Tuesday 21 April: Outbreaks of coronavirus never will be ‘all over’, so we must live with it

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be blacklisted.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/04/20/lettersoutbreaks-coronavirus-never-will-must-live/

932 thoughts on “Tuesday 21 April: Outbreaks of coronavirus never will be ‘all over’, so we must live with it”

  1. Well there was your romantic anniversary dinner. The only restaurant open on Monday night was a chippie, so take out haddock and chips it was.

    This covid certainly is cutting the cost of living, last year it was a couple of nights in Niagara on the Lake with a chic hotel, theatre and golf; we paid more on the toll road last year than tonight cost.

    I leave you with a view of sunset over the old school house.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/815f45d844a10f31a1b3a730a38a8aec378077a01257fb2d9a70647d869cce94.jpg

    1. Restaurants are open in your neck of the woods, richardI? Whereabouts do you live?

      1. Only for takeout. Quite a few that would have never lowered themselves to anything other than formal table service are now existing through the introduction of takeout service.

        We are I southern Ontario, there is a little pimple hanging down into lake Ontario and we are there.

        1. Same here. Local ones say they have never been so busy.
          We eat takeaway once a week now. Got to support local industry.

          1. Hmm, good idea. Perhaps we ought to start doing that as well. We never eat out where we live normally (why would we when we’ve got a perfectly good kitchen at home?). I did go and spend a lot of money in a local business that was allowed to reopen yesterday though.

  2. Two tourists were driving through Louisiana. As they were approaching Natchitoches, they started arguing about the pronunciation of the town’s name.

    They argued back and forth until they stopped for lunch.

    As they stood at the counter, one tourist asked the blonde employee, “Before we order, could you please settle an argument for us?

    Would you please pronounce where we are… very slowly?”

    The blonde girl leaned over the counter and said, “Burrrrrrrr, gerrrrrrr, Kiiiiing…”

    1. My wife and I had an amusing experience in New England a few years ago. We’d been visiting Boston for the day we picked the car up in the station car set off for Falmouth where we were staying. We’d missed dinner and decided to get a take away.
      Drove into the lane at Burger King and opening the car window i asked for two whoppers and fries. “You want whaat” ?
      I repeated, two whoppers and fries.
      “Yoo waant Two whaat” ?
      Okay I said, Two whaaperrs and fries. That did trick. But the spotty young staff all had their heads against the kiosk window we supposedo that they thought we must have been aliens.

      1. My daughter’s experience in English classes in Germany:
        Teacher wanted a translation for “höflich”
        My daughter sticks up her hand “polite”
        What? says the teacher
        “Polite” says my daughter.
        Teacher still doesn’t get it.
        Daughter then had a flash of genius and said very clearly “Po – lite” with a strong German accent
        Correct, said the teacher happily.

        Those English lessons were awful. I used to have to tell them not to use the words they learned out of the text book. Yes, I am a snob 🙁

    2. Glad to see the History teacher has escaped from corralling the Bash Street Kids.

  5. Fifth today – time to go to bed I guess. Good night all (richardI, NoToNanny and Citroen1.) To everyone else: “Good morning, NoTTLers!”)

  6. ‘Morning All

    The Rancid Billionaire has his begging bowl out amid shrill whines all over the world…………..

    The Virgin Group founder said, “In most countries, federal

    governments have stepped in, in this unprecedented crisis for aviation,

    to help their airlines. Sadly, that has not happened in Australia.”

    He also took a swipe at Qantas – “our competitor’ – adding that he would

    do all he could to get the business up and running again.

    https://australianaviation.com.au/2020/04/video-branson-attacks-government-pays-tribute-to-virgin-staff/
    I imagine he pays about as much tax there as he does here……………..

    1. Morning Rik. If your assumption is correct – “I imagine he pays about as much tax there as he does here” ….. the clue is in the name virgin i.e. The square root of F A…..

    2. ‘Morning Rik, Branson is an @ss and doesn’t give a fig about his staff. Virgin Australia has gone into voluntary liquidation after the Aussie Gov refused to give them a £710million bailout. Most of that debt will be written off and the SMEs that supply goods and services will be the ones that lose out and go bust.

      Fat Cat Branson will be alright though and will be back flogging his Virgin airline in Australia as soon as this COVID lark is over.

    1. Bill and Melinda Gates? This will come as a surprise to Pretty Polly – she reckons it is all controlled by George Soros.

    2. In a DT article about PPE being sent Overseas from this country they had the following:

      “ The company has managed to supply the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust with a number of face shields and goggles after sidestepping the government’s procurement process, it is understood.”

      It is not The government’s procurement process That is the problem. It is the NHS’s procurement process. It has always been a nightmare with multiple approvals needed both nationally and locally before you can actually supply goods to the NHS.

  11. Good morning, all. Sunny, cold wind – again.

    I was thinking during the night. If the over 70s really are supposed to stay at home until next year (or until a vaccine is found) – whichever is the later….what are they going to do if I choose to take a holiday in France? Stop me at the Channel Tunnel? Arrest me?? Impound the car?

    1. They’ll put you in The Jungle in Calais and tell you to make your own way home.

      You’ll be issued with a recent illegal immigrant from a beach near Dover, to act as your mentor and procurement officer..

      1. And that’s another thing – why are those hundreds of illegals immediately shipped back to Macronia?

          1. “You’ve no chance with a story like that, why don’t you b off back to Afghanistan?”

    2. Lots of discarded inflatable rubber boats available along the Kent/Sussex shoreline. One careful owner. Bring your own paddles.

    4. I think they are questioning people at the borders, and you have to provide a good reason before being allowed into the country.
      Or just get in a dinghy, but I’m not sure if that works in the UK -> France direction.

      1. You need an “international travel document” which sets out very limited categories of reason for entry into yer France.

          3. You are allowed to return to your French residence. Cutting the grass there may be problematic, though – since you have to stay in your house and grounds.

  12. US oil prices turn negative as demand dries up. BBC. 21 April 2020.

    In the United States and elsewhere, oil-producing businesses have made commercial decisions to cut output. But still the world has more crude oil than it can use.

    And it’s not just about whether we can use it. It’s also about whether we can store it until the lockdowns are eased enough to generate some additional demand for oil products.

    Morning everyone. It now costs more to produce shale oil than it can be sold for. Not only that we are sat on an ocean of crude for which there are no customers. Oh for the happy days of Peak Oil! 1995 I think it was!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52350082

    1. Morning Minty. I did my bit whilst doing an ‘essential’ good deed yesterday by topping up my tank. My receipt tells me I managed to drain the ocean of diesel currently available by 20.5 litres (four and a half gallons)!

      1. I am just thrilled that I filled my car to the brim on arrival in Blighty on 21 March – when prices were sky high! Have only driven 60 miles since then….

        1. Fret not. As soon as there’s any hint of nationwide prisoner early release, the price of fuel will magically return to those stomach churning highs (especially if the government needs to recoup some of the billions it is currently busy sloshing around the country)…

        2. I last filled up sometime in January. Since we returned home from our trip to Kenya on 6th March, I’ve done five miles per week for the supermarket round trip.

    2. ‘Morning, Minty, perhaps this will give the oil-producing countries a taste of what it will be like when we go all-electric…

      …oh, wait a minute.

  13. Amusing (not) that teachers – having had a full pay cushy time since the schools were closed – and who claimed to have the best interests of their pupils in mind – have said that they will not under any circumstances agree to going back in August to allow the children to catch up a bit.

    The dear old MR said that she was certain all teachers would want to do their damnedest to get the young back on course – and start teaching end July. But then the darling voted Limp Dumb, didn’t she?

      2. We still ran our residential French courses in France during the Easter holidays but by an Internet link and the parents and students were delighted. As we could not provide the normal board and lodging and cultural expeditions and projects we only charged just a quarter of the normal fee. I submitted an article about it to the Daily Telegraph’s education editor but she didn’t even bother to reply.

        The Telegraph is far more interested in populist rubbish than well written articles like wot i rite.

  14. There is an interesting piece over on ZH about an American College tutor who is advising students not enrol for university starting in the Autumn as there is no guarantee that there will be lectures or indeed if campuses will be open. Given the fees students are expected to pay (Richard C has chapter & verse) in the UK it will be a difficult call for many contemplating starting uni in 2020. Who’d be a Bursar?

    1. Who’d be a Bursar? These days certainly not anyone with a head for figures…..

    2. A friend told me last week that his son is very busy on his university course. He is studying Engineering and is getting online classes and lectures. Any work he produces is uploaded to the university and the lecturers mark and comment on it.

      Presumably if they rolled out this system everywhere it would not work because not everyone studying PPE, Sociology and Media has internet at home or a laptop to work on. Well that would be the cry from the usual suspects.

    3. Last September, my grand-daughter started her first year at Kent University.
      What with lecturers’ strikes followed by C19, that year has disappeared down the tubes.
      I wait to hear what happens to those fees.

  15. Morning again

    SIR – Some years ago a colleague was being treated unsuccessfully for high blood pressure. It turned out that he had been given medication that black people rarely respond to, because they lack the enzyme that allows it to work properly. As a result, doctors are generally taught to avoid this type of treatment for them.

    I do not know why people from some ethnic backgrounds appear to be more susceptible to the Covid-19 infection (report, April 20), but I do know that it would be unwise to grasp at hasty conclusions until the problem has been assessed thoroughly and objectively, using scientific methodology.

    Dr John Behardien

    Eccles, Lancashire

    1. The idea that the anti-racist, rabble rousing lobby is capable of displaying objectivity by using scientific methodology, is risible. Nice idea Dr Behardien, but no cigar.

        1. If the science were settled we would still be living in caves without any modern inventions. Wait a moment …………

  16. I see reports that Kim Young Un is “very poorly”. Oh, how sad.

    I wonder whether recent news that his sister (Kim Abit Younger) has made a sudden appearance on the scene could have a bearing on his “illness”…..

      1. The sinister sister came out of nowhere. Makes Young Un look positively open and welcoming.

  17. SIR – Despite the challenges we are facing, I am pleased that the British and EU negotiating teams continue, via online and telephone conferences, to work with one another to ensure that a full Brexit framework will be agreed by December 31.

    Given the way this pandemic has exposed the EU’s bankruptcy, it is vital that Britain regains its sovereignty by the end of this year, outside the customs union and single market. Only then will we be able to show leadership and give hope to the hundreds of millions of people across the Continent who want an alternative to the failed EU, one that is based on free trade or low tariffs, common defence through Nato rather than an EU army – and a respect for the sovereignty of each country.

    Daniel Kawczynski MP (Con)

    London SW1

    1. The dynamics of the EU are changing horribly for the worse since we left. The French are now trying to make themselves important.
      The EU could have been such a good organisation if it hadn’t shackled itself to the ball and chain of Brussels bureaucracy and theft.

      1. The EU has never been a good organisation. The common market, on the other hand, could have been.

    2. Dan is the MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham. I bent his ear at the mayor making ceremony. Poor bloke; I followed on from an Alderman who had given him a wigging about not getting us out of the EU and the bloke behind me took him to task as well.

  18. SIR – The College of Policing says we can’t buy paint or brushes to redecorate a kitchen. However, the regulations permit people to leave their home for “supplies for the essential upkeep, maintenance and functioning of the household”.

    Businesses that can stay open include “homeware, building supplies and hardware stores”. Supermarkets also sell paint and brushes, and the Government made clear that open shops can sell any of their products.

    Only the purchaser can be expected to judge what is essential or not.

    Cllr Rory Love (Con)

    Folkestone, Kent

    SIR – Tending my husband’s grave (report, April 16) was essential for me. It is not as though I could infect him or other residents of the cemetery, nor could they infect me. The replacement flowers were home-grown, the car had a welcome outing and I had a few minutes of much-needed reflection.

    June Green

    Bagshot, Surrey

    1. Is June Green’s hubby dead yet, or about to become a victim of cabin fever?
      EDIT: Spelling :-((

    2. It might be a good idea if the College of Policing actually read the law, and listened to the Government rather than just deciding which bits to make up and then enforce!? Fat chance of that happening, based on the performance so far!

      2. If we had a decent Home Secretary, she would have been down on them like a ton of bricks. Instead, she is Priti Awful.

        2. I don’t think she has fully recovered from the very nasty racist battering she was given by the filthy woke brigade many of whom deserve summary execution.

          As I said yesterday I haven’t yet given up all hope for her and, let’s face it, is there anyone in the government who would be any better?

          1. Maybe it is wise not to fight on too many fronts.
            Just quietly gather facts and allies and plan for a future where your actions will be noticed and have a greater chance of being effective.

      3. It might also be a good idea if the MSM actually read the law and reported on what it said rather than stoking confusion with their sensationalist headlines and ‘non’ stories.

    3. Well cllr Love.
      What you could say to the police when they ‘pull you over’ is, you had been all over the place trying to buy face masks just like the one you have officer, and also tried in vain to buy hand sanitiser just like the bottles you have in your car and at the police station. As you felt that your kitchen needed a damn good deep clean. But had an inspiring idea to buy some paint and brushes and repaint the kitchen so as to completly cover any outstanding germs to make it safe and newly hygienic.
      In orther words, just use your loaf….Rory love.x

  19. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: I can’t get no vaccination…

    They called it the biggest gathering of musical talent since Live Aid, although to be honest I hadn’t heard of half the acts involved.

    Charlie Puth, anybody? Little Mix? Leigh-Anne? Cheesy? Sounds like the sort of savoury cracker you put out with a dip before your virtual dinner party on Zoom — which until recently I always thought was a 1982 hit by Fat Larry’s Band.

    No Fat Larry on Sunday night, sadly, but some titans of the rock world did turn up for the Welcome To The World coronavirus singalong. They included Elephant John (© Eric Morecambe), the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Tom Jones, which wasn’t unusual.

    Jan Moir did the show justice in her own brilliant, inimitable way in yesterday’s Mail.

    But I couldn’t help thinking the event would have been even better if the stars had gone the extra mile and reworked some of their greatest hits for the coronavirus crisis.

    So with apologies to Mick’n’Keef, Macca, Elton and the great Barry Mason and Les Reed, who wrote Delilah, here’s what it could have sounded like.

    Laydees and gennulmen, would you please welcome to the COVAID stage, the Strolling Bones. As always, it helps if you sing along . . .

