Doing PR For Covid – Restriction Lifting, Giant Flagging, Gesture Making and Stephanie Wong at Act Build Change

Released on Tuesday, July 6th, 2021.

Doing PR For Covid – Restriction Lifting, Giant Flagging, Gesture Making and Stephanie Wong at Act Build Change

If not now, then when? Asks the Prime Minister as though if we waited any longer to open up the country we might actually deal with Covid properly and then he’ll have to actually do some work. Infection rates are high but it’s ok as we’ll learn to live with the virus, you know, by letting people die. Token gestures by the PM that doesn’t do gestures, Batley and Spen by-election and why now isn’t great for everything trying to return to normal. Plus a chat with Stephanie Wong (@StephWong__) at Act Build Change (@actbuildchange) on community organising.

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THIS EPISODE IS TAGGED WITH: • Act Build Change, Affair, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Comedy, Community Organising, Conservatives, coronavirus, corruption, COVID-19, Delta, Dominic Raab, England, EU, Euros, face masks, Flags, George Cross, Germany, Health Secretary, Hospitals, Humour, infections, Jonathan Bartley, July 19th, Keir Starmer, Kim Leadbeater, ko-fi, Labour, Lockdown, London, Long Covid, masks, Michael Gove, NHS, NHS England, parliament, Patreon, podcast, political, politics, Priti Patel, Rachel Reeves, regulations, Resign, restrictions, Sajid Javid, satire, Sausages, self isolation, social distancing, stand-up, Stephanie Wong, The Last Skeptik, Tiernan Douieb, Ukraine, Vaccine, vaccines, virus

Transcript

Ep239

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Hello and welcome to the Partly Political Broadcast, the comedy politics podcast that is always for hope over division and has regularly got in trouble for it when splitting a restaurant bill. I’m Tiernan Douieb and this week as Health Secretary and ‘wanna feel old? This is what Stewie from Family Guy looks like now’ Sajid Javid declares that opening up the country will make us healthier; I feel someone should check if he’s got a job on the side doing PR for Covid. If this was a sci-fi film we were living in, there’d be a 100% chance that it’d be Javid letting everyone know that letting the brain eating aliens eat your brain is actually how you achieve true mental wellbeing, or letting the planet be blown up is the real path to stress free living.

For its 73^rd birthday, the Queen, you know like if Quality Street did a deflated balloon one, is awarding the NHS The George Cross for ‘acts of the greatest heroism in circumstances of extreme danger.’ Its only one George Cross mind to be split between 1.3m NHS staff, so there’s a high chance like with everything else the government will decide that the only way to make up the shortfall is to hire private companies to leap in and add extra medals at extortionate cost. It’s very likely the contract for the extra medals will be handed to the friend of whichever MP allocates it and will never have seen a medal before and if they arrive at all, they’ll be made of something so unhygienic it’s not allowed anywhere near a hospital. I suppose we should be grateful that at 73 the NHS is still working though that I suppose that does fit with Conservative ideology but handing the service a medal for surviving conditions that it wouldn’t have had to deal with if there hadn’t been a decade of austerity and a need to fit in extra time for craftwork lessons on how to make bin bags into PPE, feels a tad galling. It reminds me of computer games that are unnecessarily hard but at the end you just get a slightly longer credit sequence with music that is nothing less than irritating, before an invitation to have another go but on an even harder setting.

The George Cross is of course yet another gesture from the Prime Minister and whoopie cushion violently inserted into a chicken kiev Boris Johnson, you know, the guy who doesn’t do gestures. He doesn’t do them so much that on Friday he stood on a giant England flag outside of Number 10 Downing Street ahead of the football, which was supposedly in support but instead looked like he was just showing everyone how his idiocy has trampled on the country. Sadly, for us, no air ambulances got confused and tried to land on him. While it is hard to imagine what could be worse than Boris Johnson on a large flag like X marks the twat, the George Cross to the NHS is I think, more insulting because it’s being awarded on the same day as the announcements for Covid restriction lifting, as though to say ‘Here health service, just to prove you really are wanted we’re giving you extra work.’ The government are returning to the same old tune of ‘we have to learn to live with this virus’, a phrase they no doubt enjoy because it echoes how many feel about the Conservative government. People die unnecessarily, those with disabilities are unfairly discriminated against as are those in poverty, and yet the bastards keep sticking around so we’ve all begrudgingly carried on because we don’t have a choice. At least Covid isn’t giving jobs to its friends and passing off certain areas of infection to bird flu or Ebola in return for donations.

