benz only to see their R rate bounce back as quickly as a little sports car goes nought to sixty. China’s flaw is a city on the border with Russia that keeps flaring up with the Corona like a kid with measles. So where’s Trumps Wall when you need one? Americas flaw in the Donnie plan is that no one seems to pay the slightest bit of attention to it or him or twitter any longer – not even him or he’d learn to spell at least. And who said the wild west was lost? Even South Korea’s much lauded planning was thrown wide open by a few dudes partying their socks off and swapping saliva like betting slips at a live market cock fight in Seouls slinky night spots. And, last but by no means least, it seems the UK’s flashing flaw in the plan is, well, Bozzer.

You see, while we were probably all a little astounded at the opaque nature of most leaders lockdown exit plans it seems that the UK set a new record for coming up with the planets most anticipated, most pre-trumpeted plan ever that, like the best of the best magic tricks, once revealed proved as solid as thin air and as present as a rabbit exiting the hat. The greatest PR trick of all was sold to the great British public – presenting a PR coup of a plan that had absolutely no plan whatsoever. Its kinda genius really.

It would be the equivalent of Churchill announcing that after many months of enduring the WW2 blitz and rationing and lights off at night we could all of a sudden go out a bit more to exercise so long as we stay alert, which would presumably be a motivational training tip to keep us exercising at a faster rate for fear of German invaders pouncing from behind park benches. That way we would stay warmer and require less heating while we stay at home, to save lives, to figure out how to invent the NHS! Cos apparently the best time to build a start-up is in the middle of a crisis.

But, Winnie would then tell us, no worries, because after this blitz dodging phase we should hopefully be OK and so at some other point we might think about venturing back out onto those Normandy beaches to meet up with some other soldiers so long as it’s one at a time and we’re careful who we bring back on the boats unless of course they’re French because apparently they’re great lovers and they cook really well. Both handy traits after you’ve been ravaged by the visible enemy in a murky blue suit and enjoyed quite a few lonely weeks on the Dunkirk beaches.

And after we somehow miraculously win the war thanks to absolutely no planning whatsoever but some really great cigar toting TV appearances (from Winnie) we will probably be able to open everything up again including the hospitality sector because we’ll have to be as hospitable as possible to thank all those people from all those other countries for beating back the marauding, non invisible Nazi folk. Because they will have had a plan (to win the war) (we hope) and so will be much more likely to find us with a map than the other way around. Plus, why wouldn’t they all want to travel to the populist, er popular UK for the weather, beaches and pubs. Well, at least the pubs.

And like that would have been the exact best way to lose WW2 it looks like this latest lack of an exit plan might prove to be the exact best way to lose to Corona. Mind you, at least we’ll all get to stay in and watch the football season restart assuming we can still afford the Sky TV box or they figure out that nationalising the premier league is the plan to beat all plans.

Maybe I’ll just escape to France.

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Are People Already Revolting over Coronavirus Lockdown?

I feel an undercurrent swirling way deep down in the bowels of democracy, a genuine shift in thinking when it comes to our western attitudes towards Covid-19. One of those shifts that are so grass-rooted that Presidents or Prime Ministers remain entirely oblivious to the emerging dissidence. You see, unlike most cabinet level politicians and health officials, I believe that the people in the US and Europe (still including the UK – I think) have moved on.

Yep, we’re cruising past the Corona-rabbit-in-headlight-frozen-to-the-floor-or-tv-or-bed phase and have started the next phase of getting on with life with Corona and have kinda stopped listening to the politicians bang on about curves and ventilators and PPE and lockdown or exit or new norms, second waves, great depressions, social distancing, social gatherings or just plain socially f***ed. We’ve been doing it all long enough to get used to it and for God’s sake its gotten sooooo boring.

Also, lets face it, even our crappy school grade maths skills mean that we, the lowly people, have figured out that the pandemic bell like curve thingy we get served up daily like an upside down bowl of porridge means some time in June we’re gonna start going back to work, school, shops and maybe even the post Corona lockdown holy grail to end all holy grails which is a real friggin bottle of real friggin Corona in a real friggin pub. And for the record I have never in the past said pub lock in when I meant lockdown. Honest.

I just don’t think that we Corona-care as much anymore. We’ve become immune, not yet to Corona, but immune to the endless politico ramblings and stats and rules and generally depressing shit we get served day in and day out on every TV channel, newspaper, website and ad. Yep, we’ve finally become Corona tone deaf and started to figure out our own exit strategies cos if we wait for governments to come up with a real one we’ll be beyond broke and when you’re beyond broke who gives a shit about rules or ramblings or even Corona itself.

Mostly I see it on the roads, in the streets, shops and under-rumblings. I hear it from Dave-the-boss-man at Tesco every frigging week emailing me with how the entire goddamned nation’s back shopping with him cos he’s really cracked this Corona shop-till-you-drop in-store thingy and if you have Corona dropped then no problemo cos he’ll deliver to your door now he’s energiza bunny like gone and gotten a gazillion more delivery slots per minute than UK wide testing kits. Mind you, that’s kind of a low bar.

I also hear it from Tim-I’m-a-pubaholic-Weatherspoons telling us that his pubs will be open from June. And let’s face it no one’s gonna dare disagree with Tim cos he’s got the cheapest beer in town and drinks way too regularly with that other kinda scary guy called Far-arse. But mostly I see it in the divine Corona boredom now emanating from the Donnie and Bozzer show signalling that we really can start getting on with our lives alongside Corona cos they ain’t gonna figure it out for us mostly because they just wanna get back to Mar-a-lago or Chequers or banging other dollies. So, time to get on and off and get up-from-the-couch and start planning our post Corona, avec Corona June existence. And if our eminent Anglo Saxon leaders have confused you to the point of rigor mortis about what to do next just keep it simple and book a one way trip to New Zealand. Cos Jacinda really has got it all figured out.

See ya!

If you enjoy these posts on ‘Surviving’ all I ask is for you to support a vital Climate Change project, called DSP, by giving just £3 or just over $3 per month. To find out more CLICK THIS LINK.