The Democrats are on course to pick up two more senators, in Georgia. Bible-belt Georgia. Republican Georgia. Despite Republican incumbent David Perdue finishing almost two points ahead of Democrat Jon Ossoff, he missed Georgia’s 50% threshold by 0.27% of the vote, kicking the election into a runoff vote. This should have been in the bag for the GOP.

It was one of the reasons Guido was comfortable with a Biden presidency. So long as Congress remained split, Biden would not have been able to do anything too radical. Yet Trump’s post-election flailing conspiracies have now lost his party their consolation prize. Trump being a bad loser appears to have lost the Republicans Georgia

The message could have been clear, that the only way to prevent total Democratic control of the Presidency, House, and Senate was to elect just one more Republican Senator. Yet Trump’s insane insistence that he won – despite losing by the enormous margin of 52%-48% – threw the special election into chaos. No doubt that leaked “I just want to find 11,780 votes” call with Georgia officials was the last straw for many voters.

Now early indications are that Republicans stayed home. Either disgusted by GOP indulgence of the President’s behaviour, or frightened that the vote would be rigged. In Republican-controlled Georgia. As the last votes come in from some of the most metropolitan areas in the state, it’s clear Trump’s behaviour has lost what should have been an easy win for his party.

After BBC Radio Manchester reported they’d learnt May’s elections are likely to be postponed again over Covid safety concerns, Guido was immediately suspicious, given his read of the lockdown rules spotted specific government provisions allowing elections to go ahead.

It now seems someone has got their wires twisted as the government has now confirmed elections will go ahead in May as planned, with both the Department for Local Government and CCHQ reassuring candidates. A Cabinet Office spokesperson says:

“Legislation provides that the elections will go ahead in May 2021.

“We continue to work closely with the electoral community and public health bodies to resolve challenges and ensure everyone will be able to cast their vote safely and securely – and in a way of their choosing

“Measures are planned to support absent voting at short notice. Guidance will be published in good time ahead of the polls and this matter will be kept under review.”

Thankfully, Londoners won’t have yet another year of unaccountable leadership from Sadiq Khan…

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi was sent out firefighting this morning, to reassure pundits of the government’s self-professed moonshot vaccination targets and pour cold water on a couple of stories in the papers today. Firstly Zahawi was pulled up on his maths by Sky’s Niall Paterson who pointed out that the two million doses a week Boris said may be possible will not be enough to hit the government’s desired 14 million vaccination target by mid-February. Zahawi “absolutely” accepted this point:

On the outrage-inducing Telegraph splash that Public Health England will not deliver Covid vaccines on Sundays – nor after agreed “cut-off points” every lunchtime, even if supplies are running low – Zahawi promises PHE will vaccinate 7 days per week: “they will work whatever days we need them, PHE will make sure that happens every single day, every vaccine delivery that we request will happen.”

The third vaccine story making waves today, feeding into the general sense the government is not working at the pace required, is the claimed snubbing by ministers of pharmacies’ offers to help roll out one million doses per week – being greeted by a “de facto silence”. On this Nadhim claims this is “not at all” the reality and community pharmacies are “coming online”, though there are dual focuses on optimising the sites already set up to administer the vaccine, as well as opening new sights such as pharmacies.

Zahawi comes across as sounding fairly on the ball – he’s got just over a month to prove it…

After 19 hours of being declared “Terminated for violating YouTube’s community guidelines”, the TalkRADIO YouTube channel has been reinstated. A YouTube spokesman said:

“TalkRadio’s YouTube channel was briefly suspended, but upon further review, has now been reinstated. We quickly remove flagged content that violate our Community Guidelines, including COVID-19 content that explicitly contradict expert consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization. We make exceptions for material posted with an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic purpose, as was deemed in this case.”

A whole working day and declared ‘termination’ doesn’t sound like a ‘brief suspension’ to Guido…

The horror show presser slides in full:

Following Guido’s earlier story of Ian Lavery’s classic antivaxxer tropes about the vaccination effort necessary to end this new lockdown. The former Labour Party Chairman said:

“It’s absolutely outrageous, why would anybody have any confidence in the vaccine?”

“I have got concerns about how these vaccines have come onto the market when it would normally take ten years and this took four month”

“It normally takes three or four years for this to pass through the regulatory procedures, and it hasn’t taken three or four weeks.”

“Of course I’ve got concerns, massive concerns about this government and the lack of trust.”

Of course, Lavery’s concerns were factually incorrect given most vaccines were first made a year ago, and have been through worldwide parallel trials over the last 12 months to ensure safety and efficacy. A few hours after Guido’s story went to pixel, Lavery has come out with what looks like an almost apology, claiming his words have been “taken out of context”. Guido understands the statement came about after a stern talking to from the Leader of the Opposition’s Office…

Let me be crystal clear, the way out of this pandemic is for people to take up the opportunity of a jab as soon as contacted by the NHS. pic.twitter.com/HMUdZjsif8

— Ian Lavery MP (@IanLaveryMP) January 5, 2021

A Labour Party spokesperson told Guido the party had “nothing to add” to Lavery’s statement. Starmer’s campaign for a new law to ban anti-vaxxer conspiracies has apparently been replaced by the impression that a quick stern talking to and half apology will do. Another MP caught on Zoom by us later claiming his words “were taken out of context”.  Guido’s not sure what possible other context absolves Lavery’s parroting of classic antivaxx tropes…