    (To the tune of Satisfaction)

    I can’t get no
    Vaccination.
    All I hear is
    Procrastination
    Will I die? Will I die?
    Will I die? Will I die?
    I can’t get no
    I can’t get no…

    When I’m drivin’ in my car,
    And a man comes on the radio
    Says I shouldn’t drive too far
    And spouts some useless information
    About the need for isolation
    I can’t get no
    No no, no

    P.P.E.
    That’s what I need…
    I can’t get no
    Vaccination
    I can’t get no
    Vaccination.

    Will I die? Will I die?
    Will I die? Will I die?
    I can’t get no
    I can’t get no

    When I’m watching my MP
    And he has the nerve to tell me
    About the lack of P.P.E.
    But he can’t be a man
    ’Cos he isn’t wearing
    A cheap paper mask like me
    I can’t get no
    No, no, no
    Hey, hey, hey
    No gloves today…

    I can’t get no
    Medication
    No more hand gel for
    Sanitation
    Will I die? Will I die?
    Will I die? Will I die?
    I can’t get no
    I can’t get no

    When I’m scouring the world wide web
    And I’m buying this
    And I’m buying that
    And I’m trying to find
    Some Twirls

    They tell me
    Baby better come back
    Maybe next week
    ’Cos we’ve flogged all our bog rolls
    To Paddy the Greek…
    I can’t get no
    No, no, no
    Hey, hey, hey
    No milk today.

    I can’t get no
    I can’t get no
    Vaccination
    No vaccination
    No vaccination
    No vaccination …

    (Get Off Of My Cloud)

    I live in an overcrowded
    Flat on the 99th floor
    So I head downstairs to the local park
    Just to get the hell out of my door
    Then along comes a Plod
    Who’s all dressed up
    In a fancy hi-viz vest
    He says: Move along now, son
    Or I’m putting you under arrest.
    He says: Hey, Hey!
    You, You!
    Get offa that grass!
    Hey, Hey!
    You, You!
    Get offa that grass . . !
    You can’t sunbathe here,
    So move your ass . . .

    (Step forward Tom Jones, to the tune of Delilah)

    I saw the flashing blue light
    As it shone through my window
    Wooh, wooh, wooh, wooh,
    Wooh, wooh . . .

    I heard the ambulance driver
    Stamp on the brakes
    Wooh, wooh, wooh, wooh,
    Wooh, wooh . . .

    She’d started sneezing
    Wooh, wooh, wooh, wooh,
    Wooh, wooh . . .

    So I dialled three nines just as soon
    As she got the shakes . . .
    My, my, my Corona
    Diddle, diddle, diddle,
    Diddle dum . . .

    Why, why, why Corona?
    Diddle, diddle, diddle,
    Diddle dum . . .
    I could see
    The woman was going to sneeze
    Into her elbow
    And she’d forgotten to roll up her sleeves.
    At break of day as they drove her away
    She was coughing
    Cough, cough, cough, cough,
    Cough, cough . . .

    I closed the windows and then I bolted the door
    Clunk, click, clunk, click,
    Clunk, click . . .
    I went into lockdown
    Clunk, click, clunk, click,
    Clunk, click . . .

    Poured myself a large VAT
    And then poured one more . . .
    My, my, my Corona
    Diddle, diddle, diddle,
    Diddle dum . . .

    Why, why, why Corona?
    Diddle, diddle, diddle,
    Diddle dum . . .

    Fortunately,
    She just had an allergy,
    It wasn’t Corona, she was just allergic to me . . .
    It wasn’t Corona, she was just allergic to ME!!!

    (Close your eyes and it could be Paul McCartney)

    In Penny Lane, there is a barber’s with the shutters down,
    And the draper has a sign that says he’s closed,
    All the people that used to come and go
    Have to stay at home . . .

    On the corner there’s a banker with a mobile phone
    And a hardware shop that’s close to going broke
    But the banker won’t give them a loan
    Funny bloke, what a joke.

    Penny Lane is in retreat and in despair
    Dying in the quiet suburban air
    Meanwhile, Asda flourishes . . .
    Near Penny Lane, there is an out-of-town superstore
    Selling bulbs and rhododendrons by the score
    But the garden centre can’t open its doors
    Any more, it’s the law . . .

    Penny Lane is in retreat and in despair
    The barber has been banned from cutting hair
    Meanwhile, Amazon knocks out clippers . . .
    There’s a roadblock in the middle of the roundabout
    Cars are stopping for a copper dressed in black
    And the copper wears a baseball hat
    What a prat, what a prat . . .

    In Penny Lane, the boozer doesn’t have a single customer
    The landlord’s livelihood is going down the drain
    But the supermarkets can sell the full range
    Of grape and grain, very strange . . .

    Penny Lane is in retreat and in despair
    Dying in the quiet suburban air
    And meanwhile, back in . . .

    Penny Lane is in retreat and in despair
    Dying in the quiet suburban air
    Penny Lane . . .

    (And finally, it’s the Rocketman himself, Elton John)

    And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time,
    This lockdown gets me down . . .

  20. Nottlers next time you visit the grocery shops, buy two bottles of olive oil. There is going to be a shortage soon. A plant disease is destroying olive groves all over southern Europe.

    1. Hush, RE.

      We know, there will be a shortage next!!
      It will become as rare as lavvy rolls!

      Good morning.

      1. Have you ever been to the Philippines? They have this delicacy called ‘balut’ which they sell all over the place. It is an egg that has been left in the tropical sun for a few weeks and eaten raw. Fertilised eggs are crunchy, and considered extra delicious, especially if the chick already has its feathers.

        I never tried it, which gave me away as an idiot foreigner, but they insisted that balut is an effective aphrodisiac.

    3. A few weeks ago, I had to chuck out 9 untouched bottles of olive oil from elderly chum’s pantry.
      Goodness knows why she had it as I doubt she’d ever used – or even tasted – the stuff in her life.
      The dates were practically archaeology.

    5. Good morning ECD

      There is also a shortage of egg boxes, that is why there is a shortage of eggs .. flour is plentiful, but there is also a shortage of small packaging.

      1. Keep your own egg boxes and take them to the farm. Around here there are a couple of farms which used to supply the catering trade which is closed down. I picked up 15 dozen for our village shop the other day – cost 2.50 a dozen – all laid that day.

        2. Nags,

          Why cannot eggs be sold in paper bags?

          They always used to be.

          Have we raised such a useless tribe that they are incapable
          of thought?

      2. Damn, I just sent two empty one dozen egg boxes to be recycled.
        I could do with some bread flour I don’t like all the preservatives in shop bought bread.
        The amount of cardboard now being used by mail order is incredible.
        Have you tried Dorset Tea ?
        We have some at the moment, it’s blended trade mark of Keith Spicer Ltd.

    6. Olive trees require a Mediterranean-like climate to survive. They need a long, hot summer and a cool, not frigid, winter.

      How varied is the climate in a certain Asian country?😎

      1. They do well in parts of Australia, but I don’t think they have cotton on to that yet.

      2. It depends.
        There is a type of olive tree from (I think) Portugal that flourishes in Blighty.
        We have them in tubs by the front door, which faces north east.
        (Fiver each from the Trinity Park plant sales about 8 years ago).

      3. My wife has one in a pot in our coastal Northumberland garden. She bought it at a local Woolworths about 20 or more years ago, when it was only a few inches tall. It’s always been out there, repotted as it grew larger. It’s about as tall as she is now.

        It flowers, but they come to nothing

        1. I lost my olive tree a couple of years ago. It did actually have olives on it, but they weren’t edible.

      1. I went to my Turkish barber the day before lockdown started & had myself shorn. Still looks very respectable & the beard is OK too.

        ‘Morning, Guapa.

        1. “Hey, good lookin’, what you got cookin’?”

          “Rhubarb crumble ‘n’ raspberry & apple pie.”

  22. Good Moaning.
    This letter caught my eye. Apologies if it’s already been posted, but I found it interesting and informative.
    Covid-19 and race

    SIR – Some years ago a colleague was being treated unsuccessfully for high blood pressure. It turned out that he had been given medication that black people rarely respond to, because they lack the enzyme that allows it to work properly. As a result, doctors are generally taught to avoid this type of treatment for them.

    I do not know why people from some ethnic backgrounds appear to be more susceptible to the Covid-19 infection (report, April 20), but I do know that it would be unwise to grasp at hasty conclusions until the problem has been assessed thoroughly and objectively, using scientific methodology.

    Dr John Behardien

    Eccles, Lancashire

  23. 318394+ up ticks,
    Now there’s a thought,
    but Richard would brown envelopes already accepted by the ” Honorable” fraternity have to be returned to Beijing by the “honorable” fraternity ?

    Plus we will as a nation be losing the asset of getting to Birmingham a quarter of an hour quicker, give thought to that.

    https://twitter.com/AgainBraine/status/1252258656059625472

    1. What is the origin of the pressure to build HS2? The saving 15 minutes travelling time claim is so pathetic I’m surprised it is still being given traction by the supporters of wasting >£100 billion. Spreading tax payers’ money in a form of largesse to very interested parties seems to be in the frame. If China appears in the list of recipients we will know that the UK has been locked in by previous governments.

      1. 318394+up ticks,
        Morning KtK,
        They are a coalition party first & foremost and decent scams are being closed down.
        The peoples will have to be satisfied by having a bang for their buck in the sound of the sonic boom as the train goes past MOST of them carrying MPs overseeing their realm.

      2. It was part of the EU’s TEN-T network. It should have been ditched when we “left” never mind that it doesn’t serve any useful purpose.

    2. tch tch ogga, surely you know that brown envelopes are NEVER returned?

      Braine’s suggestion will never happen, because civil servants and politicians don’t understand engineering. It’s all a big fat closed book to them, and engineering companies don’t tend to have effective Westminster lobbies.

      1. 318394+ up ticks,
        Morning BB2,
        The next one to be returned would be the first
        and then only for a refill.
        Richard Braines suggestion will never see the light of day because to allow it would be admitting that common sense issues must be suppressed, and in view of the fact they could seriously damage a maturing scam.

  25. Good Morning All,

    Another beautiful day.

    It was not until late last evening that I saw the question about how one becomes a Corvid19 volunteer.

    There are 2 levels that I know of. One is the local level. Contact your Parish or local Council – they will have a volunteer group. In my experience they will want ID and references.

    The National scheme is at Goodsamapp.org but it is closed at the moment – and honestly they have so many people that many are complaining that they are not being utilised.

      1. thank you. At this moment there is not a cloud in the sky. I have been attacking the garden – but have now run out of green bin capacity – so will have to wait until next week to complete the job.

        1. You’re lucky, Nagsman. My single garden waste bag is full and sitting in the garage. My local council suspended all garden rubbish collections as soon as the lockdown was announced. I did have a second garden waste bag, but it was emptied shortly before the lockdown and the wind blew it away!

          1. I guess I’m lucky – I’ve just generated a mountain of cypress trimmings and dumped them on my croft. Who needs council services? My waste bin and recycling bin gets emptied every couple of months because that’s how long it takes me to fill them. Food waste – don’t have any!
            Morning Elsie

        2. The sea was wet as wet could be,
          The sands were dry as dry.
          You could not see a cloud, because
          No cloud was in the sky:
          No birds were flying overhead –
          There were no birds to fly.

          [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson: Lennon and the Chippy]

      2. I rented a Nissan Sunny back in 1990. It was such a truly dull car we called it a Nissan Overcast!
        Morning, Garlands! :-))

  28. Just found this tin of peach halves at the bottom of the larder. A bit rusty, the mouse had actually chewed through the rust leaving a bit of shredded carrier bag in the hole, so it rattled rather than slurped when I shook it.

    Best before date is only March 2012 though – I’ve found plenty of things in my larder older than that. If I rehydrated it, would it be good for the visitors? Maybe if I disguised it with some tinned Kwik Save custard I also found here (and this slurped rather than rattled, so it must be ok)?

    I also found a milk container full of a brown liquid. I don’t think old milk ever turns that colour, and it doesn’t smell like beer. Any idea what it is, and whether I can serve it up as an aperatif to visitors?

    You’re all welcome by the way.

    1. My Mother had a jar of something in her fridge, that pre-dated best before dates – we reckon 199? something.
      It looked like fossilised Branston pickle, but the label said marmelade.
      She was furious when we threw it out.

    2. Any idea what it is, and whether I can serve it up as an aperatif to visitors?

      Morning Jeremy. It’s probably old engine oil. You should give it to any visitors from Officialdom!

    5. I have a tin of Chatka Russian Crab Meat, I am saving for best. The date is 1988, but it looks OK. I could bring it along.

  29. Will there be a second wave of coronavirus?. 21 April 2020.

    Epidemics of infectious diseases behave in different ways but the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people is regarded as a key example of a pandemic that occurred in multiple waves, with the latter more severe than the first. It has been replicated – albeit more mildly – in subsequent flu pandemics.

    Other flu pandemics – including in 1957 and 1968 – all had multiple waves. The 2009 H1N1 influenza A pandemic started in April and was followed, in the US and temperate northern hemisphere, by a second wave in the autumn.

    I recommend this article, though not to those of a nervous or morbid disposition!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/20/will-there-be-second-wave-of-coronavirus-

    1. I thought all those of a morbid or nervous disposition avoided The Guardian like the plague. Think of the brain damage caused by the Toynbee strain…..

      1. I wonder when enough of us feel like Kipling’s Saxon – it may have taken a while, but it’s getting to the hate stage.

      2. Anyone living in the wealthier suburbs of Los Angeles has a nervous disposition. It’s what gives Hollywood its edge as well as keeping psychotherapists in gainful employment.

        I haven’t checked their blacklist, but could it be that The Guardian is one of those tabloids that has avoided having its ‘By Appointment’ badge taken away by the Sussexes-in-exile?

      3. It used to be said that Britons abroad who read the Guardian never came home, as they thought Britain was too depressing.

    2. Wot I writted on the Letters Page:-

      Robert Spowart
      21 Apr 2020 11:44AM
      @Finian Manson @Mark Bodmer I’m afraid that flareups of the C-19 Wuhan Virus is something we are going to have to get used to exactly as we’ve gotten used to influenza, in it’s various forms, periodically flaring up.

  30. Good morning all
    Getting ready for my 10.30 Physio video appointment.
    I’m sure it’s been said already but Happy 94th Birthday to Her Majesty the Queen. Three Cheers for HM.

