70 Glorious Years

Congratulations to Her Majesty The Queen on her Platinum Jubilee. No monarch has reigned for as long and I doubt any other will. The most notable thing though, is her exemplary service to the country and the Commonwealth. I did a bit of work once on corporate culture which made me realise what a big impact the monarch has on our culture by leading by example, highlighting good causes / positive actions and acknowledging / rewarding them through honours / invites / visits. We take it for granted that the Queen performs her role to such a high standard, but history (and another current leader!) shows us how different that could have been. She is also expert in the use of ‘soft power’. My very first memory is of waving a union flag as a toddler as the Queen’s car passed on the way to visit Wolverton Works where the Royal Train was built / kept and virtually everyone in my town worked. The photo is of two commemorative coins struck by the Royal Mint to celebrate. 

Day 692 / Day 11 Post Plan B (for my record only)
I read that over 1,000 bounce back loans have been given to companies who weren’t trading when the pandemic started - presumably a very large number of which were to companies incorporated to commit Covid fraud. I thought I’d look at the data re people in hospital in mechanical ventilation beds. The highest no. was 4,077 on 24th Jan 2021 with Alpha and few vaccinated; on 4th Nov 2021 with Delta and most having 2 jabs there were 1,034; and today despite many more people infected with Covid, there are 478 with Omicron and the majority having had booster jabs.