Hours after the Policing Bill that will take away people’s right to protest was debated in Parliament, Johnson announced that he didn’t want the government to tell people what to do and was scrapping most restrictions on July 19^th. Yes, Britain is now the worst sort of Nanny state, an uncaring one who’d let you put your fingers in the plug socket because you have to learn but also won’t let you cry about it when you do because they’re too busy kissing their boyfriend that shouldn’t be in your house. The Prime Minister said that we have to ask ourselves if we didn’t do this now, then we risk opening things up in the Autumn when the virus has an advantage. Whereas you know, now, we can give it a warm up work in progress tour so it’s really got its game face on come October. ‘If not now, then when?’ Said Johnson. Er I dunno. Maybe when everyone’s had a second jab? Maybe not when our infection rate is much higher than the US, India, France, Germany, or Canada? But then I suppose we do like to be world beating don’t we? And I suppose letting the virus run rampant and invading people is very British colonialism too. But no according to Johnson its now or never, which isn’t really how this works but I suppose if you are a child another few weeks can seem a lifetime. I get the feeling he asks his advisors everyday if it’s his birthday again yet.

The 1m social distancing rule will be scrapped which will be great news for all government ministers who can now grope their aides with impunity and wearing face masks indoors will be voluntary because as we know one thing Brits are really good at just doing stuff out of concern for others benefit without having to be told to. Well except for you know when – just off the top of my head – littering, drinking, shouting, driving, celebrating, walking, or voting. It will now mean we have a more laxed attitude to Coronavirus than celebrities do when taking part in televised singing competitions. Standing next to the Prime Minister at his press conference, Chief Medical Officer and Moon Baby Chris Whitty, expressed a lot more caution while standing next to the king idiot, as he said we are in an increasing epidemic and need to act accordingly to reduce transmission. Which is great except most of England drinks heavily and has just been told from July the 19^th they can go out and lick things if they fancy and only loser boring faces wear masks and don’t want to kill people or something.

Of course, thanks to the NHS’s vaccination program hospitalisations or deaths from Covid aren’t as dire as they could be. But it does feel like rather than let the vaccines do their job, Johnson and pals want it to be as effective as they are and give up before its finished. It’s like they’ve just got bored and decided they’re done with it. It’s not dissimilar to Brexit where no doubt they think they have just got Covid done, and it’ll be in a year’s time when the rest of the world has placed a glass bubble over the entire UK and wrapped biohazard tape around it that the Prime Minister will blame the virus for not playing fair.

The overwhelming message from scientists, you know the ones that the government used to follow but have now got distracted and seen all the shiny possibilities of more money and a quick route to avoiding ever sorting out social care by just letting everyone who needs it die off, those scientists have said that the loosening of restrictions will create variant factories. Perhaps that’s why the new health secretary is so keen to scrap restrictions, as in his mind it might create a new British industrial sector. You know, to replace the steel industry he helped bugger up as Business Secretary.