        1. Very – thanks. Except that I appear to have a mild form of bronchitis. Prolly take me off…..

          1. Don’t you go disappearing again. It was hard enough getting you back last time. 😂

    2. The blades are not made of steel, but glassfibre. What you are looking at there is likely droplet erosion of the leading edges due to them slicing into sea spray – this is countered in jet aircraft, for example, by having the wing leading edge made of stainless steel.

      1. Morning Paul , In my 16 years in the RAF I never heard of a leading edge made of SS with the exception of the Blue Steel missile which was made entirely of SS

      1. Wind farm industry gets huge dollop of other people’s money from their generous friends in government in order to fix totally unexpected damage to windmills.

      2. Not corrosion, but abrasion. Though they appear to be rotating at a fairly relaxed RPM, the speed of these blades through the air is deceptively fast and airborne water droplets rapidly erode the outer coating of the blade allowing the water to get into the fibre matrix, causing it to delaminate.

  33. Am I alone in thinking that the religious concept of fasting and prayer (whatever the religion – and Islam got the idea from Judaism and Christianity), because starvation “focuses the mind”, is stupid at the best of times and especially so if you’re trying to ward off disease? Abandon self-indulgence maybe but then one should do that most of the time anyway.

    1. Good medical advice

      1. F***ing once a week is good for your health, but its harmful if done every day.

      2. F***ing relaxes your mind & body.

      3. F***ing refreshes you.

      4. After F***ing don’t eat too much; go for more liquids.

      5. Try F***ing in bed cause it can save you valuable energy.

      6. F***ing can even reduce your cholesterol levels.

      So remember, Fasting is good for many aspects of health & may the good Lord cleanse your dirty mind.

      1. Manners, ‘Morning, Sue – and I don’t think it’s your mind that might need cleansing.

    2. Absolutely not, ‘morning Sue. In an atmosphere where someone doesn’t have to work and is not surrounded by germs there may be some existential justification or beneficial experience in limited fasting, but to do so in our current society seems rather un-together thinking.

      That said, I suppose in terms of numbers we are told many of the fasting ones are unemployed anyway, aren’t they? I’ve always thought that I wouldn’t like to be operated on by a surgeon who is fasting during Ramadan, though.

      It’ll be interesting to see if Plod is out and about to enforce separation. I have a suspicion that Plod will be looking very hard the other way today…

    3. Morning, Sue.

      Not in the least, Sue. Fasting has been proved (by up-to-date medical science) to be hugely beneficial to both body and mind.

      I commenced on a one-meal-a-day (OMAD) fast in January and have so far lost two stones in weight. I do not get hungry between meals and I feel much better physically. My mental acuity is sharpened, I am much calmer and relaxed and I sleep like a log.

      I would seriously recommend an OMAD diet to anyone who has any form of recurrent health problems such as obesity, diabetes or depression.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgy4lMS-eIw&list=WL&index=18

      1. I’ve been eating one meal a day (most days) for over 20 years. It’s easy to do, once the body is acclimatised. In fact, breakfast, lunch & dinner make me feel heavy and lazier than usual.

        1. I have only a very light lunch (about 200 calories) and a proper dinner in the evening. Breakfast is a glass of water and a cup of coffee. Been like that for years.

    4. If you are ill, in Islam you do not need to fast, nor abstain from consumption of water.

    6. Islamic fasting means abstaining from food and, more importantly, drink between dawn and dusk. Not having anything to drink for up to 14 hours a day is plain stupid. And come sundown, Muslims gorge themselves to make up for their fast during the day.

      1. Bisarrely, the Gulf Arabs get fatter during Ramadan than at other times. I believe that’s not the general idea… and they are even more useless at work, if that’s even possible.

        1. “And they are even more useless at work, if that’s even possible”

          After ten years experience of running projects in the M.E it is definitely possible.

          1. Afternoon, Hoppy.

            Don’t you find the “aversion to work” syndrome common throughout all third-world nations?

          2. Morning Grizzly, “aversion to work” is an art form with most third-world nations. On one project in Qatar we had all sorts of fun and games. A number of Qataris had to be included in the team, we very quickly realised that they would not do any meaningful work so employed additional staff to cover them. You then add in two Indian supervisors, one from a higher caste than the other; they used to argue like cat and dog and the ‘higher caste’ guy basically just treated the Filipinos, Sri Lankans etc. as lowest of the low. We couldn’t remove him so basically just gave him tasks that involved minimal contact with the rest of the team.
            Basically you factor in that you have to at least double your team numbers to get the works completed on schedule. Then it’s a case of juggling the different nationalities to avoid all the racism and bullying that can go on.
            You soon realise that the UK is the most tolerant, non-racist country in the World. When I see the usual suspects bleating about how bad we are, I just wish that I could take them onto one of these projects to see what the rest of the World is like.

          3. Afternoon, Hoppy.

            I know what you mean. When I was an aviation screening supervisor in the immediate wake of the twin towers atrocity, screening levels were raised in the UK. Frequently I had an inspector from the Department for Transport (DfT) closely scrutinising our operations to ensure that passengers and their luggage were being screened to their exacting standards. On such day, during lull in proceedings, I spoke to one of the more approachable inspectors and asked him about his remit. He told me that he would often be invited to foreign countries to watch and advise on their screening practices.

            He told me that once he was sent to some unknown Arab country where he stood watching the screening of luggage. The operator on the X-ray machine was sitting sideways on to the screen and chatting away to a colleague, completely ignoring the line of suitcases etc passing through the machine. After a while he approached the operator and asked if he thought it might be better if he sat facing the screen. The operator simply shrugged, turned his chair around to face the screen, then turned his head back away and continued the conversation with his colleague, still ignoring the screen!

            Since the inspector was only there as a guest in an advisory capacity he was powerless to do anything except fill in a report, one which he knew would not be acted upon.

      2. I am not Islamic (in fact I am not religious at all) but my one-meal-a-day diet is hugely beneficial. I drink all day, though, between 4–5 pints of water, but solid food is only taken at my solitary meal around 13:00 hrs. I don’t get hungry and I don’t feel the need to gorge.

        1. Same here. When I want to lose weight, I stick to one meal a day. It works for me – I don’t feel hungry, and I enjoy my solitary meal. Going without any liquid during the day is, however, madness.

    7. You are speaking of rather extreme fasting. I don’t know any Christian who starves themselves in order to focus their mind.
      Lent doesn’t require you to starve, only eat frugally. Lent is in tune with the seasons in the northern hemisphere, i.e. there is not a great deal of food in spring.
      As I get older, I find my body reacts more to the seasons, or maybe I notice it more. I often get stressed in Jan/Feb/March (vit d deficiency perhaps), and a period of restraint and prayer is very beneficial. Christianity is very well thought out.
      Islamic fasting I find extreme and stupid – it is one of many reasons why I reject any idea of embracing Islam. It doesn’t travel well to extreme northern or southern climates, as the days are too long – potentially 24 hours above the artic circle for example. You are supposed to do a full day’s work while not eating or drinking, which is ridiculous and dangerous. Plus they starve through the day and gorge at night, lurching from one extreme to the other, completely out of sync with the natural body clock.
      Sensible fasting is very healthy though. I usually have my last snack at 5 -6 pm, and breakfast between 7 -8 am, leaving a gap of about 14 hours. I do this mini-fast to allow my blood sugar to go low. My lifestyle is very unhealthy, with a lot of sitting at a computer eating chocolate to try and keep alert, so I have to do something to keep my blood sugar down.

      1. Ah, I have to stop my blood sugar becoming too low. That causes stress and anxiety.

      2. Ah, I have to stop my blood sugar becoming too low. That causes stress and anxiety.

    1. That’s what I’ve been reading. Various studies have shown this, and I believe Tucker Carlson has mentioned it on his show,but no reporters have picked it up, or if they have, they haven’t raised it with the PTB. So the question is, why not? If I know about it, why doesn’t the UK government, or any of its intrepid reporters.
      Also, see my post of a couple of minutes ago.

      1. Or they could be winding each other up. They seem to be familiar with each other and this could be part of an ongoing routine.

    4. Similar position here, Rik – well before lockdown it was estimated that at least 100,000 and possibly as many as 250,000, had already been infected here, and possibly a whole lot more. Unfortunately I can’t find the article now.

  35. Have just posted this over on CW:
    Research suggests that being in enclosed spaces, i.e. home, London Underground Tube train, are more dangerous and conducive to virus spread than being outside:

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4504358/

    The H1N1 “Spanish flu” outbreak of 1918–1919 was the most devastating pandemic on record, killing between 50 million and 100 million people. Should the next influenza pandemic prove equally virulent, there could be more than 300 million deaths globally. The conventional view is that little could have been done to prevent the H1N1 virus from spreading or to treat those infected; however, there is evidence to the contrary. Records from an “open-air” hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, suggest that some patients and staff were spared the worst of the outbreak. A combination of fresh air, sunlight, scrupulous standards of hygiene, and reusable face masks appears to have substantially reduced deaths among some patients and infections among medical staff. We argue that temporary hospitals should be a priority in emergency planning. Equally, other measures adopted during the 1918 pandemic merit more attention than they currently receive.

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/04/20/tucker_carlson_why_are_our_leaders_hurting_us_on_purpose_our_fear_makes_us_easier_to_control.html

    TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS: Two Sundays ago, a Colorado man called Matt Mooney went to a park near his house to throw a ball with his wife and six-year-old daughter. The park was deserted, which meant the Mooneys were standing alone in a field. The police came anyway. They handcuffed Matt Mooney in front of his family and threw him in the back of a cruiser. By state order, Colorado residents were required to stay stay in their homes. Mooney was outside. So he was taken into custody.

    The next day, Jared Polis, who is the governor of Colorado, issued an executive order extending his lockdown until the end of April. Polis included no scientific justification for the decision. Instead, he summed up his reasoning with a line fit for a tank top. Quote: “Simply put, by staying home, Coloradans are saving lives.”
    Last week, when Duval County, Florida reopened its beaches, Twitter lit up with the hashtag, “Florida Morons.” The Washington Post wrote an entire piece celebrating the fact that families in Jacksonville were being attacked on social media. It was another opportunity to deliver a blast of nasty self-righteousness — as if America needed more of that.

    But let’s […] consider the science. What does the research tell us about being outside? As it happens, there’s quite a bit of it. It turns out — and you may have guessed this, because it’s obvious — that enclosed spaces are a dangerous place to be in a pandemic. That was the conclusion of a study earlier this month in the Journal of the Amercian Medical Association. USA Today quoted one of the authors of the study, an MIT professor. She put it this way, quote: “When one is outside, with air circulation or wind, the [virus] is easily dispersed and less concentrated.”

    Another study, from earlier this month, was more specific. It looked at 320 towns in China over a period of more than a month, in order to determine how the Coronavirus spreads. The most common place patients were infected: their homes. Eighty percent of outbreaks began there. Thirty four percent of new cases began on public transportation. The conclusion? Quote: :All identified outbreaks of three or more cases occurred in an indoor environment, which confirms that sharing indoor space is a major [Coronavirus] infection risk.”

    So, the mantra of stay indoors, protect the NHS, save lives, and the police arresting or bullying people for going to the park or the beach? No scientific evidence to back up their claims, but evidence for the opposite, as long as people are sensible. Most people have been sensible, and have gone outside for fresh air, exercise, sunshine, all of which boost their immune systems, and haven’t congregated in large groups. But the Stasi police have still behaved like the little tin-pot H*tlers that they’ve always wanted to be, with the backing of would-be dictator politicians (and I’m not including Boris or Trump in this, as I don’t believe that’s their natural inclinations. It’s the Democrat governors, the likes of Damian Collins MP who is so keen on censorship, Macron, etc).

    1. Is it not better than we take care of our physical and mental wellbeing during this period? Sunshine, fresh air, exercise, a change of scenery and respite from being with our family 24/7 will ensure that we emerge from this lockdown fairly intact. Does the government want us to be unhealthy, depressed, nervous wrecks at the end of this? They should be actively encouraging people to get out in the sunshine rather than huddling at home.

      1. There was an interesting appeal from a mental health charity on TV last night – apparently they are being inundated by requests for help and it’s only week 4 (or is it 5???)

  36. Gardening advice required. I recently bought some frittilaries. Some of the flower heads are seeding.

    My question is…will they grow into new plants or are they sterile?

    Thank you.

      1. Thank you Mr Kingy. Your suggestions are about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike….as usual. 🙂

        1. Well, here’s a useful suggestion: Best not to site one directly above the petrol tank….

    3. How long are you prepared to wait, could take a few years and they need damp land to grow well.

    4. I planted some late last year. None have come up.
      In the past, I’ve had them seed themselves into new plants.

      1. I have given up on raising seeds. Takes too long for me. I’m prepared to do it for squashes and trombetti because when they come up they are quite large as seedlings.

  38. Why is there a shortage of PPE ?

    Why is there a shortage of repurposed drugs and a lack of interest in testing and innovation ?

    Almost certainly because the UK secretly signed up to the recommendations of Bill Gates’ “Event 201” which required equipment and drug pooling between nations as part of a global response to a pandemic.

    It’s all in the small print and as the WHO recommended it, the UK probably signed away her independence to Bill Gates who is now involved with the NHS at the top level.

      2. Exactly, looks like it’s all being shared out and exported under the terms of “Event 201”.

        Ministers seem to have pretty well given up.

        I wonder if anyone got paid off ?

        1. I will have you know Ms Parrot, that I earned this directorship on my merits and my large experience as an ex-Minister!

  40. Sweden is going to be justified in letting out a big shout of “We told you so!” when this is all over:

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-swedish-experiment-looks-like-it-s-paying-off

    I would like to see the government return to the approach of issuing guidelines on how to protect ourselves, but otherwise to treat us like adults. We have been living with Covid-19 for nearly two months and we have all been good boys and girls. We know the rules on social distancing and hand washing. If business owners wish to re-open, employees wish to go to work and customers wish to frequent the establishments – then let them.

    Free the people!

    2. Density of population is much less than that of the UK, their socialising and shopping habits will be different because of this, and no doubt other reasons. It is not comparing like with like.

