Someone once, wisely, noted 'blogging isn't writing, it's graffiti with punctuation.' Welcome, you are, therefore dear blog reader, to another weekly batch of yer actual physical graffiti. And we begin, with this: The Stately Telly Topping Manor Plague House remains, sadly, as it has been since mid-June, a Facebook-free-zone - in a saga which is now taking on quasi-Shakespearean tragic proportions. Due, in no small part to the seeming impossibility of contacting anyone at Facebook who actually wishes to engage with one of their - currently, extremely dissatisfied - customers. This blogger has received absolutely no help or support from Facebook's alleged 'Help and Support' department each time he has tried to initiate contact with them. Nor, indeed, has he received anything even resembling help or support from anyone else. Which is useful information to future reference since it is at times like these that one tends to find out who ones real beast fiends actually are. This blogger, it would appear, hasn't got any! Which, as previously noted, is useful knowledge going forward. Thus ...
From that, dear blog reader, to this week's really big news. From The North favourite Gillian Anderson has revealed that she has stopped wearing a bra and has no plans to return to using one. Speaking in an Instagram Live Q&A to her 1.8 million followers on Monday, From The North favourite Gill explained how she had become 'so lazy. I don't wear a bra any more,' she declared from her living room in Atlanta. 'I can't. I'm sorry, I don't care if my breasts reach my belly button. I'm not wearing a bra any more. It's just too fucking uncomfortable.' The revelation that Gill has decided to let them both swing free has 'sparked widespread praise' on Twitter, apparently, with a clip of Gill speaking of her new liberated ways garnering more than one hundred and twenty four thousand views and many supportive comments from women claiming that they too had stopped wearing a bra. One commentor said: 'If two-time Golden Globe and EMMY winning actress Gillian Anderson says no more bras, who are we to disagree?' Well, indeed. This blogger, for instance, stopped wearing his some considerable time ago. The Free The Nipple campaign - for such malarkey does, indeed, exist - has been 'gaining traction' on social media for some years, apparently, but liberation from bras reached new heights during lockdown when many women working from home prioritised comfort when it came to their clothing choices in relation to dangling wally jumblats. Another feature of the Q&A was Gillian's dog, Stella, whom she purchased in December of last year. The actress poked fun at the interest surrounding her then-recent break-up with The Crown creator Peter Morgan by introducing her new puppy as her 'girlfriend' on Twitter. 'Meet my new gf Stella [sic],' Gillian tweeted alongside a photograph of herself cuddling the chocolate brown puppy whilst reclining on a sofa. Braless. Both of them. Gillian spoke about what it was like to work with her then-partner in an interview with Harper's Bazaar. Recalling being on set in full costume, she said: 'I smiled at [Morgan], as me, Gillian, smiling at her boyfriend and he said, "This is Thatcher! This smile is Thatcher!" And I'm like, "no! This smile is me!"'
Okay, dear blog reader, hands up whom amongst you spotted Indiana Jones and Ethan Hunt hanging out in the pit lanes at Silverstone on Sunday? Clearly the current filming of IJ5 and M:I7 are going so fantastically well, their respective stars were allowed a day off to go swanning around the British Grand Prix like a pair of celebrities.