It is odd that still after the past 19^th months of the pandemic that Javid wrote in his article in top shit rag the Mail on Sunday that Covid is like the flu, when its pretty clear now that it’s not. I mean the currently coronavirus has killed more people than flu does, is more transmissible and works all year round compared to lazy flu only popping by at winter. If any thing, you’d think the Conservatives would be keen to note the distinction on account of how Covid fits its idea of a hard worker that others should try to emulate. You don’t see Covid taking time off work for weddings, sports events or even on national holidays, despite what the government insists. You could question why we should trust any information from a health secretary whose expertise is in being a former banker, but actually the two jobs are very similar in that neither require giving a single shit about the NHS. Luckily even if the ending of restrictions won’t fit in with Covid’s timetable, they do exactly match up with the ending of furlough, and as we all know the virus will stop when it sees people have incentives to work again. London Underground have already announced that Covid related absence from work will be a disciplinary item, but on the plus side it means every tube trip Londoners take could have a bonus extra stop of A&E. Similarly, the restrictions will end as schools in England close for the summer so why would Covid bother infecting any kids when they won’t be able to cause their entire class to self-isolate like 330,000 pupils were last week? It has been reported that some students have worked out how to hack the lateral flow test by pouring orange juice onto it and I say fair play, as its probably saving their teeth from all the sugary liquids that are going on that instead of their mouth, and we do want them healthy right? ‘The double jabs will be a liberator’ said Johnson, but you know one of those liberators who looks around at those imprisoned kids and says nope. Not you. You’ll have to stay here. The German Chancellor and leader of the Mushroom Kingdom Angela Merkal visited the UK in her final official trip in the job. That’s because she’s leaving not because she thought our high Covid rates might mean it’s a cheaper way to do Euthanasia rather than head to Switzerland. During her visit Merkal was asked if Brits who’ve had two jabs would be able to travel to Germany and she said they should be able to, in the foreseeable future. Which I think means she’ll wait until she no longer has to deal with it and can watch her successor fall apart on TV instead as all the major German cities collapse under the newest English variant.

The rest of Merkal’s trip included chat about post-Brexit negotiations, which again, she won’t have to deal with soon so probably just nodded and said yes a lot while dreaming of how nice it’ll be never having to talk to our wittering idiot Prime Minister ever again. One of the big changes in the past week is that the EU have given an extension to the sale of chilled meats from Britain to Northern Ireland, something that the government say they have been consistently clear there should be no barriers of movement to. They must be livid that whoever was in government last December signed a Northern Ireland protocol that specifically said there would be barriers of movement to chilled meats and then kept it up on the government website for all to see. There will now be three more months of sausage parties for all, as well as well as changes for things like farm animals to not need several changes of ear tags between NI and GB, which puts less pressure on sheep and cows working out what outfit to wear that will work with all of them. After September 30^th though the UK government has to have a permanent solution, or it’ll be banned again. So what that means is that come Autumn, undercooked square sausage Lord David Frost, will no doubt make some statements about the EU are anti-sausage and blame them for him having spent three months doing nothing but sitting on a lily pad catching flies. While sausage movement has been extended, the time-period for EU citizens to apply for settled status hasn’t and how now ended. But that is because those in charge of the rules find it much easier to sympathise with ground dead meat packed into skin rather than actual people.

We can only hope that all of this is not a repeat of what we’ve seen before, as the worst thing about repeats of something you don’t like is that you know it doesn’t get any better. One repeat that happened last week that wasn’t so bad though, was Labour winning the Batley and Spen by-election despite polling second throughout the campaign. Though to be fair we should have known it was coming as their candidate’s surname was Leadbeater. New MP Kim who always looks like she’s about to present a BBC2 show about art, won by just 323 votes after a really nasty election lead up where Labour activists had abuse shouted at them and eggs thrown, and not just from their colleagues at party HQ like usually happens. Leadbetter is the sister of former Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox who was murdered by a far-right activist in 2016, so it’s particularly grim to chuck that kind of nasty abuse at her. But she still won, despite all predictions that the Conservatives would take the seat, and distress from Workers Party leader and Penfold’s fallen off the wagon again George Galloway who came third and says he’ll now legally contest the votes, which will likely just mean he’ll spend a lot of money finding out that he still lost. It is very funny that perpetual political sub villain Galloway is the leader of the Worker’s Party yet never seems to be able to get a job anywhere he runs. Labour were of course, ecstatic and leader and Stirflow STF1 3 speed oscillating tower fan Keir Starmer announced ‘Labour’s coming home’ which is odd as it was already a Labour constituency and this time their vote was down by 7.4%, so actually there were home and they’d lost their keys and had to break a window to get back in. Deputy leader and Julia on Sesame Street Angela Rayner was rumoured to be considering a leadership challenge against Starmer had they lost and may still be backed by the left of the party which I think now means about 4 MPs and probably isn’t enough. The one in an old British spy film that always turns out to be working for the enemy and former Secretary of State Peter Mandelson blamed the left of the party as he always does, for them not gaining a bigger win and warned Rayner that they were not her friends, but I’m not sure she should take his advice when his friends have included Russian oligarchs and elite-pedo Jeffrey Epstein.