      1. I spoke to a friend of mine who lives in Thailand recently. They are also following a more relaxed policy. Thailand has had 48 deaths from Covid-19:

        https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/countries-where-coronavirus-has-spread/

        Yes no country can be directly compared to another. But it seems likely that this virus has been widespread in the population since at least January. As the NHS has plenty of spare capacity, what exactly is the justification for continuing with this?

        1. By FUBARing the economy the politicians can later justify the levelling down of the whole population in the interests of equality.

          TPTB have tasted the fruits of control, they won’t let go readily.

        2. Having made my comment above It was in the nature of ‘I was ‘just saying….’ I was not being an advocate for either policy, just observing. What really puzzles me in all of this is is the inflation of the death figures in all sorts of ways, and I do feel there is a different agenda in play from the one which they want us to see. I certainly think the time has come to end the lockdown, if it should have ever started even. Perhaps we did need some sort of restraint in the first instance until we discovered what was the manner of the beast with which we were dealing.

          1. I agree that we probably needed some time to assess the impact of this new disease. But really, we are seeing that the Nightingale hospitals have not been overwhelmed and the NHS is coping. Surely the time has come to allow younger, healthy people at least to go back to work? I am not sure what the government’s plan is, other than ‘wait and see what turns up?’

          2. Yes… wonder what Ferguson is recommending – does his model cover the aftermath, I wonder??

    3. And let everyone outside in the sunshine, where it’s much healthier and virus-free than indoors.

    4. I apologise for being thick about this, but…

      if we’re all in lockdown, why are infections still climbing?

      OK, some people are out and about but most of us are not.

      How does this end? Do we all go back at once and risk the virus? Do we stagger returns? Say half my people go back every other day?

      We can’t just wait for a vaccine.

      1. Going by comments of friends, relatives and acquaintances, plus my own observations, I think the 60% had been reached by March: April at the very latest.

  42. SIR – I am a retired surgeon old enough to remember wearing cotton masks.

    Why did we abandon them? Because they were useless.

    David Nunn

    West Malling, Kent

  43. Morning all

    SIR – A doctor writing in Saturday’s Letters page used the phrase “when it’s all over”. This idea is much used by our politicians. Frankly it will never be “all over”.

    Like flu, which kills 14,000 every year in the United Kingdom, despite an available vaccine, coronavirus will return, probably in a mutated form, annually. We will just have to accept the situation and get back to work, or the economy will collapse totally.

    As the virus predominantly strikes the elderly, they would be well advised to continue with sensible precautions.

    Alastair Mutch

    Kendal, Cumbria

    1. Apart from wondering what scientific or medical qualifications, if any, Mr Mutch has, it is surely incorrect to suggest that “As the virus predominantly strikes the elderly…” because it strikes anyone, irrespective of age It is just that, generally speaking, the elderly are more likely to go under, which is rather different.

      ‘Morning, Epi.

      1. Perhaps he meant strike as in “three strikes and you’re out” where ONE is substituted for THREE in President Bill Clinton’s well-known statement.

    2. Just use your common sense.
      Once long lived aunt hit her very fit eighties, we steered clear if we had a cough or cold, let alone anything more serious.
      We also did the same with elderly chum; now she’s in a care home, we have no choice.

    3. As the virus predominantly strikes the elderly, they would be well advised to continue with sensible precautions.

      Mutch can be said for sutch a bon mot.

  44. SIR – I am sure I am not the only one living a daily nightmare. I am 81 and my husband is 91, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

    I cannot go out because he cannot be left on his own. I cannot even take a walk. We used to have carers but they are not allowed to visit anymore. My family are a long way away.

    I understand from the press that this may go on for a year. We are under house arrest waiting to die.

    Norma Heather

    Great Bookham, Surrey

    SIR – I’m 70 in June and, before the restrictions, swam a mile a day in an outdoor pool. I swim as I have arthritis in my feet, so it is the most pain-free exercise I can do. I try to get out for a cycle ride instead, but it’s not the same.

    As a widow, I live on my own, and I miss seeing my grandsons. I am usually an optimistic person but without being offered any light at the end of the tunnel, even I am beginning to wonder what the future holds.

    Ann Wright

    Cambridge

    SIR – On Thursday the Government added three weeks to our stretch in isolation. Today there is talk of extending it for more than a year.

    Those take such a decision should be required to spend seven days in a flat with no garden; receive no visitors; and be forbidden from leaving the front door. My own small garden has been a blessing in these clement weeks, and visits of carers have maintained my sanity for now. But we cannot just be dumped and left with nothing to look forward to other than the removal of our free television licence.

    Christine Stewart Munro

    London SW1

    SIR – If I were still a headteacher (I am retired), I would want schools to open on May 11. It could be done gradually.

    Each class could be divided in half. Half could attend in the morning and half in the afternoon, or any arrangement that would be appropriate.

    Schools need time to prepare – some staff may be unwell or vulnerable because of a medical condition.

    Those of us who are elderly do not want children and young people to miss out on their education. It is up to us to continue isolating ourselves until a vaccine is available.

    Joan Freeland

    Exeter, Devon

    3. Those take such a decision should be required to spend seven days in a
      flat with no garden; receive no visitors; and be forbidden from leaving
      the front door.

      If may borrow the phrase this once – Exacto!

    4. Fear not – the suicide pills are being manufactured as I write – and will be delivered to all “vulnerable” people in the near future.

        1. H’mmmmm ….. getting suicide pills or facing Scottish jobsworth?
          Facing Scottish jobsworth or getting suicide pills?
          Tough call.

          2. I don’t know who Nevil is but please don’t shute him like the piano player who did his best.

            (By the way, I saw the film of ‘A Town Like Alice‘ on TV a year or two ago. It was a great disappointment as it left out the whole of the second part of the story.)

  45. I see that Branston (sic) – the man who cheated HM Customs and Excise – is in a pickle. How ones heart bleeds for him – down to his last billion and having to mortgage an island…..

    1. Morning all lovely day so far.

      His company virgin Australia has gone into liquidation. ☺ grimace.

    2. Good morning Bill

      I saw him on the TV news yesterday. He seems to have gone a most peculiar colour which makes him look even more reptilian than ususal. His hair is especially unpleasant.

  46. So why is Britain so useless at getting things right ?

    Maybe partly because of the selection process to become an MP. Anyone with independent thought and capable of innovative thinking who questions the stultified and ossified status quo, which is probably replete with corruption thanks to Soros, is immediately filtered out.

    Only dullards need apply because dullards won’t rock the boat.

    1. Because the political classes eff up everything they come into contact with.
      Think about a cabinet reshuffle.
      For example, Minister of transport is moved to ministry of agriculture etc etc.
      And politics is the only way of life they all know.
      A country should be run as a business. Most civil servants and politicans wouldn’t last a month in the private sector.
      It’s pretty obvious that they can’t run a bath between the lot of them.
      Scathing ?
      Too right Polly.
      Our bin men (note men) are out side today and every Tuesday. They do a great job never failing.
      Hard work but yes fair simple task. Put the front bench on the job and you’d have rubbish all over the road and they’d take more than one day a week to clear 500 or more dwellings.

      1. Appology, there is a female collecting all the paper and cardboard today for the first time ever. Good for her.
        Maybe she was a previous labour back bencher. 😊

      2. Businessmen would have to be patriotic though. It’s no good if they weasel up to China, the EU or Soros.

        1. If their business was associated with the country they reside and pay tax in the people would be more likely to support them. But the way things have been going over the past 30 years we are putting people’s jobs on the line because of coporate greed. Getting products made in other countries where labour is cheap. But that only increases the business profit margins. Shipping products around the planet doesn’t really help the environment or the local economies.

      3. Surely, in this age of equality, there should be bin women, too – even if they need to be quota-ed in.

    1. Hi TB, probably because if they did perform the gun salute the MSM jackals would be screaming about HM putting the lives of troops at risk by forcing them to stand close to each other.

      1. So that’s why all the plod stood close together on Westminster bridge for their happy-clappy virtue fest. Putting plod’s life at risk doesn’t matter.

        Well, probably not to a lot of people – by their deeds shall ye know them.

        1. Hi NTN, that was allowed because they were virtue signalling and creating a photo op for D1ck of the Yard.

    1. I actually caught a glimpse of this most evil of men while I was channel surfing. It’s something akin to being mesmerised by a snake.

      1. 318394+ up ticks,
        Morning AS,
        I believe unintentionally you give snakes a
        bad name in linking them to b liar.
        Sad thing is he would still find a following.

          3. Good morning Garlands

            I just want a head mssage and my dead ends trimmed , I just want to relax , chatter about rubbish , read magazines I don’t normally read , smile at myself in the mirror, and remember that I had first started visiting the same salon for over thirty five years , and my stylish hairdresser used to look like Ray Doyle (Martin Shaw) from the Professionals .. and sadly now we have all grown older .. I doubt whether the salon will ever reopen again.

          5. My hairdresser, who used to own the salon, sold out a couple of years ago and stayed on as manager. So hopefully he will be back – he has been cutting my hair for over 30 years. He used to be young, like I was!

          7. I had a full works hair appt, today.
            At this rate, I might find out what I’ve really looked like for the past thirty years.

          9. Good morning, Anne.

            I recently had a ‘ Damascus moment.’

            Why do I go to be primped’ by Emma
            every four weeks…….why not go:

            Every week for a B/D.
            Every third week for a trim.
            Every sixth week for a colour ‘enhancement.’

            Sod the inheritance!!

          14. Cheaper that way. Saves shampoo, shortens the time in the shower. Just a dab of car wax and a quick buff in the morning…

        4. Good morning, Rastus. Has your knotted hanky which used to cover your head been pinched by Mrs Rastus to use as a face mask?

          :-))

        5. He had the good fortune to be born British, rather than in a more hot-headed country, where he would have ended up on the wrong end of a noose (or in his case, the right end).

        6. 318394+ up ticks,
          Morning Rct,
          Good forward planning, protect your @rse tactics, he could show the ersatz tory party a thing or two about treachery
          & that takes some doing.
          Take the treason rulings to start with….

    2. ‘Morning, Ogga, I don’t need to listen to Bliar to know that it would be just a load of self-serving tosh.

      1. 318394+ up ticks,
        Morning NtN,
        Daily dose of b liar would be an asset for many
        in so far as to “know thine enema” prior to entering the ballot booth, but to my mind the ballot booth currently is abused by giving ANY of the political toxic trio carte blanche.

        1. You keep banging on about the ‘toxic trio’ but there is, currently, no viable alternative.

          Certainly not UKIP with its own toxic NEC.

          1. 318394+ up ticks,
            NtN,
            You mean then that the peoples MUST support& vote for the best of the three toxic parties, or WAIT until an alternative viable party is set up.
            That is what i cannot get my cannister around.
            I would NOT vote for the present UKIP & their
            ersatz Nec, but there is a real UKIP membership still out there.
            Fear of the real UKIP has brought about their semi demise as can be clearly seen by the current actions of the Nec.

          2. Since you opine that the real UKIP is currently contained in the membership (figures please) why don’t you (and they) instead of pissing and moaning, gather that membership and, with the aid of Batten and Braine, launch an ‘Independent’ Party, or whatever catchy name you can come up with, and effectively isolate the current UKIP NEC.

            Sitting in a corner mewling and puking, doesn’t resolve any problems except the need for another nappy change.

            Other good bits of advice are available.

          3. 318395+ up ticks,
            Now now NtN,
            Good advice is always acceptable but I am afraid not from you, no offence meant just that I do believe that you are part of the problem.
            May one ask who did you vote for
            last time out ?
            Your honest answer will be appreciated.

          4. My honest answer, Ogga, is that, like everyone else in the country, for whom I voted is a secret between me and the (much despised by you) ballot box.

            I take it, from the rest of your reply, that you are happy to continue with the dysfunctional UKIP and its flawed NEC rather than do something positive about it.

          5. 318394+ up ticks,
            NtN,
            The ballot box ” much despised by me” far from it, my stance is the Country is abused via the ballot booth and the continuation of the same failed many time over VOTING pattern.
            The ballot booth used NOT abused in a sensible common sense manner would be our saviour.
            By the by you are not alone in so far as admitting to voting for failure of a party such as lab/lib/con, if that applies.
            I am a UKIP member in complete opposition to the current ersatz Nec.

          6. 318394+ up ticks,
            NtN,
            I am assuming that you did vote Brexit, maybe I assume to much.
            The real UKIP won the eu elections then went on to trigger the referendum with a winning result,
            Post 24/6/2016 the toxic trio the lab/lib/con coalition tried their damnedest to reverse it.
            I want to see the real UKIP back in place and the Nec treacherous @rses kicked out,not start another party for voting day trippers to use & abuse.
            By the by surely it is the lab/lib/con current supporter / voters that are very short of good advice / common sense, check today’s state of the nation, all their own work.

          7. I think, by it’s content, positioning and timing, that you have responded to an earlier comment and not the one you meant. I could, of course, be wrong.

          8. 318394+ up ticks,
            NtN,
            Then of course you could be right, moving at just under the speed of light topping 50 plus conifers by 5′ stripping & logging tends to confuse at times.
            But not ALL the time.

          9. 318394+ up ticks,
            NtN,
            Please also bare in mind that many of the electorate especially for the last two decades”keep banging on about” gripping nasal canals / the best of the worst, party first
            being the only way to go, yes.
            We are witnessing the results as we type.

    1. Splling Blair’s entrails would be akin to sowing dragon’s teeth. Everything he touched and everything he touches quickly turns to shite.

    4. Blair and his cronies are of course War Criminals and did they live elsewhere other than the UK would all be incarcerated at The Hague prior to trial. It is probable that the number of their victims far exceeds that of Milosevich or any of the other Post War European Monsters.

    6. I read a ghastly account where when they disemboweled you they would throw your entrails onto a brazier while still attached.

      Nice of them to provide a barbecue for the accused.

      Good afternoon Sir.

      2. Part of the hanging, drawing and quartering.

        I don’t think they lived to witness the quartering.

  50. Apropos of nothing in particular can I observe that on my visit to Morrisons yesterday that it appears that things are surreptitiously returning to normal! The store itself merely looked slack (no queues) and the Dentist on the High Street is accepting patients, though by what looks like appointment only. This said the precautions taken against the virus should never have been made mandatory. It was the reaction of a myopic Police State. Like Sweden we should have gone for voluntary measures. Whole sections of UK Society and its activities have been shut down for no good reason on the whims of a Politicised Stasi! The final consequences of this have yet to be made manifest but it looks as though the “cure” may prove far more lasting and serious than the disease.

