Not heard of Amazon, Barnaby?

End of week trivia.

Australia's esteemed PM Barnaby Joyce travelled to London, went Christmas shopping in Oxford Street, caught Covid and whinged about it. "Bloody Poms gave me the lurgy" he said. Karma. Stay Home. Use Amazon like the rest of us.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, fresh from joining the US (and our Aussie friends) in threatening retaliatory action against Russia should they annex the (rest of) Ukraine, claimed that Britain's troops should train to "survive and carry out surveillance in temperatures as low as 40°C." 

Russia invades Lapland, captures Santa; Royal Marines rescue nine reindeer and repatriate them to the UK, leaving behind dozens of British interpreters. You heard it here first.

The UK has said that none of its diplomats will attend the Winter Olympics in February. Noting that the temperature at that time of year is close to zero (which it would have to be obviously, otherwise no snow), a Foreign Office spokesman stated "our diplomats will be busy with post-Christmas parties after which they will be investigated and therefore unable to attend". The Chinese are reported as buying up extra bottles of champagne to celebrate.

A YouGov poll found that 68% of people polled believed Boris Johnson's denial of there being a Christmas party in 2020, against prevailing Covid regulations. 68%? What on earth are the other 32% on?

In another survey, two-thirds of readers of this blog believed that the author often includes made-up "facts" in posts. The other reader had recently travelled from Australia and was shopping in Oxford Street.