A Masked Man Walks Into a Bar

A masked man walks into a bar
Just another day in the New Rose & Crown
It’s the pub of the damned, he orders a beer and sits down
He contemplates life and the new rules
Where everybody’s encouraged to go back to work and go back to school
Where one metre plus means you have to cover your face
That’s how he’s ended up coming in masked to this place
He looks from his beer to his mask and from his mask to his beer
As it all becomes frustratingly clear
That the logic of this thing just doesn’t make any sense at all

A masked man walks into a bar
It’s neat, neat, neat from all that pre-opening cleaning
It’s the pub of the damned, just with better housekeeping
He orders a pint of beer and sits down
While he ponders the end of the lockdown
And he asks himself what is a pub if it’s not a shop that sells live booze
And if you’re gonna have to wear a mask in a supermarket what’s boozer got to lose?
He looks from his beer to his mask and his mask to his beer
As Johnson’s muddied message fails to become clear
And the logic of this thing doesn’t make any sense at all

A masked man walks into a bar
Orders a large whiskey while he’s waiting for the blackout
There’s plenty of room inside not that many people out
It’s the pub of the damned and he just can’t be happy today
And they wouldn’t even take his cash when he tried to pay
He picks up his paper and reads in the comments
That your mask does nothing except to give you confidence
He looks from his whiskey to his mask and his mask to his whiskey
And there’s a world of handshakes that he still can’t see
And the logic of this thing doesn’t make any sense at all

A masked man walks into a bar….

Should I Be Wearing a Mask? (You Had to Ask)

Should I be wearing a mask? Yes
Is the best guess
In the absence of rigorous scientific tests
The WHO and government both think it best

Should I wear it to cover my nose?
I suppose
That’s how it goes
You don’t want your nose
To be exposed
If that’s the way the virus blows

Should I wear it to cover my mouth as well?
If you don’t want to lose your sense of smell
Or otherwise become unwell
The best intel would compel
Covering your mouth for a spell
That’s the main route into your body, in a nutshell

But let’s be clear on one thing
Though it may be more comforting
And easier to breathe in
It won’t really do a thing
Except cover some neck skin
Once you begin
To tug on the string
And wear your mask under your chin

(The reason for this chin-wearing I suspect
Is not a lack of knowledge or respect
But outdoors there is less chance to infect
And so worn the wearer does not forget
To pull it up when needing to be properly bedecked
To go indoors where the mask will have significant effect
In preventing breath-borne droplets travelling unchecked
When other people’s health is there for you to help protect)

mask

My COVID Discount

I’m heading off down the Mount
I’m checking my bank account
I’m going for a meal out
With my COVID discount

Rishi said for 13 days in August
A discount of up to a tenner a head
If you want to redeem you must
Sit in when you break your bread

I’m heading off down the Mount
I’m checking my bank account
I’m going for a meal out
With my COVID discount

It’s like herd immunity didn’t happen
To quite enough of the herd
So get your best togs and get your slap on
And get those aerosol drops transferred

I’m heading off down the Mount
I’m checking my bank account
I’m going for a meal out
With my COVID discount

Rishi said Eat Out to Help Out
Check your local restaurant out
Gotta get yourselves out and about
Ride the economic roundabout

I’m heading off down the Mount
I’m checking my bank account
I’m going for a meal out
With my COVID discount

 

Coronavirus 1-0 Bolsonaro

“I’m well, normal” said the man in the mask
Has he ever been normal? Don’t ask
And the trip to Bahia is off
Cos the president has got a cough

It’s just a little flu
Even if I were to get ill
Now it’s Coronavirus one
Bolsonaro nil
Bolsonaro nil
Bolsonaro nil

A captain with athletic history
65 thousand dead, no mystery
Said the virus is unstoppable
In fact, it’s 70% probable

So he ain’t gonna do nothing……

It’s just a little flu
Even if I were to get ill
Now it’s Coronavirus one
Bolsonaro nil
Bolsonaro nil
Bolsonaro nil

Anti-malarials and antibiotics
He’s had to admit “Yeah, I got it”
Hugged the ambassador without regret
Todd Adams ain’t showing virus symptoms
Yet…..

