Back to the Into The 21st Century calendar
The year began and ended with the COVID–19 pandemic in the spotlight. At the start of the year infections were growing. The government didn't
seem to know how to handle things as schools re–opened for just one day at the start of January and then shut till Easter.
However, there was good news as a vaccination programme began, starting with the oldest and most vulnerable and then moving through the age groups,
oldest first. By July most restrictions had been removed. The vaccine didn't necessarily stop you from catching COVID but it did reduce the effects of the disease,
meaning there were far fewer people being admitted to hospital.
Infections toward the end of the year were still high but the big story about COVID by this time was to have a major effect for some months to come
and demonstrated the power of the media. On 12 December the Daily Mirror published a leaked photo of the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, at a virtual Christmas
quiz in Downing Street on 15 December 2020. He was shown sitting with two colleagues, when London was under COVID lockdown rules that banned household mixing.
Then a few days later the Guardian published a photo of Boris Johnson,
his wife, and 17 staff members in the Downing Street garden with cheese and wine in May 2020, at a time when large social gatherings were banned due to COVID-19.
The Prime Minister's spokesperson told the newspaper that the photo showed a work meeting, not a social event. Watch this space or to be more precise, next year's
space.
Earlier in the year, on 9 April, Buckingham Palace announced the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband of the Queen, at the age of 99.
There are many places where you can read more about his life and his service to our country. His funeral took place at Windsor Castle a few days later and, as
social restrictions were in place, it was limited to 30 guests, with social distancing and mask wearing inside St George's Chapel. In view of what happened later
in the year in Downing Street there was a very sad picture of the Queen, wearing a face mask and sitting all on her own, obeying the restrictions.
The other big event of the year was a climate conference, called COP26 (COP standing for Conference of the Parties), hosted by the UK in Glasgow and attended by nearly all countries. The fact that the climate
is changing and something needs to be done urgently was further shown by the "Climate change in the United Kingdom" report from the Met Office, which showed that 2020
was the third warmest, fifth wettest and eighth sunniest year on record. The report said that this and the trend since 1990 showed climate change was already
happening in the UK. What's more the UK experienced its second warmest March day on record in 2021, with temperatures of 24.5 °C (76. 1°F) in Kew Gardens,
only beaten by 1968.
But back to that conference and, at the end, Boris Johnson appeared at Downing Street to claim a "game–changing agreement". But was
he correct? To me, and here you are getting my opinion, it all seemed a bit like a children's party for big wigs, where they all played pass the emissions, leaders
bluff, musical statutes and then sang "Leaving on a jet plane". The leaders all made lots of pledges and announcements. The best one was that those who
don't produce much coal have agreed to produce even less. The countries who produce most of the coal didn't sign up to that.
The buzz word was net-zero. This means basically for everything bad you do to harm the environment now, you will do something good that may not have
any effect for about 30 years, if then. This has brought the wonderful news that Greta Thunberg has promised that she has decided to go net-zero on swear words and
bad language. In the event that she should say something inappropriate, she will pledge to compensate that by saying something nice. Now there's someone who deals
in the real world.
I wish to follow this ground-breaking idea. If I write anything nasty about any politician or world leader I will compensate that by saying something
nice about me or get some else to say something nice about me (this is inline with the idea that you can reduce your carbon output by no longer producing the goods
that result in carbon emissions yourself but buy them from another country).
You could not make this up. Oh, and thousands of young people marched through Glasgow and there were hardly any problems. It was peaceful and very
poignant. What a beautiful week for young people power
I used to think politicians must think us, the general public, to be stupid when they lied so much about things. I now know that it is in fact politicians
who are stupid as they seem to think they are not lying but are genuinely pleased with what they achieve. COP 26 was a total, complete, abject failure. Anyone,
with the brain of a demented flea with Alzheimers, knows that in order to save our planet something needs to be done now. In fact anyone with half the brain of a
demented flea with Alzheimers knows something should have been done 6 years ago at the latest.
And yet all COP 26 did was to produce a pact, an agreement, which basically said nothing except that next year countries must show how they are achieving
their pledges which I thought was what they were supposed to show this year.
Countries agreed to stop deforestation (the cutting down of lots of trees) but trees alone cannot solve our crisis. It is the carbon and methane emissions that must be stopped or radically
reduced NOW. The major economies of the world have promised that by 2023 they will do what they promised they would do in 2009. I wouldn't hold your breath for 2023.
The poorer countries of this world do not need to cut their carbon emissions because the amount they produce is really insignificant. They don't need our
money to help them develop electric heat pumps; they need it to produce defences against rising sea levels, cope with more frequent violent weather and deal with the
resultant crop failures (or should that read COP failures).
My generation and the one below it are pathetic. They come to a climate conference knowing air travel is a polluter and fly around the UK. We have trains.
Before COP26 countries had pledged to reduce greenhouse gases by 52.4 gigatonnes. After COP26 the pledges are for a reduction of 41.9 gigatonnes. To keep global
warming to 1.5°C we need to reduce them to at least 26.6. We are nowhere near that.
The only hope for this planet, the only good thing to come out of this wasted fortnight, was that out there there are a whole bunch of young people who
realise the seriousness of it all, who speak out about it and who are getting bloody angry. You all have my support. Can I suggest you all join them.
A few other snippets from the year which will almost certainly continue to future years. The city of Liverpool was stripped of its
UNESCO World Heritage status in July as it had developed and changed the area along the city's waterfront. Heritage means something from the past so alter it and it is
no longer a heritage was the message.
On 24 November an inflatable dinghy, like the one in the photo below, carrying 30 migrants capsized while attempting to reach the UK from France, resulting in 27 deaths and one missing.
The victims included a pregnant woman and three children. The incident was the deadliest of its kind on record. The problem is that people fleeing their own dangerous
countries want to find somewhere safe and the UK is seen as safe. They have already crossed into other countries but can do that overland, To reach the UK they need
to cross the English channel. That means a boat or being hidden in a lorry. There are people who will charge money to get these people to the UK, making a fortune for
themselves while risking other lives. I think that, as they can't charge for them to walk from say Germany to France they will be encouraging people to go to England,
probably saying how much better it is. Don't forget most of these asylum seekers, as they are called, don't speak English so are easily convinced. It is a horrible,
inhuman trade but little seems to be able to be done about. We may talk more about this next year. By the way an asylum seeker, according to the dictionary, means someoone
looking for protection or safety, especially that given by a government, to people who have been forced to leave their own countries for their safety or because of war.
Finally on 30 November 2021 Barbados became a Republic, meaning the Queen is no longer its head of state. The country will, however, remain part of the Commonwealth of Nations. Will some others follow?
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