    1. Morning Minty and all.

      I totally agree with you about how this has been mishandled. But when you look at the “tree” of donations made to the relevant institutions, put on much earlier, the corruption is there for all to see, especially when you read on the front page of the DT that “PPE equipment is being shipped out of the U.K.” when our own people are said to be crying out for it. What’s going on is literally beyond belief.

      I also think the government cannot think of how to end this lockdown, or even how to start to ease it, they’re in limbo just as the rest of us are.

      1. Morning V. It’s necessary to read between the lines of course but it looks as though the Government has no real idea of what to do. They are just making decisions hoping that no one will notice. The old cliche “Never confuse movement with progress” springs to mind!

        2. Good morning, Minty.

          ‘…….has no idea of what to do.’

          There are 206 Countries in this World,
          tell me which one DOES know what it is doing.
          This ‘crisis’ is unprecedented.
          It is all too easy to complain but quite another
          matter to know how to fix the problem.

    2. Good morning Minty

      We are living in strange times aren’t we . Our natural British reserve is being tested to the limit .

      The church bells don’t ring anymore , the local village football / recreation ground / cricket field have a few dog walkers keeping their distance, no chattering , isolated with no lingering apart from picking up dog dollops. What is also missing are the sound of children in the themed playground and the clatter of skate boards on the newly constructed skatepark .

      I am not complaining , silence is sometimes good , the sky is clear of contrails and road traffic noise that once was is no longer . The milk tankers still collect, and the tractors are kept busy shifting hay and straw. The tanks from RTR have also been rather quiet recently , but the lemurs from the Ape rescue centre a few miles up the road sing their morning songs , all very tropical .

      The only time one can communicate is by waving , conversations are brief, it is as if one is too scared to exhale / inhale everone else’s breath.

      If things ever get back to normal , I don’t think anything will ever be the same again.

      1. Morning Belle. We British used to be reserved but I’m not sure we still are. When mobile phones came in it soon became commonplace for people to walk along talking out loud (Bluetooth) or on the phone. People talk on trains, buses, in supermarkets, quite without embarrassment that others are hearing the conversation.

        We were holidaying in Gran Canaria some years ago, going down in a lift with others, when an Irishman’s phone rang. Turned out he was a builder and the gist was “, no, he couldn’t come this week because he was dealing with an emergency elsewhere” but he’d be there ASAP. All said with not a hint of shame.

        1. “commonplace for people to walk along talking out loud”

          Surely that’s just Care in the Community clients?

        2. Weren’t you tempted to shout “He’s lying, we’re in the Canary Isles” in the background?

          1. Reminds me of the loud mouth in a railway carriage who was on his phone to his wife and talking in a loud voice for ages when a woman, obviously fed up with this, said in a loud voice “Will you put that bloody phone down and come back to bed”

      2. Why are there lemurs in an ape rescue centre? Lemurs are not apes.

        [Yes, I know that both apes and lemurs are primates, so it ought to be called a “primate rescue centre”].

        Morning, Maggie. :•)

        2. Morning, Grizz.
          Personally, I’m happy for the lemurs to be safe and alive.
          I doubt they’re too fussed either.

          1. Morning, Nursey.

            What’s your take on Lorises [Slow or Slender]?

            Lorises, like lemurs, are native (mainly) to Madagascar where habitat destruction is amongst the worst on the planet.

          2. We can only do what we can do; spreading western sensibilities too thinly merely makes us busy but ineffectual. Lecturing people about the very practices westerners carried out 2000+ years ago is problematical.
            We could also say that western medicine and hygiene practices are also responsible for the population explosions in that benighted continent. There may be a reason (if – IF – the Out of Africa Theory is correct) why people who travelled to northern or more challenging climates moved on from the Stone Age several thousand years ago.
            Zoos and refuges may be the only – imperfect – way to ensure that these animals survive. Or do we take the view that mankind is merely another animal and that lemurs etc…. deserve the fate of dinosaurs because they aren’t intelligent enough to adapt?

          5. ‘Morning, George, where we live, the only access, in all three directions, is via single track roads with (resident made) passing places. Best Beloved who has lived here for 18 years has noticed a vast increase in traffic (white van man and non-agricultural HGVs) since the SatNav has grown in popularity.

            Incidentally, one of those three roads has been closed because, for the second year, badgers have undermined it while digging extensions to their setts and, because of their protection, the local roads authority welcome the chance to do bugger-all about until after August, when ‘cubbing’ is considered to be over. They will then fill in the ‘extensions’ only for Brock to have another go at job creation next year.

          6. ‘Afternoon, Tom.

            Brock needn’t be a problem if the local authority were switched on. There is nothing illegal about digging down a metre-or-so above Brock’s sett and laying a load of concrete atop it before restoring the soil layer. That way Brock’s sett is safeguarded and the road will not be undermined.

            [I know this procedure from the early 1990s when my ex-wife was a member of a Badger protection society that worked out ways of stopping badger-diggers from accessing setts to proliferate their sordid “sport” of badger-baiting, whereby they would rip out the badgers’ claws to prevent it from defending itself when placed into a pit to be ripped apart by dogs.]

          7. Poor furry buggers are likely also on the dinner plates in China, after being fried alive.

          9. My cousin, Norma, who is ten years my senior was a huge fan of everything 1950s, from Chris Barber and Kenny Ball to Lonnie Donegan. I was given the opportunity of playing her vast collection of 78s and 45s whenever I visited her.

            I well remember Neil Sedaka’s “I Go Ape” and I equally remember Nervous Norvus and his unforgettably ridicuous “Ape Call”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueMoGDqHchU

        3. Why bother rescuing Justin Welby, Grizzly? Leave him to stew in his kitchen. (Good morning, btw.)

      1. We stocked up in yer Spain early in March – when travelling (remember that?) was possible and easy.

        1. Things don’t last once you get them home.

          I popped into a Spanish barber’s in Estepona for a very good haircut, cut-throat razor trim the lot. 10 Euros.

          That was only in January and that haircut has worn out already. Nothing lasts these days. Last time I go to a Spanish barber, I tell you.

  53. Police officer who threatened to ‘make up’ offence suspended after outcry. Tue 21 Apr 2020

    But following pressure, the officer has now been suspended from duty. The force said in a statement: “We absolutely recognise the impact this footage has had on public confidence and following an initial review by our professional standards department the officer involved has … been suspended from duty.

    “We have also taken the decision to voluntarily refer the matter to the Independent Office of Police Conduct. We hope these matters go some way to reassuring the public how seriously we are treating this matter.

    This should have been done immediately prior to him being charged with “Conspiring to pervert the cause of Justice”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/21/lancashire-police-officer-who-threatened-to-make-up-offence-suspended-after-outcry

    1. Suspended on full pay, presumably? Why not put him on 80% at the very least?

    2. Every single trial and conviction that this POS has given evidence at is now rendered unsafe and the legal aid appeal lawyers should be having a field day
      “Well officer as you have been recorded saying you will invent evidence to convict(fit up) an innocent man why should we believe you now?”

  54. Good Moaning.
    This letter caught my eye. Apologies if it’s already been posted, but I found it interesting and informative.
    Covid-19 and race

    SIR – Some years ago a colleague was being treated unsuccessfully for high blood pressure. It turned out that he had been given medication that black people rarely respond to, because they lack the enzyme that allows it to work properly. As a result, doctors are generally taught to avoid this type of treatment for them.

    I do not know why people from some ethnic backgrounds appear to be more susceptible to the Covid-19 infection (report, April 20), but I do know that it would be unwise to grasp at hasty conclusions until the problem has been assessed thoroughly and objectively, using scientific methodology.

    Dr John Behardien

    Eccles, Lancashire

    2. 318394+ up ticks,
      The police said they had no idea who he was when later he went in the bank and said ” stick em up”
      But they would say that wouldn’t they ?

      2. Phone in show in US, couples were asked to rate their sex life out of 10. Usual stuff ” He is a 6 and Im a 7, all is OK.” “I’m an 8 and my partner is a 2, I’m so frustrated…..”. Then one lady with a very sexy voice came on “I’m a 15 and my partner is a 20, this is so great…”. “Wow” says the show host “that’s fantastic, how do you manage that?” ” Well I guess we are both just highly sexed, but I suppose the black plastic sheets and Johnson’s baby oil is what really does the trick.”

          2. We don’t use Tesco. We’re too poor and snobbish.
            I did wonder if it was the Highwoods superstore.

    1. The great thing is, that we have a good excuse as all the jobs have been done and we cant go out.

      1. You haven’t seen the top end of my garden. Plenty to do but I can’t get the materials at the moment.

    2. Glass bottles – there’s posh.
      I have silent boxes. They don’t grumble, and are always full… ;-))

      PS: Why have you partly tiled your table?

        1. Not local , they’re based in Glasgow/ Edinburgh and have a couple of Tap Rooms in those cities where they do a remarkable range of craft beers and good food, we were due to fly up to Edinburgh for 5 days at the beginning of June as a sort of pre-70th treat but I guess that’s not going to happen now so I’ve consoled myself long distance

      1. So the coroners may be lying. On whose behest? I read that if Covid-19 is at all involved then it is given as the cause of death. Apparently the reason given is that the Government’s figures otherwise under-estimate the extent of the virus. But when there is no evidence that C-19 was involved in any way…

        Let’s see, who would benefit from such manipulation of the population through misleading it. It’s a bit premature though; the population of this country isn’t quite all coffee-coloured yet. Perhaps it’s a practice run.

        Sorry – farily extensive editing.

      2. So the coroners may be lying. On whose behest? I read that if Covid-19 is at all involved then it is given as the cause of death. Apparently the reason given is that the Government’s figures otherwise under-estimate the extent of the virus. But when there is no evidence that C-19 was involved in any way…

        Let’s see, who would benefit from such manipulation of the population through misleading it. It’s a bit premature though; the population of this country isn’t quite all coffee-coloured yet. Perhaps it’s a practice run.

        Sorry – farily extensive editing.

        1. There is an incentives problem – our Con? Gov has thrown its lot behind lockdown, and, having done that, every extra Covid19 death supports its choice … (pity about those waiting without service nd other conditions) …

    2. WTF?
      I completely understand Janekin’s fury.
      German friends are asking me why the UK’s corona deaths are so high. I shall refer them to this tweet!

    2. I assume all the Brits he employs pay income tax & NI. Presumably there is also VAT paid on services received from British companies. Is he any different to the Chinese, Indian and other owners of Steel industries and other major concerns?

      1. He has always claimed that his companies pay taxes locally, but I have always suspected he was being economical over the whole picture.

        If he furloughs his staff I’m assuming they will be paid, it’s the loan on top of that support that I think people are objecting to.

          1. Along with his scam which cost him £100,000 in penalty duty when he started illegally important importing records from the States.

            Funny how everyone has forgotten about all that.

          4. Hopping in and out of the garden, just found some old red morning glory seed to soak, collected in 2010…

      2. Branson’s the fellow who wanted Brexit cancelled because it might disrupt his business.

        He put his demands above the majority. Thus as one of the majority, I’m putting my will above his.

  60. There have been headlines about the amount of cash the government is prepared to splash out to deal with Covid19. I haven’t seen much analysis about the drop in tax revenues. Here’s one ‘small’ example:

    “The housing market freeze will lead to half a million fewer home sales this year, costing the Treasury £4.4bn in lost stamp duty revenue, according to new research. Estate agency Knight Frank has forecast that there will be 526,000 fewer homes sold in 2020 compared with last year, equal to a 38pc fall.

    1. 318394+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      We as a people really must learn to read signs a lot better, as in Enoch we had a very good politician who was castigated / suppressed / not acceptable.
      Currently we have good political peoples not allowed in with a shout, suppressed / castigated / not acceptable.
      May one ask,are we ever to learn ?

  63. Naffed off with relying on others logged in to Morrisons web site to try to order some bits and pieces
    No queue or waiting,created new account and found a slot available tomorrow (although nothing past then) everything I wanted on sale except flour all fine and dandy
    Checkout then something flashes up about “verify by visa” has “Nationwide got my mobile number” and promptly vanishes never to be seen again
    No They Bloody Haven’t I don’t do internet banking and I don’t use a card reader,I now await to see if the finance gremlins have kiboshed my order!!

    1. I think it’s the system telling you that the retailer has received confirmation from your credit card company that all is well.

    2. If they ‘know’ the system you are using, via google, mobile number and whatever, then verified by visa is usually skipped, in my experience.

        1. I haven’t had to ‘verify by Visa’ for ages when ordering online. I’m not talking about groceries, though.

          1. When it first started I had to put in a password – but that was years ago. Probably before they put the security code on the back of the card.

  65. Tommy Robinson accused Syrian teen of attacking girl, judge finds. Tue 21 Apr 2020 13.20 BST.

    In his ruling, Nicklin stated: “It is important to note that the court is only dealing with the issue of meaning. The defendant has advanced a defence of truth. Unless the parties resolve the litigation, that issue [and others] will be determined at a later trial.”

    This is part of the ongoing campaign of vilification and persecution of Robinson. It’s not important in itself but it opens the path to the sequestration of his financial assets!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/21/tommy-robinson-accused-syrian-teen-of-attacking-girl-judge-finds

    1. Sadly, TR will not win his legal battles with the state. He has limited resources and even a Syrian refugee will prove to have deeper legal resources (provided by the taxpayer).

      1. I’m guessing the police did not investigate whether Syrian Refugee Jamal assaulted anybody? If he did, why is he still in this country? Asylum should not be a free pass.

      2. Yes I know KP. I don’t know how he’s managed to keep going for so many years. I would have given up long since.

        1. The state’s behaviour towards Tommy Robinson is completely vomit inducing.

          If anything is going to encourage real Islamophobia it is the state which gives Muslims special favours and allows them to get away with rape and murder.

    2. He should put everything in his wifes name. Like all the rich tax dodgers like Philip Green .

      1. I can’t imagine he has many assets. I think his campaigns are funded through donations.

    1. Although I’m not C of E, I have to say, good for Rev. Marcus Walker. High time that heretic and servant of the Antichrist, Arch-Pharisee Justin Welby, was slapped down.

      It’s a pity the C of E does not have an Inquisition, before which Welby could be hauled to explain himself. He wouldn’t be expecting that.

