Bluebird Hewitt

I might be thinking too simplistically, but I'd have thought a strain more contagious would likely lead to more hospital admissions due to it spreading quicker.

The likes of the Guardian and the Daily Mirror at least (regardless of what you think of them) do challenge a lot of the stuff they say or do mind. The likes of BBC and Walesonline (the later part of the Mirror group) will barely challenge the Welsh Government, if at all. From the national side, here's the Guardian spinning Stephen Kinnock's breaking of lockdown rules to celebrate Neil Kinnocks birthday (which was before Cummings trip and a good distance as well) by criticising the police for putting up a tweet about it. https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/29/stephen-kinnock-targeted-by-police-for-visiting-father-neil His defence was that he had to deliver necessary supplies (which I quickly checked is about 180 miles between Aberavon and London, a bit of a distance to provide necessary supplies and, coincidently, on Neil's birthday). No action taken by Welsh Government or Labour in general, but both sets immediately demanding Cummings to resign immediately after his travel broke out. Got no issue with calls for Cummings to resign. I just hate the sheer hypocrisy. Add to that the nationalists in Plaid Cymru (who basically prop them up while 'trying' to challenge them) and anything the Tories say or do gets immediately shit down here, that part in bold is not too far from the truth really. I had heard one thing (obviously I can't confirm it either way) whereby a media outlet had ciriticsed a council on something. As the publication is funded by said council, they threatened to pull funding if they did it again. Gething even tried to argue against the Sun (not a bad thing in most circumstances) over the story they mentioned about him breaking his own rules (he did). https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-55349983 Don't be mistaken. The point of all my posts (even if some have gone to extremes) has been to prove my point that ours can literally do whatever they like at a moment's notice (that got passed through the Senedd) and barely anyone bats an eyelid. Anyone criticising them immediately gets shot down as 'you don't care', 'you're a Tory', they did this 'because of the virus' (people actually believed that for the non essential ban, by the way) etc etc.

Not to be outdone by Boris and on the basis of absolutely fuck all once again, Drakeford has decided to bring forward the lockdown. From 28th December to midnight tonight, with the only exception being Christmas Day. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55379237 But naturally, like everything else in Wales, they won't be contested, the media won't challenge like they do with the UK Government and the lapdogs will lap it up once again. Only need the non essential ban back with no preparation time again to round it off.

Boris has announced a press conference for 4pm. Not another lockdown already surely.

Despite having a four nations approach agreed for Christmas and discussions around it, Drakeford has once again decided to be different for no reason by spinning the agreed approach and saying that two households (plus one singular person who lives alone) can meet up for Christmas. This is also to be made law because why the fuck not. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55336452 Good luck enforcing that once again.

Third lockdown announced for Wales from the 28th December. Not sure how long for yet as it's still being announced. Wonder if they'll do the 'non essential' bollocks again like they did during the second lockdown. Waiting to hear that come out again. Also seen that 1 in 5 are testing positive in Wales at present, despite the more cautious approach. EDIT: Now announced as an open dated lockdown and reviewed every three weeks. So locked down for most of 2021 it is then.

I'm a bit lucky in that I have a good chunk of my family nearby, the only exception being my mum in the south west, who I won't be seeing this year. A pain not to see them, but it was expected unfortunately.

Really don't understand our ministers at all (England and Wales). Keep publicly claiming that they understand the concerns and want to make things safe, but when councils decide to do what they feel is safe, they threaten legal action against them? Bloody useless the lot of them really. That part in bold is also interesting as while our cases are going out of control (they won't admit that), schools will remain open even if we're at the highest tier (effectively a lockdown).

The Welsh Government, struggling to deal with the growing case rates. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55302591 Now intimidating some schools with legal threats for closing early due to rising cases. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55307889

Take Two is bad enough, but if this deal goes through, time for a memorial of Codemasters to begin. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-12-14-ea-overtakes-take-two-with-usd1-2bn-offer-for-codemasters

Fuck knows. It's sounding like we're going into a third lockdown immediately after the five day Christmas period as well (despite going out of a two week lockdown firebreak on 9th November) and start a 4 tier approach as well (despite the Welsh Government saying that they wanted a consistent national approach after the firebreak). Also note that just to be different (yet again), we have 4 tiers instead of 3 (England) or 5 (Scotland). The irony is that our lot were telling Boris to ban people from the old tier 3 areas from travelling into Wales, but now we're allowed to travel into England despite continuous rising cases. Now I admit that the public have not helped themselves whatsoever with there general attitude (you only need to see pictures of the high street in Cardiff and other places to see that for Christmas shopping), but when you appear to have no plan, structure or strategy at all (the non essential purchases being banned, pubs, restaurants and cafes not selling alcohol at all and need to close at 6pm as examples) while continuing to blame everyone but themselves (they've blamed the general public a fair amount), only the loyal lapdogs will continue to defend them come what may. Not that it matters, as it'll once again be a Labour run Welsh Government next year due to the lapdogs and kids happy with them for the teacher to give them higher grades.

Can't confirm either way how truthful this chart is, but considering the other week that all bar Wales saw falling cases in the UK, I wouldn't be surprised if this was true.