All indications are that Kim Leadbeater won because she is known as local and understanding of local issues, and that her campaign on the ground was enough to swing Lib Dem and Green voters to go Labour. However for Starmer its actually because Labour stuck to its core values and is rooted in communities, which must be why he’s disbanded the Labour Community Organising Unit in favour of focus groups who tell him to kiss flags and come up with mindblowing, exciting incentives like his new one to ‘Buy British.’ Brilliant Keir, turning the one thing we’ll have to do as Brexit goes full fledge and only gives us the choice between our own produce which has no one to pick it or some ship repair parts from the Faroe Islands to nibble on. Shadow Chancellor and woman who speaks to everyone like they’re a child that has disappointed her by not buying organic apples Rachel Reeves, said they would give more contracts to British businesses. Great, that is what you should do, but is that really the best you can do? Where are you getting your inspiration from? Farmer’s markets and supermarket campaigns from 10 years ago? Is the next big policy going to be eat your five a day or keep calm and carry on? But then maybe that’s best when appealing to only to their dream voters who are people that still wish it was 2006.

The England football team’s big wins in the Euros this week have caused many cringeworthy reactions from politicians, not least Home Secretary and human thigh pinch Priti Patel who tweeted ‘what a performance, what a team, its coming home’. Which is not only an odd statement for someone who you think would be very upset at the idea of more things coming to Britain, but also just weeks before she’d insisted fans have the right to boo England for taking the knee and would probably have deported half of the players grandparents if she’d been in her job several decades ago. Aside from his big flag moment, Johnson tweeted earlier in the week during England’s match against Germany, ‘come on England’ which must make a difference from him usually getting it on an aid or some furniture. There were also several pictures of him celebrating the goals in different areas of No.10. First sitting on the table next to his wife, then in the garden under a marquis. It largely looked like they’d had to put TV’s in every room and area so that when he wanders off like a toddler, eating things off the floor, they could still get a photo when a goal happened. In between his football token gestures, the Prime Minister made a statement for the end of Pride month. Or at least we think it was but he did say ‘this is a country where you can be who you want to be and love whomsoever you want to love’ which does also sound like he’s boasting about his own life.

In other news, Chief Medical Officer and Moon Baby got old Chris Whitty was bothered by some lads in a park who filmed themselves grabbing him and shouting his name a lot, which didn’t seem so much an anti-vaxxers protest but more the sort of thing that only happens in Britain because people are still over excited that they’ve seen someone is from the telly and don’t have the intelligence to realise they exist in real life too. The two men were estate agents from Essex which makes sense as they would have no idea of how much distance personal space should be and would assume being that close to Whitty was still big enough to swing a cat. Johnson referred to the men as thugs, which one of them responded saying he was sad about as he’d voted for the Prime Minister. Of course, he had. You think Johnson would’ve praised them for being so damn British and at the exact side of the culture war he wants to be one. He’s probably just upset they didn’t rugby tackle Chris before going off and trashing a restaurant and that’s why they’ll never be PM.

The Elections Bill was presented to parliament this week which contains provisions for voter ID. Man made entirely of belly button fluff and former Brexit Secretary David Davis warned that the bill will potentially disenfranchise thousands of people. I mean it’s weird to say he’s not wrong and has made a good point, but I guess he does know a lot about making people think there’s point anymore just by his political existence. The name of the bill has changed from Election Integrity Bill to just Elections Bill which suggests that even the government are aware that it has zero integrity anymore.