      1. Yep, he checked canon law and established beyond doubt that the bishops have no legal right to stop him. No congregation but no law against the priest entering his own church.

    2. We’ve been socially engineered into becoming “tolerant” to the point of being resigned into accepting that our own culture is not considered important. We’ve become lethargic and without any unifying identity.

      Douglas Murray covered this in the Strange Death of Europe…

      2. We shall never defeat Islam if we don’t even believe that it needs to be defeated and that Christ’s message to mankind is superior in every way to Mohammed’s.

        1. It is liberals who have trashed the Christian message and also pushed the idea that Islam is Christianity for brown people (though muslims themselves will also reiterate that lie at every opportunity).

      1. You beat me to it! If our civil serpents could have figured out a way to do this, it would already be in train!

  71. The ONS data for weekly deaths has been published this morning. However, for some reason, unlike the last report, there is no chart showing comparison with the 5 year average. But there is this:

    “The provisional number of deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 10 April 2020 (Week 15) was 18,516; this represents an increase of 2,129 deaths registered compared with the previous week (Week 14), is 7,996 deaths more than the five-year average and is the highest weekly total since Week 1 in 2000.

    From The Independent: “In a severe epidemic of seasonal flu, such as occurred in 1999-2000, the disease caused more than 20,000 deaths”

    Edit: To point out we’ve probably had a 10% increase in population as well as an ageing population during the past 20 years…..

        1. Anything to bash the governnent of the party of which he was once a leading member.

  72. 318395+ up ticks.
    Got caught up in a mucking fuddle just now of my own making whilst working in the garage, tuned in the radio and on listening for a good 20 minutes realised it was not “Yesterday in parliament ” I was listening to but the corruptible’s on radio 4.
    So similar.

          1. Isn’t she fabulous? She should have been elected last time -think how great the USA could have been by now.

          2. There are still some claiming that the Dems lost because the US is not ready to elect a woman as President.

            I wonder how Condoleezza Rice would have fared? Yes, wrong party!

          3. I read that Trump asked Condi Rice to be his running mate and she said that she’s now a “happy professor” and wants to keep it that way.

          4. If she had ever seen him in The Apprentice, she would probably have run a mile…

          5. They definitely lost because of Hilary, even though of course had it been “first past the post” she would have won. Even the TV pundits admitted post election that they knew she was basically “toxic” to anyone on the right. She got the nod because she had lined up a lot of support within the Wall Street community by assuring them it would be business as usual, no-one taking a tough regulatory approach.

            If the Dems win next time, with such a weak candidate it will be a miracle. Although if the public really end up blaming Trump for his “in denial” reaction to the virus, it might be a different story.

          7. I decided she had no values when she did not leave after Bill made her look utterly foolish. As was said at the time, any normal wife would have thrown him out and set fire to his clothes on the front lawn.

          12. Perhaps Hillary was like the Fragrant Lady Archer….and got a kick out of her husband’s philandering….

          13. More likely she was not about to give up the “First Lady” role. I always felt she was not that bright. Bill, on the other hand was a lot more politically savvy – he was the one who told Hilary’s team a few days before the election, to forget the polls and cancel the party, as she was going to lose – and she did.

          17. If you called her Cinton it might cause confusion, there are two rogues by that name.

    2. At least he remembered that she used to live in the White House and, to be fair, he does need someone who knows the way around!

  76. Well, well – despite all the doom and gloom and horror stories about shops, Lidl, Tesco and Morrisons were all virtually empty of people. The MR found everything on her list – and even strong white flour at Tesco. I sat in the car and read the paper.

    If anyone can see The Grimes – there is an excellent piece about Brash and Trash in Times 2. If I could cut ‘n paste, I would.

    1. What Ho! Bill.

      Allegedly the best day to grocery shop In the UK

      is Tuesday,,,,,,,,,

      yer weekly paid have already spent it!

      yer monthly paid never get paid on a Tuesday.

      You have more sense than to shop on any other day!!!

      1. Always the quietest day in this area. This morning I walked up to Tesco in the sun. But by the time I got there, the spaced queue had reached the end of the queuing area. All I wanted was a battery for my new watering computer. So I gave up and came home. I was actually totally knackered. I’m wondering whether I might have already had a mild form of IT. A couple of days of dry throat in Jan, fixed with some Strepsils. Could be being 76, but age appears to have come on rapidly! I’ve never tripped over a pavement before.

        I could have gone to a local shop much nearer, but in my curious twisted reasoning, I thought this wasn’t fair because I never use them normally…

      2. I worked for two years as a postman and I found that Tuesday was always the least busy day, except for the Christmas period.

    2. It’s Megxit, the first 100 days — are you missing them yet?

      It was the first great shock of 2020: the Sussexes going rogue. Now, as their awfully big adventure hits a milestone, Hilary Rose tracks the renegade royals

      Tuesday April 21 2020, 12.01am, The Times

      January 8
      The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announce they are to step down as senior royals. Instead, they will “carve out a progressive new role” for themselves within the royal family and continue to support the Queen. Nation feels sad and asks if this translates roughly as: “We’ll turn up if it’s black tie and tiaras in central London. If it’s a wet Wednesday in Wigan, forget it.”

      January 14
      Stormzy says we’ve all been beastly to Meghan. Nation reminds itself that it went to Windsor 18 months ago to line the streets and cheer, and feels sadder. See also Brixton, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Cardiff . . .

      January 19
      Prince Harry explains how his life was so intolerable, he had no choice but to quit. Nation looks at national flood emergency, widespread use of food banks and its empty current account, and confirms it would be happy to have a crack at being royal instead.

      January 23
      Oprah says everyone’s been beastly to Meghan and we should all shut up.

      January 30
      Meghan’s half-sister, Samantha, fails to shut up. “Without [their father],” she says from her home in America, “she’d be a waitress.”

      February 21
      Harry and Meghan are ordered by the Palace to remove the word “royal” from their sprauncy new Sussex Royal branding.

      February 26
      Prince Harry flies nearly 5,000 miles from Canada to the UK for a conference on sustainable travel. He tells delegates in Edinburgh: “Just call me Harry.”

      February 27
      Canada stops the direct debit helping to pay for their security. In the coming weeks, a government minister says, the assistance will cease “in keeping with their change in status”.

      March 5
      At an awards ceremony in London, Meghan’s first public appearance in the UK for two months, she’s photographed looking like several million dollars in a blue Victoria Beckham dress, grinning happily at Prince Harry in the rain. Nation looks at them and thinks: “Must you go? Is it really so bad?”

      March 6
      Meghan makes a “secret” trip to Robert Clack School in Dagenham to mark International Women’s Day, where she asks the assembled pupils to “value the women in your lives”. Invited to the podium to discuss why men should be involved in the fight for women’s equality, the head boy, Aker Okoye, is greeted with a hug, before taking the microphone and saying: “She really is beautiful, innit?” Photos and videos of the “secret” trip are later posted to the Sussex Royal Instagram account, in a post urging followers to “uplift one another”.

      March 9
      Huge row erupts about the core principle at the heart of the royal family: status. Specifically who sits when and where at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey. The Cambridges are due to process in with Queen. The Sussexes are told to sit it out. The issue is resolved when it’s agreed that none of them will take part in the procession, they’ll all be sitting when the Queen walks in. Nation considers the possibility that spending the rest of her life seated on the sidelines while William and Kate take centre stage might not be what Meghan had in mind. Today, Meghan wears something brand new and bright green, Kate wears the royal equivalent of “this old thing” and completely, utterly and totally blanks her brother-in-law and his wife.

      March 11
      Prince Harry is duped into thinking two Russians who call him up on his mobile are the Swedish climate-change activist Greta Thunberg and her dad. He talks candidly about how separate he is from his family, and disparagingly about the elected president of the country to which he will shortly be moving. Buckingham Palace declines to comment.

      March 26
      Prince Charles, aged 71, tests positive for coronavirus. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge release a video of their three young children clapping for NHS carers.

      March 27
      Harry, Meghan and Archie fly by private jet from Canada to Los Angeles to start a new life in the midst of a global pandemic. Taken to task in the past for his use of private jets while championing climate change, Harry replies that he only did it occasionally and only then for security reasons. Never, for example, because the border’s about to be closed to non-essential travel, there aren’t any commercial flights, you’re in a bit of a hurry, and have you flown commercial recently? Ick.

      March 29
      Donald Trump says on Twitter that the US won’t pay for their security protection. “I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen and the United Kingdom,” he says pointedly, adding that when it comes to Meghan and Harry’s security, “they must pay!”.

      March 30
      The Sussex Royal social media accounts close down with the mysterious words “You’ve been great!”

      “We are confident that every human being has the potential and opportunity to make a difference,” they add. “Together we can lift each other up to realise the fullness of that promise.” Nation tries and fails to understand what they’re on about and gives up.

      March 31
      Harry and Meghan officially step down as working members of the royal family.

      April 3
      Meghan’s voiceover for a Disney film about elephants is released, after Prince Harry was overheard pitching the chief executive of Disney for work at a film premiere last year.

      April 5
      The Queen delivers the speech of a lifetime, ending with the words: “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again.” Nation reaches for the tissues.

      April 6
      Harry and Meghan launch their new brand. It will be called Archewell, they announce, after the Greek word for “source of action”. In the future they promise they will be doing “something of meaning, something that matters”. Nation looks up from worrying about whether the prime minister is going to die and the country is going bankrupt, to say: “Do keep us posted.”

      Easter Sunday, April 12
      Meghan and Harry start helping to deliver food to the needy on the other side of the world. In due course, photographs of them doing so, hand-in-hand and wearing face masks, are published worldwide.

      Buckingham Palace publishes the Queen’s soothing Easter message, in which she states that coronavirus will not overcome us, and calmly encouraging hope in times of darkness.

      April 17
      One hundred days since Megxit. Princess Anne tells Vanity Fair that certain members of the younger generation are trying to reinvent the wheel, and describes herself as “the boring old fuddy-duddy at the back saying, ‘Don’t forget the basics.’”

      April 19, morning
      The UK coronavirus death toll tops 15,000 as the country enters its fifth week of lockdown and a 99-year-old man with a walking frame single-handedly becomes a reason to be cheerful in a harrowing world. In Los Angeles, Prince Harry says that things in the UK aren’t so bad. “They’re better than we are led to believe,” he tells a podcast. An eminent scientist describes his comments as “outrageous”.

      April 19, evening
      The couple release a statement saying they will have no more dealings with UK tabloids, whom they accuse of publishing “distorted, false or invasive” stories. Since they are at present embroiled in legal proceedings with several of the publications listed, this could probably have been taken as read. The first court hearing is due to take place by video link on Friday.

      1. They are completely irrelevant now to this country which they have rejected. Time they just shut up and disappeared into obscurity.

      4. And…

        National Enquirer…Breaking News…

        Meghan and Harry not seen for five minutes ! Have they been abducted by Aliens ? !!!

          1. She won’t see it. I’m sure they are being screened now from anything that be might howwible and hurt their little feelings. What a set, as Nancy Mitford would have said.

  77. 318394+ up ticks,
    Tell me I am on the wrong track, supporter / voters of the mass uncontrolled immigration, ( ongoing) parties generally accept that foreign elements WILL be housed in social housing before indigenous, proof being shown via the voting pattern.

    So are we to take it then that life saving medical equipment being shipped abroad first while we endure shortages on the home front is the correct way to go ?

    Will this life threatening issue follow the same course as the
    housing issue ?

  78. About the influx of foreign students, the under noted advert is long-winded and full of jargon. However, it does give many clues as to why universities are not merely accepting foreign students but working hard to recruit them, and their money. At the expense of actual British applicant, of course.
    “Head of Marketing, Student Recruitment and Admissions”
    Company Name – The University of Edinburgh
    https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search/?currentJobId=1804300253&pivotType=jymbii

    1. ,Morning, Horace, a space is needed between ‘Edinburgh’ and the start ‘https…’ of the link.

      1. That won’t go too well with the glass of refreshing apple juice I’m drinking (ABV 5%)

        1. Tourist goes into a bar in Ireland.
          Tourist: “Could I have a pint of Guinness, please?”
          Barman: “Sorry sir, we’re closed. We open again at 6 o’clock, in twenty minutes”.
          Tourist: “I guess I’ll just have to wait, then”.
          Barman: “Will you have one while you’re waiting?”

          1. Tried that last time I was in Sweden. Hotel bar wasn’t open yet, I was informed, so I asked could I have a beer whilst waiting.
            Blank stares all round.

          6. They have a sense of humor — it’s just different. Gets much better after a few beers, tho’.

  82. Top reader comment in the DT:

    “I am actually getting more than a little tired of this save the NHS

    message! I know it is blasphemous to dare to say such a thing and

    believe me I am not underestimating the hard work of the front line

    staff, I know from family members who work on the front line, how bad it

    is, but there does come a point when you have to ask how are we

    protecting the future of the NHS when we are trashing our country’s

    economic future?

    The NHS can only function if we have the money to

    fund it. We cannot continue with the lockdown under the current

    conditions for much longer without doing untold damage to our economy

    and quality of life. The price we are paying to “protect the NHS” is too

    much. More lives will be lost through the “cure” as opposed to the

    disease.

    The NHS is supposed to be there to protect us, not the

    other way around and it is now time to protect the country and its

    future. We must start the discussion of how and when we should start

    getting back to normal.”

    Not only that but……………….

    45 dead in the NHS out of 1.3million. That’s 1 in 32,000.

    16000 dead in population of 64million. That’s 1 in 4000.The safest people in Britain are those working in the NHS”

    1. Its a bit like the forces, hopefully you will not have to put your life on the line. But if the time comes, that’s what you are paid for. Thankfully, I was flying a desk when friends were killed or captured in GW1.

      1. I’m busy reading Storm Command by General Sir Peter de la Billiere at the moment. My son left it for me last time he visited. Desert Storm and (mainly) the build up to it. It’s a good read.

      2. I have just finished “A Most Secret Squadron” about 618 Sqn (they were to use Highball rather than Upkeep which was 617’s task). They were to fly against the Tirpitz and if they had been told to do it they would have, although it was pretty nigh certain none of them would have returned. In the event, they didn’t have to go and their Mossies were converted to Tsetse (cannon armed) machines for use against U boats.