Lewis Hamilton for once wasn't being tripped up by his own lip as he fought back from a ten-second penalty after a crash with title rival Max Verstappen to pass Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and claim a dramatic British Grand Prix victory. Hamilton was blamed for a collision with Verstappen's Red Bull at Copse Corner on the first lap, which led to the Dutchman crashing out of the race. Verstappen was taken to hospital for precautionary tests after the accident whilst Hamilton set about trying to win the race. The Grand Prix was stopped after the incident with Leclerc in the lead from Hamilton and the Ferrari driver held that position until two laps from the end, when the Mercedes driver passed him, ironically, at the same corner at which he had crashed with Verstappen. The controversial win, in front of a crowd of one hundred and forty thousand, was Hamilton's eighth in the British Grand Prix and cuts Verstappen's championship lead to eight points. 'It's overwhelming. It's was such a physically difficult race, great weather,' said Hamilton. Of his crash with Verstappen, he added: 'I just try and stay measured in my approach - particularly with Max, he's very aggressive. And then today, I was fully alongside him and he didn't give me the space. But regardless of whether I agree with the penalty, I take it on the chin and I just kept working. I wasn't going to let anything get in the way.' Verstappen later responded to Hamilton's celebrations on the podium, calling him 'disrespectful' and 'unsportsmanlike' in exactly the sort of whinging manner that one usually associated with Hamilton when he's just lost to Verstappen. He added on Twitter: 'The penalty given does not help us and doesn't do justice to the dangerous move Lewis made on track.' The moment many had considered to be inevitable at some point in this battle between Verstappen and Hamilton happened after an intense scrap between the title rivals on the first lap. Hamilton, starting second on the grid after Verstappen's victory in F1's maiden 'sprint' race on Saturday, got away better and was alongside the Red Bull driver into the first corner, but Verstappen held him off. Hamilton nosed ahead into the Brooklands corner at the end of the Wellington straight, but was again held off. Heading down into the one hundred and ninety miles per hour Copse Corner, he dummied Verstappen, feinting to the outside and then diving for the inside. And that was where it all kicked-off, big-style. Hamilton had more than half his car alongside Verstappen as they began to turn in, but backed off slightly as he saw the Dutchman was going to sit it out around the outside - and the Red Bull edged back ahead. Hamilton was a little wide of the apex and his front left wheel made contact with Verstappen's right rear around the corner and the impact sent Verstappen flying into the barriers on the outside. He climbed out of the car and was walking around before being taken to the circuit medical centre for mandatory checks after such a heavy impact and complaining of dizziness. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said the impact measured Fifty One G and Verstappen was taken to a local hospital for 'further precautionary tests.' He then went on to whinge like a big whinging whinger on live telly about the manifest unfairness of Hamilton not being banned. For life. Probably. In their written reasons for handing down the sanction to Hamilton, the race stewards said the Mercedes driver had 'room available to the inside' of the corner and 'did not avoid contact' when Verstappen turned in, and concluded that Hamilton was 'predominantly at fault.' Leclerc, who had passed Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas off the line, took the lead out of Copse in the aftermath of the incident and began the re-started race from pole position. The Ferrari showed strong pace in the first stint and Hamilton was not able to challenge Leclerc, who was two seconds ahead when Hamilton made his pit stop to serve his penalty and change tyres on lap twenty seven, dropping behind Bottas and McLaren's Lando Norris. Hamilton passed Norris on lap thirty one into Copse and then closed on Bottas, who was ordered to let Hamilton by on lap forty. The seven-time world champion then had twelve laps to close an eight-second gap to Leclerc and pass the Monegasque for the lead. On the basis of Leclerc's pace earlier, it looked a tall order, but Hamilton was soon going a second a lap quicker than Leclerc and he was on the Ferrari's tail with three to go. He went for the inside at Copse in a very similar move to the one that led to the Verstappen incident. But Hamilton was more cautious, backing off a little more and then Leclerc ran wide on the exit of the corner allowing Hamilton to sweep by and extend his record of British Grand Prix wins to eight. Reacting to the win, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said over the team radio: 'Lewis we never give up! We never give up! This is still on!' Leclerc was second after a superb drive by the Ferrari man, but saying he was 'so disappointed' to come close without victory, despite scoring his first podium finish of the year. Bottas took third ahead of Norris. McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo benefited from a pit-stop problem for Ferrari's Carlos Sainz to take fifth, holding off the faster Spaniard to the flag. Fernando Alonso drove an excellent defensive race to finish seventh, the starting position he earned with a brilliant drive in the sprint race, in which he passed six cars on the first lap in his Alpine. Alonso held off Aston Martin's Lance Stroll for most of the race and the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon took ninth ahead of Alpha Tauri's Yuki Tsunoda.