Face made of eggs Michael Gove is splitting from his wife, a woman who could type a message only in emojis and it’d still manage to be hate speech Sarah Vine, which is a shame as they were truly vile for each other and by them being together it saved someone else having to. Apparently after 20 years of marriage they have drifted apart which will happen if you are human jetsam. They have asked for privacy in the matter, which means everyone should respect it much as Sarah has done with many other public figures personal issues and write about it relentlessly while being as mean as possible. Still, it is far funnier now that Gove has been given the job of stopping the union from breaking up. It’s been discovered that Foreign Secretary and what if someone stretched skin over Skeletor Dominic Raab has had his private mobile number available online for 11 years, much like it was discovered the Prime Minister had too. Yet still no one calls him. Bet he’s even written it on toilet walls too and still had no luck. Speaking of phones, Education Secretary and mewling llama Gavin Williamson wants schools to ban mobile phones. I guess he’s worried that kids might use them to leak national security secrets just like he did.

And lastly, man who will one day definitely run a second-hand book shop Jonathan Bartley is standing down as co-leader of the Green Party after 5 years. I do hope they find a way to recycle him or at least dispose of him in an eco-friendly way.

ADMIN

Greetings ParPolBrods. I hope you are having a good to at least reasonable week. I have been told to self-isolate by my NHS app but only for 2 days which is great as it means if I have had Covid and been infectious I only had 8 days to run around giving it to everyone and can now have a breather. I don’t actually have anywhere to go till Wednesday anyway, but I did get the notification while out and still have to pick my agent up from nursery today so that poses a problem, doesn’t it? Do I just leave her there till Wednesday? And if so, would I have to pay for that? Before any of you are filled with concern, I’ve lateral flow tested all week, you know, just for the japes of making myself retch and sneeze like a morning detox and I’m pretty damn sure I’m not filled with Covids so by the time you’ve heard this I won’t have left my daughter, sorry agent, at her nursery for two days even though they have rabbits and she’d probably much prefer to hang out with them than me. She did stay at her grandparents for a whole night this weekend and I know everyone ridiculous is calling July 19^th Freedom Day but honestly its going to be hard to beat Saturday where I spent some time sitting very still in the quiet on our sofa in my pants. True freedom right there. How are you feeling about restrictions lifting? I am very much of the mindset that it’s a really stupid idea but also want the government to go ahead with it, then have to backtrack on it horribly and look like idiots even though that’d mean I lose a ton of work again and will complain about it everyday. I mean really, it’d be nice to just want a sensible approach but we’re far beyond that so may as well hope for some karmic retribution. I’m definitely going to keep wearing a mask long past it being necessary though that is largely to stop you all from finding out my true identity so I can keep on doing vigilante antics.

Big shout outs this week to Nigel who joined the Patreon and also to Rob who sidelined all possible donation stations by sending something to my Paypal which is acceptable but no, I’m not putting my email on here as I can’t bear the disappointment I’ll get when absolutely no one uses it, not even for scams. If you fancy sponsoring this show with the mere price of a pint, but you know, in a reasonably priced place, or even a tea but again, not a fancy one that tastes of biscuits or something, then you too can do that by joining the Patreon.com/parpolbro. I have changed all the pictures for the different patreon donation packages. You still will get nothing extra but it’ll be nice to look at for like, two mins. Its that sort of anti-marketing that I’m sure will make you all swarm there. You can also do the ko-fi, acast supporter page or find other imaginative ways to send me cash but I’m hoping to stream line it all patreonwards so, well, I don’t have to spend so long listing all the things. Its sheer laziness and little all else.

One other things this week is a listener, who I won’t name, has let me know about a brother and a sister from El Salvador that have been detained by the home office because the home office has ‘lost’ their paperwork despite their solicitor having proof it was received by them. They have now been sent to the grim Yarl’s Wood and are being prepared for deportation which will put them in danger. Basically, it’s yet another heart-breaking example of the Home Office being evil bastards and ruining the lives of lovely people. There is a petition to stop their deportation and I’ll pop a link in the podcast blurb and I’ve tweeted it and put it on the Facebook group too, plus they are asking people to write to their MPs if possible so please help if you can.

Oh and I’ll chat about the Electoral Integrity Bill and the Policing Bill vote next week as, well it wasn’t finishing till too late and I couldn’t be bothered even though its awful. I know you were all wondering weren’t you? Yeah I know.

Ok, on this week’s show I talk to Stephanie Wong at Act Build Change about community organising and in the middle it’s about how wise lifting the restrictions is based on the date. Spoiler: It’s not. No don’t skip past it now, I’ve put effort in looking at numbers I don’t understand. Come on. Humour me.

