In which the lizard Oz on Friday somehow turns into a carroler caroling, and a Bleagh punchline ...

 

 

End times for Boris? 

Kill the beast, kill the beast, they chanted on Sky News (the real one), as they gathered around the tropical fires so typical of an English winter, and again the pond was distracted, and stayed up late to watch the spectacle ... and then woke late, and not particularly interested in the day's reptile duties ...

Still, there was the tree-killer edition,  yet again crying out Freedumb, Freedumb, as one more time the reptiles pocketed comrade Clive's cash in the claw ...

 

 

 

Is Clive's cash in the paw the single reason the reptiles keep on with their tree killer edition?

Never mind, apparently the virus has peaked, though the pond thought that the virus had peaked back in December when the Iron pyrites' standard Domicron and his strollout mate, holding his hose, had cried freedumb, freedumb ...

 

 

 

We know how that cry of freedumb, freedumb ended ...

... The economy doesn’t work if people can’t work. So the first economic priority during a pandemic must be to keep people healthy enough to keep working, producing, delivering and buying. That some political and business leaders have, from the outset of COVID-19, consistently downplayed the economic costs of mass illness, reflects a narrow, distorted economic lens. We’re now seeing the result – one of the worst public policy failures in Australia’s history.

The Omicron variant is tearing through Australia’s workforce, from health careand child care, to agriculture and manufacturing, to transportation and logistics, to emergency services. The result is an unprecedented, and preventable, economic catastrophe.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s decision to relax COVID-19 restrictions in December has turned into both a health and economic disaster. On a typical day in normal times, between 3 per cent and 4 per cent of employed Australians miss work due to their own illness. Multiple reports from NSW indicate up to half of workers are now absent due to COVID-19: because they contracted it, were exposed to it, or must care for someone because of it (like children barred from child care). With infections still spreading, this will get worse in the days ahead.

Staffing shortages have left hospitals in chaos, supermarket shelves empty, supply chains paralysed. ANZ Bank data, for example, shows economic activity in Sydney has fallen to a level lower than the worst lockdowns. If relaxing health restrictions in December (as Omicron was already spreading) was motivated by a desire to boost the economy, this is an own-goal for the history books. (Yes, the Nine rags felt the need to drop in on the Conversation).

The pond just wanted to retrieve that gobbet from the comments section, because it's soooh good ...

Meanwhile the reptiles' digital edition tried to offer the pond a consolation and a distraction ...

 

 

The peak still near and a feeble pun about the Djoker?

But that Djoker ship has sailed and whatever that foolish fop decides to do, it will now be a badly timed, pathetic own goal, not up there with the cry of freedumb, but indicative enough of sublime incompetence ...

But what of the reptiles teasing the pond by sending out the craven Craven to demolish the republic? 

Sorry, the pond didn't come down in the last craven shower, and was content to note, thanks to the reptiles themselves, that things are currently going splendidly with the monarchy ...

 

 

 

Splendid stuff, and as the man on Sky News noted, up there with the talking tampon saga of the nineties, and how could the craven Craven match that for entertainment with his blather about the republic?

But hang on, hang on, if the pond wasn't going to be lured into the republican briar patch by the tar baby craven Craven, what else was available for those in search of a racist metaphor?

 

 

 

Truly grim pickings indeed. The pond had never ever thought it would yearn for Henry, hole in bucket man extraordinaire, but yearn for him the pond does, especially as it's now left with the Henry lite man, Carroll of socoiology, caroling away ...

What better way to start off than with a snap of ruins, as a reminder of where the planet is heading fast, helped along by the reptile climate science denialism? 

Yes, if you've a mind, instead of the caroling Carroll, you could be reading items here ...

 

 

But you're with the reptiles on the pond, so mindless, meaningless blather, replete with classical references, is all the go ...

 

Dear sweet long absent lord, has it come to this? Is the Carroll caroling away about Phocion as some long-winded metaphor for Boris, with the tag "will nobody make this idle, rag doll hair chappie behave himself?"

No such luck ...

 

Truly, this caroling Carroll has not the slightest sense of irony ... but if we must do a classical reference to stoic virtues ...

 

And now thankfully a final gobbet and let anyone who can muster up the strength take to the comments section ...

 

The Stoic individual should never complain? 

All the reptiles do is moan and complain, all the live long day ... doo-da, doo-da, bet their money on a bob-tailed science denialist nag.. went home with a pocket full of Domicron tin, oh, de doo-day dah day ...

Hmm, the pond can't quite recall the lyrics, but enough of faux classical nonsense, it's back to Boris ...

Of course the pond only went with this so that it could throw in a couple of cartoons, with more here ...

Splendid stuff, and here's the rest of the lizard Oz editorialist celebrating the Boris, though really The National said it more elegantly ...

 

 

Yes, the pond has become quite addicted to UK newspaper headlines of late, as curated by Sky News.

You won't find the lizard Oz editorialist's Brexiting pants on fire in the same lively way...

 

 

That's surely worth another cartoon ...

 

 

 

 

Hmm, a tad grum in the humour dept., Mr Jennings ...

And so to a bonus ...

 

 

Now the pond only went with this one because there's a punchline at the end of it, and the pond wanted to find room to mention this delightful interstitial ...

 

 

 

 

 

Dear sweet long absent lord, fundie Domicron's health department being a killjoy with the fundies at Hillsong ... you don't even have to read the story to get the richness of the joke ...

 

But there's a price to be paid for such distractions, and now the pond must pay it ... 

 

 

What? You couldn't be bothered clicking on the link and wanted more of that Hillsong interstitial?

 

 

 

 

 

DJ Snake? What the fuck? If only the pond had known, it would have juxtaposed all that good oil with the caroling Carroll ...

 

Enough already, you're killing the pond as apples and snakes and complimentary women flashed past in rapid succession, and there's another price to pay for such unseemly snake oil pleasure...

 

 

The pond realises it's gone on too long, and so will just run with the final gobbet and get to the punchline, because Dame Groan is probably already preparing her column for next Tuesday, tearing down all this idle talk of strategies for a big Australia ...

And there it is, the punchline ... 

The good prof is a refugee from the Bleagh years ... 

What a punchline, and living proof of the need to keep the borders open for those who have suffered mightily elsewhere in the world...

Yes, Sir Bleagh is still in the news ...

Sir Bleagh of Oswald's in Mayfair if you please ...

And as refugees have now been mentioned, why not end with a Wilcox cartoon?