It’s just a little flu
Even if I were to get ill
Now it’s Coronavirus one
Bolsonaro nil
Bolsonaro nil
Bolsonaro nil

Spaghetti Bolognese (A Very English Tea)

I thought that the COVID-19 songs could do with starting before the Quarantine the Queen and should probably introduce Joanna and Jason earlier, so here they are pre-lockdown in times we would have referred to as normal.

Joanna’s in the kitchen
Chopping onions, peeling garlic
Watching the news by the way
Deserted streets, men in hazmat suits
In a city far, far away

She’s got carrots and celery
A good sauce to hide veg in
Wuhan or something like that
Looking like a scene in a disaster movie
She couldn’t point to on a map

Jason puts the kettle on
It’s too early for wine
He might save it for the weekend anyway
Says what’s that you’re watching love?
It all looks a bit doomsday

Pandemics happen to other people
Other cultures, other countries
Something about the way they live, I guess
Without trying to put it bluntly
It must be dreadful but they’re not like us
I’m not sure we’d make such a fuss
It’s like something you’d watch on TV
And it’s spaghetti Bolognese for tea

She’s frying off the mince
There’s a tin of tomatoes
And a stock cube ready on the side
The broadcaster’s voice remains calm
About how many could die

Jason’s looking at his Huawei phone
If he’d open the bottle
She’d have a glass of wine
Remember that bird flu
And the panic about that at the time?

Pandemics happen to other people
Never here and not like that
Something about the way they live, I guess
Like some people eat dog or even cat
It must be dreadful but they’re not like us
And I’m not sure we’d make such of a fuss
It’s like something you’d watch on TV
And it’s spaghetti Bolognese for tea

That’s not normal and our lives are
That’s why we’re watching it from afar
There’s nothing to fear
It couldn’t happen here
Shall we eat in front of the TV?
It’s spaghetti Bolognese for tea

Super Spreader Saturday

Spaffer fired the starting pistol
On Super Spreader Saturday
Get out and spend your money folks
The pubs are opening today
We don’t know what the R-rate is
But we’ll tell you later
Cos our mates at Deloitte
Own all the data

The landlord with bunting his pub festoons
And Super Spreader Saturday balloons
For the brave, the reckless, the immunes
So Derek is heading off to ‘Spoons

Spaffer cried schools out for summer
On Super Spreader Saturday
A haircut, a haircut, my kingdom for a haircut
The barbershop is open today
We don’t know what the R-rate is
But we’ll let the pub open its door
‘Cos we don’t know what the rules are either
Or even what the rules are for

The landlord with Perspex his pub festoons
And Super Saturday disinfectant fumes
For the illusion that normality resumes
And Derek is heading off to ‘Spoons

If you think they’re stupid, look what the polls now say
About the likelihood of a second wave
The numbers don’t lie and they’ll make you shudder
We’re now more likely to blame each other

The landlord with Perspex his pub festoons
And Super Saturday disinfectant fumes
For the illusion that normality resumes
And Derek is heading off to ‘Spoons

 

Live Stream This Friday

C19 Part Three 2

Tune in to the Protest Family Facebook page this Friday to catch Steve performing some of the songs from part three of his pandemic in verse.

Part one, broadcast by Punk 4 The Homeless took us from the Queen in quarantine to Dominic Cummings on the run from Downing Street. Part two, hosted by The Kimberley Jam went all the way from week two of the lockdown to Joanna holding her breath.

Part three will re-visit Joanna and Jason, introduce Derek and take us from the birth of Wilfred Johnson to the present day, taking in statues, demonstrations, eye tests and tracking and tracing along the way.