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHANIE PART 1

It is of regular upset to me that you can’t fix the world by doing sarcastic comments about it on social media before having an argument that doesn’t make sense with a talking flag and it takes up your whole day when you could’ve been doing something productive like eating crisps. Instead, change only happens when people act. No, theatre industry stand down, I know you’ve had a tough year but for once, this isn’t about you. I mean act in terms of doing something, making change, getting off your bum and being the change you want to see as well as other memes you’ve seen on kitchen towels in shops that look like a storage unit for items designed to appeal to no one. But weirdly coloured, passive aggressive background image memes aside, change does be best and most effective when people do being it. While trying to say, have any impact on the government’s feeble climate change measures by tweeting @BorisJohnson to stop releasing CO2 from his mouth really won’t work, action on a community level can actually tackle local problems and actually make things better for the people that live there with their input as to how best to achieve it. Pushing for better bus fare regulation, halting the sell-off of public property, or uniting isolated people might not often make the news but its there the real political change is happening. And let’s be honest, it should make the news but I guess the channels would be worried it might just encourage others and everyone will want a go. But we should and wouldn’t it feel so damn good at actually channel that anger at the state of things at something other than the TV every time a press briefing is on? So, how to start? Where to begin? And no actors, stand down, we don’t need a rousing monologue.

This week I spoke to Stephanie Wong, the founder of Act Build Change an organisation that teaches people how to be community changemakers and how to do it sustainably. They help support people to start pushing for what they need and how to win and basically, do brilliant necessary things by enabling people who need a bit of help to get going. I know recently I had Rhian E Jones on the show talking about the Preston model and community wealth-building, but I thought as a follow up to that it’d be good to talk to Stephanie about how they teach people to get started and what the effects of community action can be. I really enjoyed chatting to her and it was yet another chat I’ve had for this show where I felt a good deal more hopeful about things. So I hope you enjoy. Here’s Stephanie:

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHANIE PART 1:

And we’ll be back with Stephanie in a minute but first….

MIDDLE BIT

It’s tough isn’t it? Because on the one hand I think making sure people don’t die, or as is now more likely get ill possibly with long term conditions that follow is one of the most important things I can do as a fellow human being on this here planet earth. But on the other hand, I do really miss just coughing in everyone’s face while screaming ‘take my germs’ before screaming freedom as I go around a shop with no mask on, or any trousers. I don’t really. And I almost certainly will wear my mask in shops for several more weeks, even if I still skip the trousers. It does seem, based on the polls, that most of the country is more cautious about this week’s announcements, than the social media wailing of supposed freedom fighters whose idea of oppression is occasionally having to put a small bit of cloth on your face. 71% of Brits say masks should be worn on public transport after July 19th, 66% say in shops and public spaces too, and 70% say they feel unsafe in a crowded or unventilated space when people aren’t wearing masks. Which is a relief and also so weird to say out loud when you release if your preference for safety was being cooped up in a small place with everyone wearing masks, then it’s likely the sort of thing you’d have to pay for and have a safe word to get out of.

Let’s pretend to have any sort of balance of views about the changes coming in July 19^th, you know like a news show might by pitting an epidemiologist who has spent their life studying these things and is very worried, against Steve Virus, a giant Covid germ in a suit who insists actually this is all a great idea and he can’t wait to see your sexy lungs. So first, the good things. The good things is the vaccines are definitely working. Hospitalisations are lower than they would be without them and the current amount of infections, as are deaths from Covid. Also, all the age groups that predominantly vote Conservative have had two jabs so that’s all that matters right? Also, it’s the summer supposedly though not really according to the weather and so that means Covid is at a disadvantage because it dies in the sunlight. No wait, sorry, that’s vampires. Sorry, carry on. But you know, we’re outdoors more where Covid doesn’t transmit as effectively. Except when it’s raining lots like it has been and we all have to sit indoors because look Wimbledon’s on and that’s how it works.