The fuck is this? Bit late to the party as we got a dodgy stream (sorry, but I'm not paying £25 for this), though will most likely see it get cut off knowing our luck. Hoping for a good fight.

For those interested, Yakuza 3, 4, 5 and 6 are heading to PC and Xbox Gamepass in the new year, meaning that the main series will be fully available on both platforms. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-12-11-yakuza-3-4-5-and-6-confirmed-for-release-on-pc-early-next-year

Today's progress on Yakuza 6. Kiryu Kazuma visits a new place, fights a yakuza and then........... rushes around the area to find milk to give a baby he's looking after, all while having to stop the baby crying occasionally by swinging, lifting up doing 'Upsy Daisy' with the baby and rubbing its head in a mini game. You know, the usual stuff.

Pretty much. Barely used since then as well.

Only one of the four nations to see rising rates. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-55214924 But don't forget, they're doing a great job according to there supporters.

Took this last year and forgot about this topic. Not sure whether Lola is happy with me or not when we put this on her. It was raining in fairness so didn't want her looking like a drowned rat.

Sorry to hear about that.

Pretty much. Many seem to think they've done a great job of this but when you compare us to other areas of the UK (despite the more cautious approach), we're no better off really and at present, I think we have some of the highest rates in the UK at present and while I'm aware that it's us (the public) that have to shoulder a lot of the blame as well, the decision making at the top leaves a lot to be desired (scotch eggs being classed as a 'substantial meal', for example). In regards to making nothing on beer, I'm not too sure myself but wouldn't be surprised if you're right. Regardless, you most likely wouldn't go to a pub if you couldn't have a pint at all anyway, losing any sales. As for these restrictions, apparently two weeks but I can easily see it being extended into the new year (imagine the amount of people being out for a piss up if it was finished on the 18th December). Half the time, I think they just add restrictions or piss around just to look like they're doing something. I admittedly do go onto a bit of a rant and rave (others have done against the UK Government many times, rightly or wrongly, so only fair I get mine in as well ).

Not sure if you've heard, but due to our positive cases increasing since the firebreak ended (the past 24 hours saw 1,645 new cases and 24 deaths), as of 6pm yesterday, pubs, restaurants and cafes throughout Wales (not locally like England and Scotland, as that's far too much work for our lot to do) can't sell alcohol at all for at least two weeks (which will most likely be extended), while all pubscafes and restaurants must close at 6pm. So if you want a meal out in the evening, you're fucked. If you own a 'wet' pub, there's no point in reopening as all you can serve is soft drinks. As this applies to all of Wales, those in low infection areas also have to adhere to this. Of course, the Welsh Labour lapdogs are more than happy to defend this in the same way they were happy to defend the non essential bollocks from last month (which, ironically, is a tad hypocritical, seeing as supermarkets and off licenses can serve alcohol still until 10pm, which Drakeford said that there's no point enforcing it for 6pm as people will stock up regardless. So much for 'interest of fairness' like he said before). Getting more and more ridiculous by the day, but it won't matter as the lapdogs in Wales will happily vote them back in next year regardless to continue the endless circle of shite. EDIT: I forgot to mention that there are no votes on this either. Can't even be debated upon in the Senedd until a week or two after they've come into force. Ridiculous.

As the Welsh Government need to show that they're doing something after the failure of their firebreak (rates have been going up since it ended and they themselves even said to wait 2-3 weeks to see results) and targeting hospitality once again (as it's an easy target), pubs, restaurants and cafes in Wales (yes, even in low infection rate areas, as doing tiers or localised rules is far too hard for them to do after previous failures, especially as this is basically copying Scotland once again) will be banned from serving alcohol after 6pm (though will allow takeaway services after 6pm for food or non alcoholic drinks), while indoor entertainment centres such as cinemas, bowling alleys, bingo halls, museums and galleries (you know, those places that have barely seen any cases) will shut. While he's still announcing it, I wouldn't be surprised if non essential retail will be allowed to stay open, where most people will be crammed and getting Christmas shopping. £340m will be provided to firms affected by this, which once again is next to near fuck all for the vast majority. I haven't seen or heard anything yet, but I did hear rumours that they may postpone the Welsh elections as well. Pretty sure Trump got criticised for suggesting that, but there we go. We're going to be so fucked by the end of this, England would be happy to see the back of us really.

At the time, I was doing a series playthrough (from the first game up to the third) and while it wasn't too bad, I started to feel fatigue from it, especially after playing Revelations (didn't like it, though at least it made me play it more stealthily thanks to the terrible tower defence game) and three (Connor was a whiney cock). Of the five I played, I only really liked the second and Brotherhood, which probably didn't help.

Judging by how quick I go these days, probably take me to 2022 as well. There's part of me that wants to go back to them, but at the same time I'm so far behind that I really can't be arsed either. Haven't played any of them since Black Flag.

Ah ok, fair enough. Ironically from what I said before, I never knew Dynasty Warriors was based on anything until about the 4th game due to the back story provided. Got Yakuza 6 now so it's time to start that, though I might have gone a tad over the top this week. Ordered both God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn just now, as well as downloading the Spyro trilogy from the PS Store. Chuck the possibility of Crash 4 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 11 as well for Christmas and I might be sorted for a while.