Mark Cavendish's bid to set a new record of thirty five stage wins in the Tour De France was denied - as Wout van Aert won the final stage of the 2021 Tour. Cavendish struggled to find space and could not come past Van Aert in the final few metres of the bunch sprint on Paris' Champs-Elysees. But the thirty six-year-old had already won four stages this year to equal the Tour record of thirty four set by the great Eddy Merckx. Slovenia's Tadej Pogacar of UAE-Team Emirates won the overall yellow jersey. Cavendish may have missed out on the chance to take sole ownership of the stage wins record, but to have drawn equal with Belgian legend Merckx is an astonishing achievement, given he had struggled for form for several seasons and feared last year his career was over. He was only called up by Deceuninck Quick-Step as a late replacement for injured Irish sprinter Sam Bennett. But, a full five years after his previous Tour stage win, his sprinting dominance earned him his second Tour De France green jersey, awarded to the winner of the points classification. Cavendish was never supposed to be at this Tour. It is only nine months since he proclaimed, through tears, the likely end of his career following a difficult one-day race last year. He has battled the Epstein-Barr virus, several heavy crashes and depression, all since his last victory at the Tour five years ago for Dimension Data. Back then he won four stages early in the race in what was seen as a swansong. After signing a surprise one-year deal with Belgian one-day and sprinting specialists Deceuninck-Quick Step, the team were firm on Cavendish not being part of their Tour plans. But a long-term injury to their young Dutch talent Fabio Jakobsen - who suffered serious head injuries in a horror crash at the 2020 Tour of Poland - and a last-minute knee injury for last year's green jersey winner Bennett left the team and its characterful owner Patrick Lefevere with few options. In many ways, Lefereve and Cavendish are kindred spirits - outspoken and passionate about their craft. But Cavendish is also fiercely loyal, especially to his team. He speaks of Danish rider Michael Morkov as 'the anti-me' because of his unflustered, calm demeanour. And also of the class of team-mates at Quick-Step who have led him out for his sprint victories. Cavendish said last week he has 'no real sentiment either way' about the record - will he back next year to try to extend it? Pogacar has dominated this Tour. Unchallenged in the mountains, he blew away the rest in the first time trial on stage five. The twenty two-year-old did not once look troubled by the pace of the race, or his rivals. This is the polar opposite from last year, when he overhauled countryman Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma on the penultimate stage's time trial to win by more than a minute after Roglic had dominated up to that point. But the demeanour of Pogacar has changed this time around - from a young, respectful rider disbelieving of his own achievements, to one who is happy to make a point of rivals' kidology on the climbs, by aggressively punching the air and pointedly smiling in his rivals' direction, in the same way other legendary riders did in their pomp. Pogacar may have been unmatched, but the fact the French police have been involved twice tells you this Tour has been an eventful one. Day one saw a terrible crash: a stupid woman holding a cardboard sign giving a shoutout to her grandparents caused several horrible injuries and abandonments after she stood in the road with her back to the oncoming peloton to ensure prime TV exposure. Organisers ASO announced they would begin legal proceedings against her and she was subsequently arrested by police, although both later dropped any action, with the organisers hoping that 'lessons will be learned' in future. Some hope. Four-time winner Chris Froome suffered a bad crash on the same stage, struggling to walk as he was helped back to his feet - a worrying sight given his two years of recovery from a near career-ending crash in 2019. He was already resigned to not being competitive at this year's race, despite a multi-million pound deal with Israel Start Up Nation, but it was encouraging to see him at least finish such a punishing three-week Tour. The race was also marred by several of Pogacar's rivals crashing, leading to the abandonment of Jumbo-Visma's Primoz Roglic and Geraint Thomas riding with a shoulder dislocation sustained on stage three. Off the bike, Team Bahrain-Victorious' hotel was raided by The Fuzz late in the race following allegations over doping. For a rider so young, and so good in the mountains, it is not surprising to see Pogacar claim the polka dot king of the mountains jersey and the white young rider's jersey. The only remaining one - the green points jersey - went to Cavendish for his stage wins and intermediate efforts. Although richly deserved, it is worth noting many of his rivals abandoned the race through injury, such as Lotto-Soudal's Caleb Ewan and Bora-Hansgrohe's Peter Sagan. Other sprint favourites, such as France's Arnaud Demare of Groupama-FDJ and Nacer Bouhanni of Arkea-Samsic, were eliminated after missing the time limit on mountain stages.
