Brett-Butler

It's fair to say my view of Uber has changed quite a bit since I wrote that opening post. James Bloodworth's great book "Hired", where he worked undercover as an Uber driver hit home to me just how hard it actually is to earn money as an Uber driver (the same book also started the process of weening me off using Amazon after reading how horrendously treated their staff are). Also, it's main selling point of being able to track where your driver is before it arrived at your pickup point has now been replicated by most taxi companies, meaning that I've been able to use a reputable local taxi company rather than Uber for the past 2 1/2 years. The news that Uber's drivers are now counted as closer to employees than freelancers could lead to Uber pulling out of the UK entirely, as I imagine the backpay alone could near bankrupt a company that are already haemorrhaging money like a sieve. And as mentioned above, the domino effect could end up affecting companies like Deliveroo - in the latter's case the need to wear branded company uniform among other things does seem to push their workers into the "employee" category rather than self-employment.

Lockdown in NI extended to April 1st. Schooling for children up to 7-years-old to resume on 8th March. It looks like I’ll be spending at least one birthday in lockdown after all.

Given that plug has closed down (I think), is there going to be an alternative listen-through scheduled?

There's 27 songs on your list, so given that there only appears to be one not on Spotify, I think you've missed one out?

Which dropped back down to 39 at the 2019 General Election.

Graeme Souness at Benfica.

Will have to see if travel between GB and Northern Ireland will be counted towards the naughty step on both sides. Heading to London is probably as exotic as I'd be likely to get this year.

Brett-Butler has entered.

In anti-vax crankery news, Piers Corbyn has been arrested for distributing leaflets comparing the vaccine rollout to the Holocaust. And his statement denying an anti-Semitic undertone to this is...problematic, to say the least.

Part of this series was shot outside my parent's house (I was there when they were filming), so I will be looking out for that.

Has Bicep dropped out of the albums, or is it in a position that isn’t in the update?

A Northern Ireland opinion poll made for interesting reading. As a result of the sea border between GB & Northern Ireland, the DUP's support has collapsed to 19%, which is below Sinn Fein who have 24% at the moment, with the non-partisan Alliance Party biting at their heels on 18%. DUP's support has seeped into the TUV, a party formed by Jim Alistair when the DUP went into government with Sinn Fein, and who make the DUP look like People Before Profit in comparison, whose support has exploded from 2% to 10%

In other EU absolutely f****** things up news - @1355164987212390402

*Googles "how to apply for this*.

According to the UK Government's official dashboard, the amount of people testing positive daily for COVID-19 has collapsed from 20k to just under 4k between 26th and 27th. I'm presuming that this is due to missing data or data being late to be reported, because it seems quite optimistic.

Vaccine rollout in Northern Ireland has extended to the 65-69s, so my dad's getting his on Saturday. He's the family member I'm most worried about due to his diabetes, so delighted for him.

Another 300k plus day of people getting their 1st dose of the vaccine. It’s great to see the rollout going so well so far, so much so that I have a feeling that there’s bound to be a chink in the armour just around the corner.

Although it might seem selfish, I’d take the vaccine.

I’m presuming it’s because in Australia, it is very warm at the moment.

And from the same post - Talk about having a speck in the eye with a plank the size of the Empire State.

From the press briefing - R number is now below 1, but the new variant is more deadly.

One the more under-reported aspects of the pandemic which I fear will have a lasting effect in years to come is that thanks to the pandemic, loss of work & isolation/stripping of of liberties that it has led to people who otherwise you would have considered sensible have become full-on conspiracy theorists and/or vaccine deniers. I've seen quite a few public figures that I would never have expected go that way, and even one of my friends legitimately brought up "The Great Reset", and claimed the vaccine was a plot to install microchips into people.

An idea I've seen mentioned is to push Tokyo back to 2024, change Paris to 2028 (they've had delays in building due to COVID, so would likely welcome the delay), and move LA to 2032, which would be neat as it coincides with 100 years since the 1932 LA Olympics.

Northern Ireland’s lockdown is extended to March 5th. If that’s when it does indeed end, it couldn’t be better timing for me.

When was the last time a sea shanty made the top 40? Was it the Radio 4 Theme in 2006 (which included elements of “The Drunken Sailor”)?