    2. They’ll all be out on their doorsteps on Thursday evening at 20.00, howling at the moon and hoping their neighbours (who are hoping the same thing) will notice their personal sacrifice.

        1. Perhaps that’s why nobody seems to bother in our little hamlet of houses, where all the front doors face away from the lane.

        2. Perhaps that’s why nobody seems to bother in our little hamlet of houses, where all the front doors face away from the lane.

        3. Perhaps that’s why nobody seems to bother in our little hamlet of houses, where all the front doors face away from the lane.

        4. That’s the whole point. Being seen. It’s not as if the people miles away in hospitals in out of line-of-vision places can hear them anyway.

          Distraction tactics.

        5. Perhaps that’s why nobody seems to bother in our little hamlet of houses, where all the front doors face away from the lane.

          1. ‘Morning, J, we are 3 miles from the main road and off The Green there is an unmade-up track with 4 houses off it. Clapping here would be a waste of time and effort – even if we wanted to.

    3. How many of those 1.3 million employees have direct contact with CV patients?

      Again we have not got a solvency issue, we can afford whatever level of spend on the NHS politicians deem necessary. If they choose to starve it of funds that’s a political decision not an economic one.

      Taxes do not fund services in a sovereign currency state as long as that currency isn’t convertible to precious metals and is free floating. The constraints on spending are foreign exchange risk and inflation, not tax revenues plus borrowings.

      1. As the number of NHS employees has risen in the past decade or more, and Trusts can afford to advertise for and employ “Diversity Managers,” among other useless, money-wasting non-jobs, I wouldn’t describe the NHS as starved of funds, any more than I would the BBC.

        Governments that have record unemployment and a trashed economy can go on printing money, but sooner or later, that particular tactic wreaks its revenge in terms of your currency becoming worthless and inflation running rampant, e.g. Zimbabwe.

        1. Zimbabwe?

          Err you don’t think turfing productive farmers off the land and replacing them with people that didn’t know how to farm and so crashing their food supply had anything to do with their issue?

          Of course it was because they printed.

          Hyperinflation requires a supply shock. Well there it is!

          We’ve expanded our money supply by about 700B now on top of normal expansion caused by bank loans. That’s 4 months GDP. Wasn’t any real inflation. 30% over a decade. 3% per year. And most of our inflation was the imported kind, not the kind caused by having too much money chasing too few goods and services.

          The Quantity Of Money theory is a busted flush and has been for years.

  83. Just noticed that the first flowers of the rambler Seagull are opening on the west wall adjacent to the landing window. That is at least a month early.

    Also Mme Alfred Carrière blooming profusely in the south hedge.

      1. My roses don’t even have buds on yet. Maybe it’s because I’m in the frozen north (albeit well south of bassetedge ).

    2. I’ve just been weeding last year’s hanging baskets – most of the geraniums have survived the winter so they’ll be going back up soon.

    3. Looking up the road, there are a few ash trees coming into leaf, but a worrying number are currently leafless.
      I hope they are just late.

      1. What about the oak trees? Oak before ash, we’re in for a splash – ash before oak, we’re in for a soak.

        1. Surprisingly, I’ve never noted any oak trees up the Via Gellia.
          It’s nearly all ash, sycamore, elm & hazel with a splattering of beech, lime & plane.

  84. 318394+ up ticks,
    Just keep in mind, no one can deny the trio ie lab/lib/con can also be judged on plenty of evidence to be a coalition,

    ‘Operation Kowtow’ — Ex-PM May’s Top Adviser Admits UK Submission to ‘Brutal’ Chinese Regime was ‘Naive’

    1. Ex-PM May’s Top Adviser Admits UK Submission to ‘Brutal’ Chinese Regime was ‘Naive’

      File under “Duh!!”

      1. 318394+ up times,
        Afternoon Ims2,
        Sad to say Submissive, PCism & Appeasement
        are much used tools in the lab/lib/con coalition
        party but he is definitely on the money this time.
        By the by as an advisor to may he should be
        neutered as a reward.

    3. And if you look at other stories on the Mail website you will see that a “large number of youths” completely trashed an Aldi. From the photos, it would appear that the two stories have a common connection.

      So sad, I lived there in the ’60’s and it was a decent place to be. Nice girls too. They even let me keep one…

      1. I lived in Solihull from 1973 to 1985 and there were no go areas in Birmingham then!

      2. Subsequent governments have Africanised and as well as thrown in to Britain poorer sections of the Asian sub continent.

        Our cities will resemble cities like Calcutta,Lagos and Johannesburg, the gang warfare and religious divides are once again causing havoc everywhere .. Jobless illiterate foreign males with strong libido’s have trashed our inner cities and dare I say, larger market towns and suburbs .

      1. That has come along nicely. Well done you.

        At least those sheds have clean lines. Easier to ignore.

    2. Nice!
      My favourite silver birch, just outside the sitting room, has started to leaf. Lots & lots of bright green Christmas lights appearing over it… and it’s a beautiful shape, too. Very symmetrical and candle-flame shaped.

      1. I love our silver birch – planted in November 2000 as a little stick (free – from Alpen). Over the nearly 20 years it has grown into a beautiful tree – in all seasons. Greening up nicely now.

    3. That looks good.
      It looks like a happy boat, almost a cheeky “face” on it.
      I’ll get me coat!

  88. If only we’d ignored Ferguson/Imperial “doomsters” and “gloomsters”:

    Two weeks ago, I wrote about ‘the Swedish experiment’ in The Spectator. As the world went into lockdown, Sweden opted for a different approach to tackling coronavirus: cities, schools and restaurants have remained open. This was judged by critics to be utterly foolish: it would allow the virus to spread much faster than elsewhere, we were told, leading to tens of thousands of deaths. Hospitals would become like warzones. As Sweden was two weeks behind the UK on the epidemic curve, most British experts said we’d pay the price for our approach when we were at the peak. Come back in two weeks, I was told. Let’s see what you’re saying then. So here I am.

    I’m happy to say that those fears haven’t materialised. But the pressure on Sweden to change tack hasn’t gone away. We haven’t u-turned. We’re careful, staying inside a lot more. But schools and shops remain open. Unlike some countries on the continent, no one is asking for ‘our papers’ when we move around in cities. The police don’t stop us and ask why we are spending so much time outdoors: authorities rather encourage it. No one is prying in shopping baskets to make sure you only buy essentials.

    The country’s Public Health Agency and the ‘state epidemiologist’, Anders Tegnell, have kept their cool and still don’t recommend a lockdown. They are getting criticised by scientific modellers but the agency is sticking to its own model of how the virus is expected to develop and what pressure hospitals will be under. The government still heeds the agency’s advice; no party in the opposition argues for a lockdown. Rather, opinion polls show that Swedes remain strongly in favour of the country’s liberal approach to the pandemic.

    So why isn’t Sweden changing tack in the fight against the pandemic? ‘The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance’, wrote Albert Camus in The Plague – a book that eerily depicts the suffering of the human condition when a disease sweeps through society. And lately, scientists and observers have ventured that explanation publicly: perhaps Sweden’s refusal to fall into line is because Tegnell and his team are a bunch of philistines?

    A group of 22 scientists made that charge in an op-ed last week in Dagens Nyheter, appealing to the government to rein in supposedly ignorant officials at the Public Health Agency. Last week, a piece in the Daily Telegraph ran with the same theme and expanded it to include much of the national population: Swedes have willingly been duped by ignorant authorities and a chief epidemiologist who has been seduced by his own sudden fame. Our faith in government is so big, and our bandwidth for dissent is so small, that we even scold criticism of the government as ‘shameful betrayal of the national effort’. A journalist from French television that I talked to on Sunday admitted, somewhat sheepishly, that ‘it’s almost as if we want Sweden to fail because then we would know it is you and not us that there is something wrong with’.

    There is a simpler explanation: Sweden is sticking to its policy because, on the whole, it is balanced and effectual. So far, the actual development is generally following the government’s prediction. On Monday, 1,580 people had died and tested positive for Covid-19. The number of daily deaths has remained pretty stable at about 75 for a while but is now on a declining path. A lot more people will die in the next weeks and months but our death toll is far away from the pessimistic and alarmist predictions suggesting 80 to 90,000 people would die before the summer.

    There are also encouraging signs that the growth of reported infections is also slowing down – a development that holds for both Stockholm (by far the worst affected region) and the rest of the country. The estimate from the Public Health Agency is that 100,000 people will show up at a hospital and test positive for Covid-19: the current headcount, just south of 14,800, suggests we are broadly in line with that estimate – if not below it.

    Perhaps more important is the situation at our hospitals and their intensive care wards. The main ambition of suppression policies, after all, has been to avoid hospitals getting overwhelmed by patients they cannot treat because of shortages of staff, equipment and intensive care beds. Modellers in Sweden that have followed an Imperial College type approach have suggested demand will peak at 8,000 to 9,000 patients in intensive care per day. But actual numbers are telling a very different story. Yes, the situation is stressful, but – mercifully – the growth in intensive care patients has slowed down remarkably and the number of patients currently in intensive care has flatlined.

    We now have about 530 patients in intensive care in the country: our hospital capacity is twice as high at 1,100. Stockholm now averages about 220 critical care patients per day and its hospitals, far from being overwhelmed, have capacity for another 70. Stockholm also reports that it has several hundred inpatient care beds unoccupied and that people shouldn’t hesitate to seek hospital care if they feel sick. A new field ward has been set up in Stockholm for intensive and inpatient care and some predicted it would start getting patients two weeks ago. It hasn’t received any patients yet.

    Sweden hasn’t declared ‘victory’ – far from it. It’s still early days in this pandemic and no one really knows yet how the virus will spread once restrictions are lifted and what excess mortality it will have caused when it’s all over. Sweden doesn’t know the size of its ‘iceberg’ – how many people that have had the virus with only mild or no symptoms. It will remain unclear for at least another couple of weeks if parts of Sweden (especially Stockholm) has developed some degree of herd immunity.

    A recent test at Karolinska suggested that 11 per cent of people in Stockholm had developed antibodies against the virus. Professor Jan Albert, who has led these tests, says the rate is most likely higher – perhaps substantially higher. So far they have only tested a small sample of blood donors and they can only donate if they are healthy and free of symptoms. Albert thinks the actual situation isn’t far away from the ballpark suggested by professor Tom Britton in a study that was released this weekend: that between 25 and 40 per cent of the Stockholm population have had the virus and that the region will reach herd immunity in late May.

    These results are hopeful, even if they are still informed estimates and not observed reality. Nor will they change Swedish policy anytime soon. In fact, all the uncertainties around the future of this pandemic are part of the motivation for Sweden opting for a liberal approach. We have to plan for strong social distancing measures to remain in place for a long time and they won’t work if they are harder than necessary.

    Countries like Austria and Denmark are now beginning to ease their lockdown restrictions but the virus is still spreading in their countries, albeit at a slower rate than earlier. Once more of the restrictions have been lifted, they may soon have to be imposed again to control new outbreaks of the virus. No country in Europe has yet figured out how a policy of test, track and trace could be organized on a large scale. We don’t know when a vaccine will be ready. For the foreseeable future, the backbone of every country’s defence against the virus will have to be based on strong social distancing. Sweden’s authorities proposed a liberal approach based on individual responsibility because it can be tolerated for longer and it has the effect of ‘flattening the curve’.

    There is also a broader case for it. Lockdown policies harm basic civil liberties: in Sweden these liberties are, with some exceptions, intact. Lockdown policies have huge consequences on public health. And they are profoundly damaging to the economy. Sweden is no exception: our economy has been falling like a stone in the past month. In the city where I live, Uppsala, bankruptcy notices are now put up on many shop windows and I hear every day about friends and acquaintances that have lost their jobs or their small firms. National production has also slipped because global trade has closed. Big industrial stalwarts like ABB and Sandvik are still producing but can’t ship their products to other countries. Carmakers like Volvo and Scania decided to close their factories at an early point in March because they couldn’t get parts and components from other countries.

    So everyone was already set up for gloomy reading about the economic outlook when the government unveiled its new budget last week. Still, the experience was grim. In the main scenario, our national output will decline by 4 per cent this year, taking unemployment up to 9 per cent and the fiscal deficit to 3.8 per cent of the gross domestic product.

    The only silver lining is that it could have been worse. We are pretty far away from the levels of economic decline predicted for most lockdown countries. In fact, the Swedish economic situation looks sensationally positive when compared to the ghastly reports and scenarios elsewhere. Cash turnover indicators, for instance, suggest that personal consumption in Denmark and Finland has dropped by 66 and 70 per cent respectively – compared to less than 30 per cent in Sweden. Unemployment benefit claims in Norway has shot through the roof and grown four times as fast as in Sweden. Fiscal deficits in the UK and the US are likely to be in the region of 12 to 15 per cent. Last week’s economic scenario from the OBR suggested that Britain’s GDP could drop by almost 13 per cent this year.

    So yes: the economy has to be factored into a balanced pandemic response if it is going to last for longer than a few weeks more. No country can sustain suppression policies if they have catastrophic consequences for the economy. Many countries can borrow cash now to pay people that aren’t working and help businesses that are on the verge of bankruptcy. But that isn’t an unlimited option. Debt accumulated now will have to be repaid later. We can hope for a sharp economic recovery but chances are that it will be slow and that it will take years to rebuild national production. And we already know what that means: unemployment will remain high, people will be poorer and there will be less spending on benefits, welfare services and core state functions like the police. Sweden won’t be spared, but our economy will not be as ravaged as elsewhere.

    So Sweden isn’t edging closer to a lockdown. Nor is team Tegnell panicking and fighting for its reputation. The vast majority of people think Sweden broadly opted for a balanced and effectual policy and current trends support that view. Everyone is upset about carelessness in nursing homes – that a very high share of our death toll is elderly nursing home residents – and that emergency plans were so poor and medical contingency stocks so small. People will be held to account. Some heads will roll. My guess is that it won’t be Tegnell’s:

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-swedish-experiment-looks-like-it-s-paying-off

    1. Norway had a kind of “lockdown-lite” – but otherwise as described for Sweden.
      Our current total tested infected is 7166 out of a total population of 5.4 million. At the peak, there were 325 hospital cases, now 144.
      Deaths per 100,000 population in the graph below. Noticeably better than Sweden (yellow line).
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d64f745505b420a53711e24b5d0ffa1a17fbd8a88754f61fd6fbf40fac760d21.jpg
      The X-axis is counting days after he 10th death due to Corona (no, I don’t know why, either)
      Maybe the best approach is somewhere between Sweden & UK? as we have done. Hasn’t stopped the economy from hurting, though, so we’re being encouraged back to work & school now.