But those many, oh wait three, ok one wasn’t really that good. Two things, are countered by the other facts just a weeny bit. There are currently at least 25,000 new cases of Covid being recorded everyday in the UK and two thirds of the UK are still insufficiently protected against the virus either only having one jab or being too young to have any. A single dose of vaccine is only 33% effective in tackling symptoms of the Delta variant and you can still transmit it. Even with two doses AstraZeneca gives you 60% complete effectiveness and Pfizer 88%. Does that mean they don’t work? Hell no, they do but they aren’t Asterix level magic potion because that shits impossible. The doubling time of Covid according to Jim Bowen tribute and Chief Scientific Officer Sir Patrick Vallance is nine days, so that could mean 50-50k cases a day by next week, and that’s with the current restrictions, all of which are going the week after. Plus this is all ignoring the issues of Long Covid, which while I have to resist every urge to pronounce it Cooooooviiiiiiiidddd, it’s actually a pretty horrible lasting effect that causes fatigue, respiratory issues and in some people organ issues and mobility problems. The Imperial College London estimated to affect around 2 million adults, or one in six middle aged adults who had Covid, and one in 13 younger adults. Research shows has affected a lot of children and teenagers too, even if they had little to no symptoms from the original infection. Scientists in Germany have been studying the blood cells of people with long covid and found that the size and stiffness of their red blood cells deviated strongly from those of a person in full health. But you know, not in a cool might give you superpowers sort of way.

So, the concern is that more infections will cause more Long Covid cases, but also potentially be a breeding ground for more variants which could then render the vaccines less effective and suddenly here comes lockdown 4 or maybe we learn to live with the virus by all being part-Covid as we discover that the government are in-fact all giant Covid particles in their most advanced form, yes even though they often don’t seem it. Hopefully all those science people who fully understand all of this are somehow wrong and the impatient morons in charge are right and either the variants will become even less dangerous or somehow, like the Spanish flu, it will eventually just go away. Failing that, I’ll keep all fingers crossed that this Conservative government will instead.

And now back to Stephanie…

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHANIE PART 2

Really enjoyed chatting to Stephanie and should you be one of the many people, who, like me, generally feel livid about everything but have no idea what to do about it, then do check out Act Build Change at actbuildchange.com and Twitter and Facebook. Stephanie’s own twitter is @stephwong__ too.

Only two more shows left before a summer break with guests booked up a plenty, so no need to send me your burning recommendations just yet. Or better still the people you’d like me to interview rather than set fire to. But if there is someone or an issue in particular that you want me to get thinking about for the Autumnal months, then yell type a message to @parpolbro on Twitter, the Partly Political Broadcast Facebook group, the contact page at partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk or email me at partlypoliticalbroadcast@gmail.com. Or you could write it on a giant flag and stand on top of it hoping that it may garner enough attention for me to see it, but chances are higher the wind will change and you’ll end up in France potentially accidentally starting a war. So as always, its probably just best to email isn’t it?

END

And that’s all for this week’s Partly Political Broadcast podcast. Fear not, because it will be back next week in some form or another. I mean that’s no reason not to fear things. There’s tons to be terrified of but you know this podcast’s regularity is not one of them so save that fear for climate change, fascism or werewolves. And while dodging those cheeky lycanthropes don’t forget mid-pelt through the dark forest to let everyone know how much you enjoy this usually werewolf free podcast, join the patreon, or give the show a 5 star review on one of the pod platforms where it resides. I’m sure even the growliest of wolfmen will give you pause for that. Or paws. I don’t know anymore.

Cheers big ears to Acast, my brother the Last Skeptik and Kat Day.

This will be back next week when Boris Johnson announces in his press conference that if we just stop talking about Covid it might go away, while Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance stand next to him in full hazmat suits.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This week’s show was sponsored by Flagging Big Time! Are you worried that people can’t see your flag when hanging it out of your window or sailing your boat into a one person war with the continent because you mixed red bull and apple juice again and now your brain hurts? Come to Flagging Big Time, where we have flags of all sizes from flag size, definitely has opinions I’d be concerned about size, I think there might be a house under there but we haven’t seen it in weeks size, and this flag is so big it now needs its own flag size. Flagging Big Time, all your flagging needs for a flagging country.