Blog Day 185 - 26 September 2020

As it should have been footy grand final day here today I was reminded of the time I went to the grand final a couple of years ago.  When I sat in my seat I noticed that the seat between me and the next person was vacant.  I asked the bloke in the next seat along if he knew who the vacant seat belonged to and he said it was his wife's but that she had unfortunately passed away.  I said that was sad but couldn't a friend or relative have used the seat, and he said "no they are all at the funeral".

In yesterday's blog I mentioned the 1966 St Kilda V Collingwood grand final in which St Kilda won by a point.  My FNQ correspondent has made the following comment which I think is worth repeating.

"I recall a certain English painter living in Mornington who decided, in order to fit in to Aussie culture, to barrack for Collingwood. He proudly displayed the 1966 grand final photo showing the players walking off whit big grins on their faces.... however in those days the teams exchanged gurnseys so his "Collingwood" players were in fact the winning and grinning St Kilda players. And yes, we did tell him"!

I also recall that the headline photo in the press showed a jubilant Darrell Baldock, the St Kilda captain, holding the premiership cup aloft wearing a Collingwood jumper.  I think Baldock later said that was the only photo he had of him after the game holding the cup.

Well it had to happen, somebody had to go and today the health minister has been pushed under the bus or jumped off a sinking ship.  The minister, Ms Jenny Mikakos, has today announced that she is resigning from the ministry and will also resign from the parliament.  It was inevitable that somebody had to go and it was apparent from the premier's comments yesterday that it would be Ms Mikakos.  It is a pity that she didn't resign after the Cedar Meats fiasco, if she had resigned then we may and I repeat may have avoided some of the grief to follow.  Of course there is nothing the suggest that if she had resigned then that her successor would have been any more competent.

One of the lessons out of this is don't make ministerial appointments on the basis of factional deals, quotas, branch stacking and union influence.  

Of course now that Ms Mikakos is resigning from parliament it will be necessary to hold a by-election to replace her.  Although I don't know I daresay she comes from a safe labour seat that labour should be able to hold onto in a by-election.  It will be interesting to see if the electors in her seat decide to punish the government in any way in the by-election.

Today is the second last day of the two week extension of the stage four lockdown.  The premier will be announcing tomorrow the relaxation, if any, of the current restrictions going forward. The daily figures for the state are looking good so some relaxation of the restrictions should be feasible, although we don't want to end up going through a 3rd wave of infections like some of the European countries are experiencing at the moment.  Yes, UK, Spain and France I am talking about you.

The daily figures are looking good for Victoria.  We reported 12 new infections for the last 24 hours, down from 14 for the previous day.  We reported one death for the last 24 hours and 8 for the previous day.  The rolling 14 day averages are also looking good for both the metropolitan and regional figures.

Rolling 14 day averages;

25/09: Metro 25.1, Regional 0.8, Total 25.9

26/09: Metro 23.6, Regional 0.8, Total 24.4

Worldwide both the new infection figures and death figures are remaining stubbornly high, with 347,000 new infections reported in the last 24 hours and 5,700 deaths.  Although not peak figures they are amongst the highest reported to date especially the new infections which we would expect to translate into peaks in the death figures in due course.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Stage 4 Lockdown – 2 Week Extension – Day 13

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	Aus Death	Vic Death	Aus Hospl	Vic Hospital	Aus ICU	Vic ICU
13/09	26,648	41	19,841	41	810	723	221	116	26	11
14/09	26,686	35	19,870	35	817	729	137	122	17	12
15/09	26,739	50	19,911	42	816	729	141	118	18	11
16/09	26,772	52	19,943	42	824	737	139	117	17	11
17/09	26,807	35	19,971	28	832	745	127	107	16	11
18/09	26,864	51	20,015	45	837	750	127	90	16	11
19/09	26,885	21	20,036	21	844	757	108	89	15	8
20/09				14			106	94	12	8
21/09	26,909	11	20,063	11	851	763	109	92	10	6
22/09	26,942	33	20,076	28	854	766	107	83	8	8
23/09	26,972	21	20,100	15	859	771	100	75	11	8
24/09	26,990	18	20,105	12	861	773	100	67	11	8
25/09	26,987	14	20,109	14	869	781	89	58	11	8
26/09	27,012	16	20,130	12	870	782	71	58	11	8
27/09

Date	World Infection	Daily Increase	World Deaths	Daily Increase
14/09	29,181,882	243,787	928,267	3,709
15/09	29,433,477	251,595	932,390	4,123
16/09	29,727,389	293,912	939,186	6,796
17/09	30,025,096	297,707	944,680	5,494
18/09	30,340,279	315,183	950,429	5,749
19/09	30,691,801	351,522	956,421	5,992
20/09	30,986,826	295,025	961,400	4,979
21/09	31,228,511	241,685	965,037	3,637
22/09	31,479,718	251,207	969,230	4,193
23/09	31,771,441	291,723	975,315	6,085
24/09	32,083,793	312,352	981,252	5,937
25/09	32,411,415	327,622	987,742	6,490
26/09	32,758,340	346,925	993,413	5,671

And now the stage 4 lockdown 2 week extension remembers.

Remember: to follow the legal instructions of a police officer, not to get carried away with false optimism (again), if you are going to run a road block do it when it is raining, tell the truth, don't go to any protests, avoid the City of Casey, ring before you dig, especially if it is a $7 billion project, keep up the exercise - it is good for you, don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.