England's spinners squeezed Pakistan till their pips squeaked to claim an emphatic forty five-run victory in the second Twenty20 and level the series at one-one on Sunday. Although Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone - who twice hit sixes out of Headingley - all sparkled with the bat, England failed to post a total that would have put Pakistan out of the game. From one thirty seven for three in the fourteenth over and one sixty four for five in the sixteenth, England lost their last five wickets for thirty six runs to be bowled out for two hundred. However, England's trio of spinners, led by Adil Rashid, superbly exploited a pitch that rapidly deteriorated. Rashid claimed two for thirty, fellow leg-spinner Matt Parkinson one for twenty five and off-spinner Moeen two for thirty two as Pakistan lurched to one hundred and fifty five for nine in their twenty overs. The series decider is at Old Trafford on Tuesday. After the thrilling entertainment of Pakistan's thirty one-run win in the series opener, this was another thoroughly enjoyable contest, played in front of a full house on a baking hot day in Leeds. England stuck with their plan of experimenting with October's World Cup in mind. Captain Eoin Morgan was rested, Jonny Bairstow shifted down the order to number six and Moeen's off-spin employed after he did not bowl at all on Friday. With the World Cup set to be played in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, most encouraging will be the combined performance of leg-spinners Rashid and Parkinson, who lined up in the same England team for the first time. The hosts' total looked no more than par, only for Rashid and Parkinson to stifle Pakistan on a pitch that became increasingly responsive to the slow bowlers. Fresh from his dazzling forty two-ball century on Friday, Lancashire's Livingstone was again striking the ball with awesome power. Buttler, captaining in his first match for a month because of a calf injury, added the early impetus with his fifty nine from thirty nine balls, putting on sixty seven with Moeen, who crashed thirty six from sixteen. But it was Livingstone, himself sharing fifty two with Buttler, who provided the stand-out moments. A first straight six out of the ground, off spinner Imad Wasim, was handsome, but a second, off the pace of Haris Rauf that went over the new stand and onto the rugby ground, was a massive hit. Livingstone was run out for thirty eight from twenty three balls when he failed to respond to Tom Curran's suicidal call, a signal for England to lose momentum against a Pakistan side that held their length with the ball and caught well in the field. Still, England have not lost a T20 when they have posted two hundred batting first, a record that never looked in danger. In hindsight, the way the pitch behaved suggested Pakistan made a mistake in fielding first after winning the toss, but that should take nothing away from the way England bowled. Although captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan reprised their stellar opening partnership from Friday by adding fifty in the powerplay, after Saqib Mahmood had Babar miscue to extra cover the spinners took over. Rashid bowls with a fizzing pace and possesses a dangerous googly. Parkinson is much slower, using his flight and guile. At one stage they bowled five overs in tandem that cost only twenty eight runs and brought two wickets - both to Rashid, one a superb caught and bowled to remove Rizwan. The life had been sucked from the chase. Moeen followed up with two wickets in an over, while Parkinson finally got his reward from the last ball of his spell when Azam Khan was stumped. In all, England sent down eleven overs of spin, the most they have bowled in a T20, before seamer Mahmood nipped in at the death to pick up two further wickets and end with three for thirty three.
