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01/02/2021
A sea shanty, sung
in laundry basket boats, with
tennis racquet oars.
A crop of snowdrops:
pearl perfect tears, against a
swamp of rotten leaves.
Evan Rachel Wood
joins four others accusing
Manson of abuse.
02/02/2021
Hatewear, Sadwear, I
don’t care about today’s wear:
not going ‘out there’.
Kushner for Peace Prize!?
Trump defender nominates
scandal-tainted brat.
Will missed schooling cost
in future earnings, without
radical catch-up?
02/02/2021
Almost half of Heads
consider leaving teaching
after pandemic.
Henry VIII clause
to be challenged in court, in
row over State Aid.
Climate action sounds
a death knell for era of
denialism.
03/02/21
Thornberry had more balls,
but the best choices are not
party policy.
Labour’s young members
joined for Corbyn and got a
New Labour Blairite.
Things fall apart, the
centre cannot hold: Labour
under Keir Starmer.
Pressure on Sunak:
inflict mass unemployment
or extend furlough.
03/02/2021
Ryan Air advert
encouraging people to
just ‘jab and go’ banned.
04/02/21
When boredom scrolling
escalates into twenty
pairs of Nordic Socks.
Dreading, dreading my
am dentist appointment:
cost and the terror.
05/02/21
House votes to remove
Republican extremist
from committee roles.
Fox network lurches
further to the right to win
‘hard-edge’ Trump faction.
School meals: DfE
‘unconcerned’ at contractor’s
large profit margins.
06/02/21
Five-year-old at the
making-up-jokes stage. Bring help,
or gin for courage.
07/02/21
Small Thing scales the bed:
“Mum, are you getting up yet?”
I croak for coffee.
08/02/21
Shoots of green between
the last year’s dead. Spires of hope
for a better year.
The biscuit judging
commences in chaos of
crumbs and calories.
Rice’s Whale confirmed
as new, already threatened
species, off South Coast.
09/02/21
Of front-line nurses,
15 percent still without
vaccine protection.
‘Queen’s Consent’ used to
lobby and veto changes
that don’t serve the crown.
09/02/21
Trump impeachment trial
begins over ‘fight like hell’
tweeted rally cry.
09/02/21
Older women make
people anxious. Mary Beard
on Modern Witches.
10/02/21
My morning coffee
haiku ritual scuppered by
a quiet news day.
Texas lawyer stuck
on Zoom filter, informs Judge
he is not a cat.
Divided Senate
rules that impeachment trial is
constitutional.
Open secret of
family abuse exposes
France’s Great and Good.
11/02/21
Doomed by his own words:
Trump’s twitter archives in court
on day two of trial.
Plans afoot to seize
ministerial control
over NHS.
Tory wrecking ball:
would you trust Toxic Tigger
with our Health Service?
12/02/21
‘Cabin Fever’: a
romaticisation of
current living space.
Cumbria coalmine:
plans causing widespread outrage
now under review.
The US deserves
emphatic rejection of
Trump-style politics.
13/02/21
Impeachment ‘show’ trial
not expected to succeed,
though still symbolic.
Conclusion of trial
delayed by call to summon
witnesses to stand.
Witness vote vetoed
by deal, as impeachment trial
brings final vote near.
What is wrong in law,
when justice cannot be served?
A plague on his house.
13/02/21
Don’t resuscitate
order imposed on Covid
special needs patients.
A mass culling of
UK’s ‘undesirables’
under the radar.
Furtive; deliberate.
Ableist policy leaves
vulnerable to die.
Coldest temperatures
in 65 years, with more
ice and snow forecast.
Government pushing
for reopening against
scientists’ advice.
14/02/21
Framing Britney Spears:
a consummate performer
exploited by men.
14/02/21
Trump acquitted as
Republican Senators
vote on party lines.
‘White Supremacy
Won Today.’ Critics condemn
racist acquittal.
RINOS under threat:
dissenting Republicans
face Trumpist backlash.
15/02/21
Quarantine hotels
have failed at the first hurdle
say the Unions.
London’s bridges are
falling down. Hammersmith Bridge
is one of many.
Expert overlooked
so Johnson’s mate could chair the
Office for Students.
17/02/21
Bannon believed Trump
to have dementia early
in first term campaign.
Abducted; vanished.
Dubai’s Princesses without
Global protection.
He owns our horses
and our land. The Rich close ranks
in ring of silence.
When women mean less
than diplomatic friendships,
we are compromised.
18/02/21
On Monique Roffey’s
The Mermaid of Black Conch: an
absolute must-read.
Tapas bar revamp
uncovers 12th-century
Islamic bathhouse.
Covid infections
spreading fastest among young
as schools plan return.
Mink farms: a Covid
risk to humans and wildlife
warns EU experts.
18/02/21
For ‘ninja’ play, I
order four balaclavas.
Big Brother’s alarmed.
Fell over a log,
rolled in the mud, and grumbled
the whole way back home.
19/02/21
Uber drivers now
classed as workers in law, as
rights are recognised.
Texan Senator
flees to warmer climes as his
constituents freeze.
Perseverance lands
on Mars, to gather data
and collect samples.
Colour images
from space, captured by Nasa
rover on day one.
20/02/21
High Court rules Hancock’s
actions unlawful over
unpublished contracts.
No transparency
over how vast quantities
of money was spent.
21/02/21
Puppet Press: Broad sheets
and BBC hide Tory
law-breaking story;
with convenient,
Celebrity Royal, not-
really-news story.
(Harry and Meghan,
no longer working members
of Royal Family.)
Emergency law:
accountability nil,
corruption green light.
Teflon coated, well
protected, white-collar crime
goes undetected.
22/02/21
Neighbour’s cat renamed
Crookshanks and Marmaduke by
my covetous kids.
When dystopian
fiction feels just like the world
outside the front door.
Labour MP’s to
maintain ‘radio-silence’
over Brexit mess.
Dismay at orders
from high command, to ignore
the White Elephant.
24/02/21
Paltry, when shared out
school by school. Sum disclosed to
bridge attainment gap.
England’s teachers on
‘Big Bang’ reopening, speak
of impending doom.
UK Covid jabs
fall by a third, as Hancock
blames supply pressure.
Drakeford worried by
Johnson’s gung-ho approach to
lifting restrictions.
24/02/21
Schools, clubs, holidays,
all back on by end of June,
Johnson’s latest claim.
“Brexit, a machine
to generate perpetual
grievance.” Rafael Behr.
26/02/21
Dystopic fiction:
more apposite and current
than ever before.
On Friday nights, their
virtual social life demands
rooms and computers.
When I want pizza,
the fridge offers wilted greens
and nuclear brie.
The snap, crackle, pop
of yet more cereal, in
its final death-throws.
‘Hollow legs’ doesn’t
even begin to explain
where all the food goes.
On Friday, Sally
had five packets of biscuits.
Guess what happens next.
I’d blame the cats, but
their lack of opposable
thumbs means it’s Spencer.
28/02/21
Having a sad day
today. Missing people made
far away by this.
Eating standing up,
pouring wine by 5 pm,
surviving lockdown.
Back to when Spotty
was Super Ted’s side-kick, not
a physical state.
Want to see my Mum.
This has gone on for so long.
Thought I was okay.
Written by Sally Jones
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