I go over a number of news stories that interest me from the just-gone weekend and also some from today. This one includes UK coronavirus news, the Dutch Government collapse and the outcome of the Uganda election.

1. 1/7
Post author By Charlie January 18, 2021
January Ramblings #12 – UK Today in Coronavirus,
Dutch Government Collapse and Uganda Election
Outcome
theweeklyrambler.com/january-ramblings-12-uk-today-in-coronavirus-dutch-government-collapse-and-uganda-
election-outcome/
UK Today in Coronavirus
Image by mvolz from Pixabay
From today the UK has made the move of closing all travel corridors in a further bid to
manage massive pressures on the NHS currently due to the ongoing pandemic and also as
a further step of protecting vaccine rollout as well as worries over new variants of the
virus that are continually popping up in various areas of the world, this will last until at
least 15th February. Everyone who arrives in the UK must now self-isolate for up to 10-
days. Everyone travelling into the country from today will also need to have had a
negative COVID-19 test before arrival.
Travel corridors were introduced as a way to help struggling airlines keep in some-sort of
operation during the pandemic, but now with them being all temporarily closed the
aviation industry is expected to take another big hit.

2. 2/7
As pressures mount on the NHS there have been calls for emergency legislation to protect
medics, nurses and doctors from criminal investigations over “unlawful killings” due to
decisions made over coronavirus treatment, as current guidance is not adequate for the
current crisis the NHS is under.
In perhaps quite a concerning statement, Sky News has reported that a doctor treating
COVID-19 patients has said that those affected by the virus are younger than in the
previous year of the pandemic and also generally sicker as well. It will be interesting to see
as time goes on through this year of the pandemic if this pattern repeats out across the
country, if so it could mean that new strains of the coronavirus are effecting people a bit
more severely and at different ages more so than before. Of course much more evidence is
first required to make a full determination on this. But the signs are nonetheless worrying
and goes to show more than ever why following coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns at
this time are more important than ever.
In a fairly divisive move the Luton council closed three of its vaccination centers
temporarily after snowfall in the area, although many have stated on social media that
they believe it was an over-reaction to only very small amounts of snow. Such moves can
also have an adding impact to slowing down the progress towards the 15 million vaccine
goal by the middle of February. It was not long before the Luton council decided to
reverse its decision and reopen the centers, but it is another observance of possible
unforseen things that can get in the way of the vaccine rollout and goal.
Meanwhile as schools and other places of education continue to be closed, charities have
expressed concern over some of the most disadvantaged pupils educational prospects
being worst effected by it and that as much as a decade of progress could be wiped out.
Many disadvantaged pupils believe they won’t get the grades they deserve after exams
were scrapped. School closures have also had a strong impact on the mental health of
pupils.
Those who are disadvantaged and have to study from home face the prospect of not
having the appropriate working space/environment needed or a stable enough broadband
connection or even access to a computer at all – making it basically impossible to study
from home in any case. Many have derided the Education Department for having not
provided laptops to students who need them.
The US claims it has intelligence that researchers in China’s Wuhan lab had become with
symptoms similar to COVID-19 in the autumn of 2019 before the first identified case of
the outbreak occured. The US Department of State has alledged that the Wuhan Institute
of Virology was conducting experiments with a virus that was genetically similar to
COVID-19. This raises some concerns that the virus was accidentally spread from a
Wuhan lab rather than naturally. Officials are open to both possibilities. But the Wuhan
lab has denied any possibility of this being the case, while China has been open to the
possibility of the virus originating outside of its borders, which also has some evidence,
although not enough. The majority of scientists still believe the virus has a natural origin
and that it begun in China.

