We’re about three weeks into 2021 and already it’s been an insane year. From, the bizarre to the terrifying to the downright criminal, January has been a wild ride. In case you’ve missed anything, here’s what’s happened.
- Lockdown 3
Now here’s an event you definitely couldn’t have missed. Four days after New Years, when we were all meant to be coming back to Lancaster after Christmas, the country came to a halt for the third time. As it turns out, opening the schools during a worldwide pandemic causes the virus to transmit quicker! Who’d have known… (apart from Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, and many, many other countries with thousands fewer cases and deaths than the UK).
2. Bean Dad
This is by far the weirdest drama to grace Twitter so far this year. In a thread of now-deleted tweets, an American dad boasted about how he let his hungry daughter attempt to open a tin of beans for 6 hours, rather than teaching her how.
In his opinion, this was the pinnacle of good parenting – rather than the weird approach to feeding your hungry kid that it is.
And then Twitter did what Twitter does best, it dove into his timeline and found a whole host of homophobic, racist, and sexist tweets. As a result, the popular podcast My Brother, My Brother, & Me stopped using his song as their introduction – and so the fable of Bean Dad ended.
3. Kanye West is having an Affair With… Jeffree Star?
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are apparently divorcing, and the alleged catalyst for this is that Kanye has been sleeping with Jeffree Star.
This rumour apparently sparked from TikTok and was backed up by an Instagram post by Jeffree, with a caption apparently referencing Kanye’s new album. Of course, these rumours have been refuted by sources apparently close to the Kardashians and Jeffree made a video to address them, stating that he is single and likes ‘very tall men’.
It is a testament to the madness of 2021 that this is not the wildest thing that has happened so far.
4. Storming Capitol Hill
Watching the news on the 6th and 7th of January was like watching a horror story. Pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol building, attempting to disrupt the certification of the election, leading to 5 deaths.
Trump and his sycophantic followers encouraged them on and the pictures from that day are nightmarish – offices looted and vandalised, things were stolen and broken, windows shattered, and graffiti was scrawled everywhere. It’s been called a failed insurrection, which leads to our next big event…
5. Trump Impeached Again
Trump’s only notable achievement is that he is the only President in US history to be impeached twice. On the 13th of January, he was impeached once more for the incitement of an insurrection, thanks to his encouragement of his supporters storming Capitol Hill. Hopefully the next step is for him to be arrested.
6. Joe Biden Sworn Into Office
On the 20th of January, Joe Biden was officially inaugurated as the 46th president of America, with Kamala Harris as his vice-president, making history as the first female VP of the U.S. Lady Gaga sang the national anthem, and J-Lo was also there for some reason!
Biden has already issued his first executive orders, which include a mandate to re-join the Paris climate accords and is expected to roll back many other Trump policies as well, focusing on immigration and healthcare over the coming weeks. One of his very first actions was to remove the Diet Coke button that Trump has installed in the Oval Office.
7. Shambolic Tory Food Parcels
The pandemic has meant that families living in poverty have had an extremely rough go of it, especially with schools being closed. Last year, thanks to tireless campaigning by the likes of Marcus Rashford, provisions were made so that children didn’t have to worry about going hungry.
But a photo was shared by a mum on Twitter showing the disgraceful offerings given out by catering company, Chartwells: a loaf of bread, a single tin of beans, two carrots, three apples, two potatoes, some cheese wrapped in clingfilm, two bananas, two Soreen loaves, a tiny bag of pasta and ONE tomato – meant to feed hungry children for a week.
The worst part is that this was meant to be £30 worth of food. People have done the maths and, from Asda, these measly offerings would have totalled around £5. Thanks to social media backlash, Chartwells have stated that they will be refunding the costs of the parcels, and some schools have cancelled the boxes completely and have returned to the voucher scheme that was running last year.
We’re not even a full month into the year and I am reeling. Hopefully 2021 will be better than the absolute shambles we endured last year – although if the whole year is as much of a rollercoaster as January has been, that might not be possible.