The Crown and The Mandalorian lead the charge for this year's EMMY Awards, with twenty four nominations apiece. Netflix's The Crown garnered acting nominations for Olivia Colman, Josh O'Connor and Emma Corrin. It is also up for best drama series, while Disney's The Mandalorian is recognised in the same category. Michaela Coel's critically acclaimed I May Destroy You - a big hit with us here on there From The North 2020 Best Of list - is nominated in the competitive limited series category. The BBC/HBO drama which charts the fallout of a sexual assault will be up against Mare Of Easttown (HBO), The Queen's Gambit (Netflix), Barry Jenkins' Underground Railroad (Amazon Prime) and WandaVision (Disney+). Possible British contenders including Steve McQueen's Small Axe series and Russell Davies's It's A Sin missed out in a tight category which only admits five nominations - whereas comedy and drama have eight each. Coel is also up for best actress in a limited series/movie. The Brits dominate that category, with Kate Winslet and Cynthia Erivo also in the running - their competition is Anya Taylor-Joy and Elizabeth Olsen's superhero turn in Marvel's WandaVision. The Crown and The Handmaid's Tale rule the supporting actress in a drama nominations, with From The North favourite Gillian Anderson, Helena Bonham Carter and Emerald Fennell all recognised for their roles in The Crown. British men are also in a strong position for best actor in a limited series/movie, with hopes resting on Paul Bettany (WandaVision), Ewan McGregor (Halston) and Hugh Grant (The Undoing). They'll be up against Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda and Leslie Odom Junior - a film of the musical that was supposed to be released in cinemas but changed tack due to the pandemic. In the best supporting actor in a drama series, there are three nominations for The Handmaid's Tale for From The North favourite Bradley Whitford, Max Minghella and OT Fagbenle. Tobias Menzies is also in the mix for his role as the Duke of Edinburgh in The Crown. Star Wars spin-off show The Mandalorian was mainly recognised in the technical categories. Best drama nominees alongside The Crown and The Mandalorian are The Boys, Bridgerton, The Handmaid's Tale, Lovecraft Country, Pose and This Is Us. Horror series Lovecraft Country also earned recognition for its stars Jurnee Smollett and Jonathan Majors in the best actress/actor in a drama, despite HBO cancelling the show after just one season. Other lead actress nominees in the former category alongside The Crown's Colman and Corrin and Smollett are Uzo Aduba (The Treatment), From The North favourite Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale) and Pose's MJ Rodriguez, who becomes the first trans woman to be nominated for a major acting EMMY. Bridgerton's popular star Regé-Jean Page - who won't be returning for series two - is up for best lead actor in a drama, as is Sterling K Brown (This Is Us), Billy Porter (Pose) and Matthew Rhys (Perry Mason). Black-ish, Cobra Kai, Emily In Paris, Hacks, The Flight Attendant, Pen15, Ted Lasso and The Kominsky Method are nominated for outstanding comedy series. Jason Sudeikis is up for best comedy actor for his turn as the titular Ted Lasso, a US American football coach employed to be a football manager in the England. Wins for Ted Lasso would mark a breakthrough for Apple TV - Netflix has never won a series award at the EMMYs either. Sudeikis is joined by Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method), William H Macy (Shameless), Anthony Anderson (Black-ish) and Kenan Thompson for Kenan. Ted Lasso and Saturday Night Live dominate both the supporting actor and actress categories for comedy series, with Kenan Thompson, also nominated as leading actor in a comedy series in his self-titled show, recognised here too for SNL. Lead actress in a comedy nominees are Aidy Bryant for Shrill, Kaley Cuoco for The Flight Attendant, From The North favourite Allison Janey for Mom, Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish) and Jean Smart for Hacks. Smart also gets a second nomination in the best supporting actress in a drama category for Mare Of Easttown. The ceremony takes place on 19 September. Cedric the Entertainer, who stars in the Eye Network comedy The Neighbourhood, will host an awards show with a limited in-person attendance due to the pandemic. Previous multiple winners have included Succession, Game Of Thrones, Veep and Fleabag. The EMMYs are voted for by more than twenty five thousand members of the USA's Television Academy, which represents those in front and behind the small screen.