3. 3/7
China has been accused of originally trying to cover up the outbreak and also being slow
to release crucial information, and it is alledged the state had silenced certain people and
officials in the country from giving first-hand accounts.
A survey has suggested that paramedics and ambulances are currently stretched so thin
that people are dying while waiting for them. It is widely believed that the crisis in the
NHS has far worse than when the first wave of the outbreak took place. Paramedics and
other ambulance service staff are said to be more terrified than ever to go out on there
shifts under the current crisis. Many have blamed PPE that is not up to standard for
making the situation even worse.
Finally Dominic Raab has said that all UK adults will have been offered the first dose of
the coronavirus vaccine by September of this year in an interview with Sky News. He also
said the government is hoping to gradually begin lifting coronavirus restrictions from
March onwards.
Dutch Government Resigns

4. 4/7
Mark Rutte, Dutch Prime Minister. Photo by EU2017EE Estonian Presidency on
Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Source.
The entire government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands has resigned
after a mass scandal involving childcare subsidies was revealed by an inquiry. The scandal
had a particular effect on those of certain ethnic background and dual citizenship, making
unlawful and mismanaged claims against thousands of families of welfare fraud and
trying to force them to pay back large sums of money they didn’t have, further putting
such struggling families into deep poverty, mass debt, financial ruin, unemployment and
thus tearing many such families apart from within, in a scandal that lasted a decade.
The government will now stay on in a caretaker role until fresh elections take place on
17th March. The Mark Rutte coalition came about after elections that saw off the threat of
the right-wing eurosceptic populist Geert Wilders, coming in the times not long after

5. 5/7
BREXIT and the election of Donald Trump. Despite the scandal Mark Rutte and his party
still enjoy favourable polling ratings and they are expected to win enough seats again to
take a leading role in the next coalition government, likely with Rutte as Prime Minister
again.
Due to how the electoral system works in the Netherlands via a proportional
representation system, there can be weeks or even months of political wrangling after
elections before a coalition government is formed and takes power, a single party gaining
enough seats to rule outright is almost an impossibility. This is typically the case in many
European countries, and other countries around the world that use such a system, unlike
the United Kingdom which uses First-Past-the-Post making single-party majorities much
more common and a requirement of coalitions much more rare, and when coalitions are
required to form power the negotiations and coalition itself is usually far less complex and
less time consuming in the UK due to this.
The last coalition government in the United Kingdom was between the Conservative Party
and the Northern Irish Democratic Unionists Party after a shock surge for Corbyn’s
Labour in the 2017 election, and before that in 2010 a coalition was formed between the
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, although the outcome of that coalition devastated
the Liberal Democrats who have since vowed to avoid coalitions – the party is yet still to
recover the number of seats it had at its height before the coalition, if they ever do.
Uganda Election Outcome

6. 6/7
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Photo in Public Domain.
As was expected the long-time President of Uganda and one of Africa’s longest serving
leaders Yoweri Museveni has been declared the winner of the presidential election in
Uganda after facing one of his toughest opponents, a singer called Bobi Wine who had a
strong following with the young. Bobi Wine has accussed the government of having rigged
and intimidated its way to victory.

7. 7/7
Yoseweri Museveni will now serve his 6th term in office, having been in power since 1986
and he has since that time been accussed of corruption, voter and opponent indimidation,
human rights abuses, unfair tight media control, abuse of state agencies including the
Electoral Commission, and abusive use of authorities and armed forces to enforce his grip
on power and turn elections in his favour.
Although Yoseweri Museveni won the main presidential contest, he has seen a number of
his ministers and even his vice-president voted out in down-ballot races with dozens of
pro-Bobi Wine candidates having won and unseated members of the ruling party. The
Vice-President was said to have been so shocked by his defeat that he was admitted to
hospital.
Bobi Wine himself has also claimed victory in the presidential contest, disputing the
officially reported results and alledging vote rigging and unfair intimidation tactics in
which he became frightened for his life. He has said he will be taking all legal action he
can in challenge of the results.
During the election itself Bobi Wine also said that his own home had been surrounded by
armed government soldiers and did not allow him to leave.
In the run-up to the election independent monitors had also been arrested and prevented
from properly observing the election while UN and other foreign observing teams had
been refused entry to the country, with both the EU and US giving up their attempt to
observe the elections.
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