Access to the stream is free but donations to Tommy’s Kitchen’s Feed the Homeless fund raiser are most welcome if you can spare a couple of quid.

EDIT: Thanks everyone that made it to the live stream, it is archived on the Facebook if you wanted to take a look or re-visit it. Your generous donations raised over £300 for Tommy’s Kitchen, thank you.

The Lockdown, Part Four

 

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Just like that it seemed that it was over.

People flocked to beaches and beauty spots, drank, danced and defecated under the shadow of over a hundred new deaths and a thousand new cases a day. The police were called to break up raves and street parties, sparking violence inevitable after months of fear and frustration while the blame was clearly directed at a feckless and disobedient public.

In truth the scene had been set some weeks earlier when prime ministerial adviser Dominic Cummings broke the lockdown rules, first to travel to his family home in County Durham and again with the ill-fated “eye-test” trip to Barnard Castle. Follow that with a laissez-faire PM relaxing the rules in such a complex way that even the most diligent commentators struggled with them and casually dismissing the daily press briefing as no longer required inevitably led to the public sense that the rules no longer either applied or mattered.

The two metre rule became one metre plus and you were deemed safe to be within virtual touching distance of another person so long as you took one of thirty-nine mitigating steps, one of which was to wash your hands more frequently. Barring gyms, swimming pools, beauty treatments and tattoo parlours, workplaces could re-open so long as they followed the governments occasionally specific, often vague “COVID Secure” advice. The pub trade was in chaos, publicans divided between those with open space for their customers and those without, those with apps and table service and those struggling for solutions, and those relieved of the burden of their rent by their brewery and those with their livelihood held to ransom by a pubco.

The rules had been downgraded to guidance.

Belligerent libertarians, although it’s doubtful that they would have described themselves as such, rang radio phone-ins demanding to know what had become of the second wave of infections predicted after the VE Day celebrations as their hosts lambasted the teaching unions and demanded a return to school for all.

It wasn’t yet the 4th of July when the news of a second spike and a city-wide continuation of the lockdown in Leicester reached us.

Patient 91

A stranger in town
Flew in from Bangkok, wheels down
Heads into town

A few hours to kill
In the Buddha Bar and Grill
Bring him the bill
He’s about to get ill

Some social media bluster
“You’re a time bomb, buster”
Heart of the Buddha Bar cluster

The fever struck him and a dozen more
Quarantine followed as per the law
Testing teams went door to door
Get him to the hospital, before he hits the floor

Now here’s where it goes bad fast
“Ventilate me now” he asked
His doctors steadfast
His story makes it to a national broadcast

Most places thirty days is days too late
In that state
A flick of the switch is your fate
But this is Ho Chi Minh City, and he lasts sixty-eight

He fell asleep in April, woke up in June
To the sounds of scooters, smells of monsoon
The virus worldwide in full bloom
He’s ready to give up his room

A bullet he would not expect to dodge
But this is Vietnam, and no one’s died on their watch

Who is he? This Stephen Cameron
Well, here he’s better known as
Patient ninety-one

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-53196009

Johnson Has Washed His Hands

A beach packed with punters
Creates a major incident
Johnson has washed his hands

From rules to guidance
From cognisance to dissonance
Johnson has washed his hands

A COVID spike
In abattoirs and factories
Johnson has washed his hands

A dialled in parliament
On pound shop batteries
Johnson has washed his hands

Keir passed the soap
And held the towel
While Johnson washed his hands

A welcomed announcement
Despite its disavowal
Helped Johnson to wash his hands

Stay at home as much as you can
While visiting the shops as much as possible
Says Johnson has washed his hands

While the march back to Wetherspoons
Is seemingly unstoppable
Because Johnson has washed his hands

Confused about the guidance
Scared or simply bitter
Johnson has washed his hands

The scientists’ advice
Relegated to Twitter
Because Johnson has washed his hands