A legal battle between former members of The Sex Pistols - a popular beat combo of the 1970s, you might've heard of them - has begun in the High Court in London. Guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook are suing yer actual John Lydon to allow the use of their songs in a new Danny Boyle-directed TV series, Pistol. The show, which is being made by Disney, is based on Jones's memoirs. But Lydon has got all stroppy and discombobulated (how unusual for Our John) and said that he is not prepared to approve the necessary licences for the band's music unless ordered to by a court. Hence, they're all up a'fore the beak. The six-part show, based on Jones's Lonely Boy: Tales From A Sex Pistol, has reignited longstanding feuds among the surviving members of the band. On Thursday, Mark Cunningham QC, representing Lydon, said in written arguments that his client believes the book 'depicts him in a hostile and unflattering light.' Edmund Cullen, the lawyer representing Jones and Cook, called the relationship between the former bandmates 'bitter and fractious', noting how there had been failed attempts to resolve their differences. Cullen said that under the terms of a band agreement made in 1998, decisions regarding licensing requests could be determined on 'a majority rules basis.' He said Lydon was the only member of the band who was preventing the songs from being used by Oscar-winning director Boyle. Former bassist Glen Matlock and the estate of the late Sid Vicious both support the licensing, he noted. In a Sunday Times interview in April, Lydon said the script has been written and an actor selected to play him without his participation or consent and that he had been put 'in a corner like a rat.'
There is a splendid piece by Vice News's Cameron Joseph on the reporters who survived the January insurrection and are still covering Congress but are also still suffering from something akin to post traumatic stress disorder which this blogger wishes to draw your attention to, dear blog reader. You can find it here and it's well worth a few moments of your time.
It is going to be 'a difficult summer' with Covid cases in the UK possibly reaching two hundred thousand a day, the scientist whose modelling led to the first nationwide restrictions has suggested. Professor Neil Ferguson said there could be as many as two thousand hospital admissions per day, which would cause 'major disruption' to the NHS. England and Scotland are set to ease restrictions more or less as this blogger is writing this bloggerisationisms update. The UK recorded more than fifty thousand cases on both Friday and Saturday. The last time case numbers were that high was in mid-January. Professor Ferguson, who sits on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, told the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show it was 'almost certain' that the UK would reach one hundred thousand cases and one thousand hospital admissions per day as almost all legal restrictions on social contact end in England and school holidays begin. He said maintaining that level could be described as a success. 'The real question is do we get to double that, or even higher?' he said, though adding that it was 'much less certain' to predict. He said a further five hundred thousand people could get long Covid. Professor Ferguson said that the 'best projections' were that the peak of this wave could occur between August and mid-September and it would 'take around three weeks' to know the impact of relaxing restrictions. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has described England's approach to easing lockdown as 'cautious but irreversible.' Asked whether restrictions could be reintroduced, Professor Ferguson said there may be 'a need to slow the spread to some extent' if hospital admissions were to reach two or three thousand per day. 'It's going to be a difficult summer for many reasons. I think case numbers are likely to be declining at least by late September, even in the the worst-case scenario,' he said. 'Going into the the winter, I think we will have quite quite a high degree of immunity against Covid, the real concerns are a resurgence of influenza, because we haven't had any influenza for eighteen months.' He added that flu 'could be, frankly, almost as damaging both for health and the health system, by December or January, as Covid has been this year.' Earlier, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said there would be 'some quite challenging weeks ahead.' Social distancing rules will end in England on Monday, although government guidelines advise face coverings should still be worn in enclosed spaces such as in shops and on public transport. 'We will all need to exercise good judgement,' Jenrick told Sky News. And then announced that he would be taking part in the next series of Mastermind with his specialist subject being Stating The Bleedin' Obvious. Scotland will move to level zero of Covid restrictions this week, meaning pubs and restaurants can open until midnight. However, limits on outdoor meetings will remain, the return of workers to offices will be delayed and face coverings will still be mandatory. Most Covid rules in Wales are set to be scrapped from 7 August, but face coverings will still be required in most public places and on public transport. In Northern Ireland, restrictions will be eased further on 26 July, if approved at a review on 22 July.
Ministers decided to ditch mandatory face masks after being warned the UK economy would lose billions of pounds if people were made to wear them after 19 July according to i - if not a real newspaper. Modelling from reviews of social distancing and mass gatherings revealed public dislike for wearing face coverings at sporting, music and arts events. Keeping compulsory face masks could cost the events and hospitality industries more than four billion knicker in lost revenues, the analysis suggested. An alleged - but anonymous and, therefore, almost certainly fictitious - Whitehall 'source' allegedly told the i that the research was 'compelling' and 'the driving force' behind the decision to scrap mandatory face masks when all restrictions are lifted in England. This was despite warnings by scientists from The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies that the Government should keep 'baseline measures# in place. It suggests that ministers are now 'following the economy' rather than 'the science' as the country grapples with an exit wave from the pandemic, the newspaper claims. Probably correctly. The public dislike for face masks in recreational settings such as football matches and live concerts is in contrast to broad support for coverings on public transport, which is regarded as a necessary inconvenience, the alleged source allegedly said.
And finally for this latest, brief, From The North bloggerisationisms update, dear blog reader something properly amusing. That Awful Hopkins Woman has been sent home from Australia for bragging about flouting the country's quarantine rules. Although in one regard this is a shame as she is, obviously, being sent back here. Couldn't you have just kept her, Australia, we really don't want her? She's horrible and nobody likes her. That Awful Hopkins Woman - who has often drawn anger for hideous bigoted and idiotic remarks on a whole range of subjects - had entered the country to appear in the reality TV show Big Brother Australia. On Friday, she posted a video from her Sydney hotel room where she sneered about putting frontline staff at risk. Her comments, of course, sparked widespread anger. In the video, That Awful Hopkins Woman said that she planned to 'lie in wait' for workers to deliver food to her room so she could open the door 'naked with no face mask.' She also called lockdowns the 'greatest hoax in human history.' Australia's two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, are both currently in lockdown after local cases of Covid-19 were detected. The post has since disappeared from her Instagram account. On Monday, the Australian government confirmed that it had cancelled That Awful Hopkins Woman's visa, after the TV programme sacked her sorry ass. Police said she had been fined one thousand Australian dollars for not wearing a face mask and was 'escorted' to the airport (for which read 'shoved in the back of a meat wagon and driven there at high speed') to be sent back to the UK. Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews called That Awful Hopkins Woman's comments 'appalling' and a 'slap in the face' for Australians in lockdown. 'Personally, I'm very pleased she'll be leaving,' she told broadcaster ABC. That Awful Hopkins Woman has not commented on her deportation, but on Sunday claimed - unconvicingly - that she had been 'joking' in the video. That Awful Hopkins Woman was extremely banned from Twitter last year for breaching its policy on 'hateful conduct.' Andrews said that the decision to allow That Awful Hopkins Woman to enter the country had been made by the New South Wales state government 'on the basis of potential benefit to the economy.' Or, in other words' nowt to do we me, mate.' But opponents accused the national government of 'allowing a far-right troll into Australia.' That Awful Hopkins Woman was also detained in South Africa in 2018 for 'spreading racial hate.' 'The decision is particularly painful for the thirty five thousand Australians who remain stranded overseas,' said Labour MP Andrew Giles. Australia closed its borders in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, preventing many citizens outside the country from returning. The policy has prolonged family separations. But dozens of celebrities, sports stars and others with exemptions have been able to bypass the rule.