    2. Norway had a kind of “lockdown-lite” – but otherwise as described for Sweden.
      Our current total tested infected is 7166 out of a total population of 5.4 million. At the peak, there were 325 hospital cases, now 144.
      Deaths per 100,000 population in the graph below. Noticeably better than Sweden (yellow line).
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d64f745505b420a53711e24b5d0ffa1a17fbd8a88754f61fd6fbf40fac760d21.jpg
      The X-axis is counting days after he 10th death due to Corona (no, I don’t know why, either)
      Maybe the best approach is somewhere between Sweden & UK? as we have done. Hasn’t stopped the economy from hurting, though, so we’re being encouraged back to work & school now.

      2. Interesting. It might worth pointing out that infections roughly scale as the square of the total population, so deaths per capita between countries isn’t as comparable as it might be.

      1. 318394+ up ticks,
        Afternoon R,
        We have been selective about our testing says chief Doc, Monroe county that is why our overall infection rate numbers are low.
        We in England / GB have many in the hierarchy who select to be selective to suit their needs.
        The Doc in my post has put himself in the frame for scrutiny so those of a doubtful nature
        can go ahead and scruut, we in the UK have a large problem with just who to believe.

        1. So like everywhere else the infection count is lower than it should be because access to testing is controlled.

          But this doctor is a family doctor, a GP doing family practice. It seems strange that a GP is treating so many covid patients, wouldn’t the serious cases be shipped off to hospital?

          It would be good if this simple treatment is effective, but the politicised reporting of usage makes any reports questionable. As you say, just who can we believe?
          .

          1. 318394+ up ticks,
            R,
            I did also say that the Doc. leaves himself open to questions, in the UK IMO we are subject to political deceitful shadows and goalpost movers of great renowned on various issues.
            Trust none in the governance bodies within the UK on rhetoric alone, & on actions taken and seen hold reservations for at least five years.

            By the by never let a politico kiss your baby or pat your dog.

    1. Why would you need to get your temperature checked daily? If your temperature goes up, you feel unwell. If you feel unwell, you should check your temperature and stay away from other people.

          2. …or that he/she was thought not to be actually doing any work while “working from home” ?

  94. That’s me for the day. Gorgeous sunshine all day long – but a really bitter east wind – which made being out in the garden a real challenge. It was OK in the greenhouse where I potted on tomatoes and, natch, trombetti.

    More of the same tomorrow, apparently. Must be importing the virus.

    A demain.

    1. Evening, Bill, or Good morning by the time you read this; being Norfolk born and bred, I understand the bitterness of that lazy east wind – I say ‘lazy’ because it can’t be bothered to go around you but goes straight through and chills you to the bone.

      Memories of walking to school in such weather! Brrr.

    1. We’ve been trying to socially distance ourselves from the buggers for 4 years!

    2. We have people booked into the cottage. I doubt we will see them.

      Apart from shopping they never leave the gardens and pool.
      They would be fine here and I’m sure there are many rural gites in France where the same applies.

      The politicians are killing their own economies.

      Wearing my Sunday best, I’m a luvvie, kindly, save the planet, kindofaguy uniform:

      “WAKE UP you bastards, for a few deaths today you are sentencing far more people to economic death tomorrow.”

      1. Sadly the rules for travelling/holidays have to be based on ‘worst case’. Yes, your situation is safe but most aren’t. And most holidaymakers want to move around, eat out, visit attractions, eat in restaurants etc etc. Even if you could convince your punters to travel they will be stopped en route and asked for justification for their journey. Never mind, I’ll send you some truffles!

        1. You’re spot on.

          We won’t be encouraging the guests to come down, but they’ve made the comment that they feel they are safer here than they are at home, given how relatively rural we are. Quite bizarre.

          We would love the truffles.
          No sign of any at all around the oaks where we planted the outer skin scrapings

          1. Can’t you download, fill out and send them un Autorisation de voyager signed by Boris – his signature is all over the Internet.

            That should impress the Gendarmerie – perhaps.

        1. In the days when you could go into a cinema at lunchtime and come out at 10 in the evening, my friend and I sat through that three times.

          1. Happy days. I think that is actually the first time I have knowingly used that oft-used phrase. They were, happy days. Little did we know it.

          2. Yes – happy and carefree. The only worry was that the boy you fancied wouldn’t like you.

    4. Not much social distancing possible on the ferries 🙁
      Channel Tunnel will be rubbing their hands in glee.

    1. Oil consumption has been close to zero for almost a month now so why the sudden panic, have they only just realised?

      1. Production has presumably continued the same, but they’ve run out of storage because usage has fallen so much.
        I’ve heard the price has gone negative, i.e. producers are paying for it to be stored….

    1. I can’t help wondering whether the recent “easy years”, with fewer winter deaths than normal for the very old , which have meant that those very old people have gone into overtime are now being restored to the long term averages on deaths.

      There must come a point when extreme old age hits an upper limit and at that point death rates will temporarily soar and the even out. Have we hit that point and has the virus underlined it?

          1. It Shirley is. There can never be a correct interpretation of the deaths because of the different methodology that each country uses. China had 51 deaths caused by flu in 2015. Who, excuse the pun, can honestly use health statistics from a country that will distort the truth as much as that. Each country will proclaim, post Corvid-19, that they have achieved the best possible result for their nations. It’s going to be pretty easy for all governments to show that they did the right thing.

      3. UK Population 2001= 58,789,194 (census data)

        Uk Population 2020 est = 67,886,011 people

        So 9,000,000 more people in the UK and a greater proportion of elderly since the last big influenza event in 2000. Not wishing to detract from the virulence of this present Virus but all other things being equal might one not expect a higher weekly death toll in 2020 than in 2000?

        2. But the majority of the extra 9 mill aren’t old. It’s young migrants and sprogs. We didn’t suddenly import millions of pensioners. I know our age group are a bulge, but not that much of one.

          1. True, but only up to a point.

            in 19 years, a huge number of UK “originals” people will have moved into the pensioner bracket.

            A lot of the imports will be evening out the lowering of the average number of children overall produced by the indegenes.

          2. “Nearly 185,000 people have died in 2020 compared with around 175,000 on average over the past five years at this point of the year.”

            Would it be reasonable to expect 10,000 extra deaths from a population that’s increased in size by approximately 2.5 million over the past 5 years*?

            Clearly the next 3-4 weeks’ weekly death toll will tell us just how deadly this virus is.

            Edited to add * Given that this year like 2000 may be an exceptional Flu event unlike the last 5 years.

          3. ‘Evening, Bass, but with an extra 9 million sucking on the taxpayer’s teat and flooding the NHS with their disgusting oriental diseases, there is less money or facility for treating the elderly. Another form of the Liverpool Pathway.

        3. Other estimates put the population at 75M to 80M based on food sales and other parameters.

      4. I think you could well be right. So many of these old people are kept alive by their medication – and if they have dementia or are otherwise unable to care for themselves, they go into “God’s waiting rooms” and pay an absolute fortune, depriving their children of their legacy. Then along comes CV19, and they’re gone.

        1. I was on a course there about then, early in the year and it was bloody freezing, exceptionally so I seem to recall. Or maybe it wasn’t 2,000.

      1. He is still around, but not around here. I saw that he had commented on the DE (mea maxima culpa) only two days ago.

        1. Would I be right in saying that the daily post count here has gone up since his departure?

          1. You would. Whether the two are connected is debatable. I suspect the increased comment count is more likely to be due to our incarceration…

          2. I agree.
            I tried to get him to return elsewhere, but I’m not convinced he really reads replies.

          4. But his input would also be increased by incarceration! If that was possible!

    2. I don’t hold much truck for Branson, let alone the other large players in V-Oz, but I do feel a lot of sympathy for all the employees who are being laid off.
      What strikes me is that the only long-haul that will be left when the smoke clears will be national carriers and that prices will sky-rocket without the competition.

        1. yer Chinks will be buying up everything they can and I suspect they won’t be alone amongst those countries that have sovereign wealth.

      3. I wonder if there will be enough call for long-haul flights once we return to whatever normality can be achieved to sustain even the national carriers. Business may have found that much of what used to require travel can now be done by internet meetings, holiday makers may be less keen to travel to faraway places with strange sounding names, and immigration and border controls might deter long-distance travel. What is a “national carrier” anyway, isn’t BA owned by a foreign consortium, and I don’t think that it is alone in this?

      4. I read that Virgin Aus backed by Chinese investment drove 55 small regional airlines out of business,the usual predatory pricing until you kill the opposition then hike it massively
        Remember the BA/Virgin transatlantic price fixing,the scumbag walked away clean having made a plea bargain,BA took it in the arse
        He’s been an evil bastard his whole business career right back to screwing the workers at Virgin Records
        Edit
        This was from Paula Hanson on Sky News Australia

    3. Watching the financial wrangling at Norwegian. A company that came to the market with Norwegian sovereign fund money, took on massive debt and attempted to drive the other established players out of the market with below cost fares. Their crews were sourced through various agencies so they would not have to pay Scandinavian rates and social costs. They were in trouble before CV19, now they are up against a wall. Another big company about to fail.

  100. The lockdown is one of the bigest mistakes this country has ever made. We must end it as soon as possible before the economy of our country is completly destroyed.Warn the people and nothing more.

    1. The M25 would be a nice barrier for a progressive release.
      If you are inside the road, stay put. Outside in the real world, carry on as before.

          2. Up on the very pinnacle of the mountain with my knife held to the kiddiewinkie’s throats. That was me, I’m confident.

          6. I was forced to have piano lessons at the age of 5, which I hated & I never go near a keyboard.
            But I learnt to read music which I still enjoy reading scores.

          7. Especially if, like me, you can’t read music…..

            I can follow the dots but they man nothing – as the chap standing next to me in the choir realised very sharpish.

    2. Still no lockdown here, John. Life goes on as normal and people just use their common sense.

      The supermarkets are fully stocked and everyone acts as if life is normal, which it is.

      1. Funny that yer Swedes can use common sense over the virus – but not over the invading slammers….

        1. Only a limited amount of common sense, can only be used on one issue at a time.

        2. It was Fredrik Reinfeldt, when he was Statsminister, who invited them all to come and asked Swedes to “embrace them with their hearts”.

          What the gullible Swedes didn’t know at the time (they weren’t told and no one asked) was that Reinfeldt is a Bilderberger, just like Mutti Merkel, and his globalist agenda was implemented behind the backs of the country. The treacherous bastard was elected on a moderate ticket but kept his agenda hidden until he was in power.

    3. The lockdown might be the biggest mistake the Western world has made.
      Possible exception is Sweden, but they’ve f***ed up in a different way.

    1. Oh to have the power of instant fines to be levied on people who add apostrophes where they don’t belong!

  102. Off topic, slightly.

    Government throws money everywhere.
    Government need to reduce expenditure.
    Government sets up conditions that ensure that as many pensioners as possible die, to reduce outgoings

    Coming to a country near you…

  103. There needs to be a study into the effect of Coronavirus on fabrics.
    Has anyone else noticed their trousers have got smaller?

        2. Wasn’t Horst Wessel a pimp who was actually killed in a spat of gang warfare and whose deification as a martyr a total load of bollocks?

    1. Good night, Peddy. I too am having an early night tonight, so Good Night to all NoTTLers. See you all tomorrow, D. V.

  108. Farms have little choice but to rely on foreign workers

    CHARLES MOORE

    Apparently, 36,000 unexpectedly unemployed British people have applied to “Pick for Britain” on farms this summer, and only 112 so far have contracts signed. There is some ill feeling that farmers are continuing to fly in workers from Bulgaria and Romania. Why not employ our own, people ask, and why bring in people who might spread coronavirus?

    On first hearing, one sympathises, but the sad fact is that sudden unemployment is easier to achieve than sudden employment. Yesterday, I spoke to a fruit farmer in the south-east, who explained how it looks to him.

    In the course of the season, he employs up to 1,200 people to pick strawberries, raspberries and so on. He hopes to recruit more British workers than in the past, but finds that in practice few young British people tolerate back-breaking, finger-chafing picking and cutting for 60 hours a week at the minimum wage. Very few have rural upbringings. They are untrained for the work involved, are often students, and usually not local. Those filling in online forms this month because of their unsought idleness may like the sound of working outdoors in summer (1,500 have applied to him), but his past experience tells him that only one per cent will stay the course.

    He also points out that the lockdown will probably end in June. At that point, the British workers would probably depart, leaving the raspberries unpicked.

    Eastern Europeans, by contrast, are used to agricultural labour and keen on the work, because it pays more than four times their home rates. On his farms, half of the workers who come one year return the next. They come legally, currently under EU rules; after any forthcoming trade deal, they will arrive under the seasonal workers’ agricultural labour scheme which the Government has promised to expand. The labourers are socially distanced from the wider community because they are housed in caravans on the farms.

    Besides, says my friend, even if every single one of the 36,000 British applicants got a place, our fruit farms would still be roughly 50,000 workers adrift of the over 85,000 they need this year. Without the Romanians and Bulgarians, the crops would simply rot and the British public would have to buy their fruit from places like Morocco instead.

    All this is slightly unwelcome news; unwelcome but, I suspect, true.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/21/did-bbc-come-report-slanted-sloppy-story/

    The subject came up on here a few days ago. A proper analysis of the changes in agriculture in the last 30-40 years would be helpful e.g. types of crops grown and how, labour costs and requirements, and how these relate to social changes and the cost of living such that British-born workers hardly feature in some parts of the industry. The useless ‘Countryfile’ reported on the subject this week but in a manner that rather trivialised it.

    The EU Remain camp has been chortling over the flights carrying workers to the UK from Eastern Europe, as though this somehow demonstrates the apparent illegitimacy of our leaving. None of them ever admit to wanting to live for two or three months in a remote camp in rural Lincolnshire, a kind of Butlins-in-the-Brassicas for Bulgarians.

    1. The farmer wins, the supermarket wins, the taxpayer picks up the bill for the social costs and overcrowding in hospitals, schools and for housing, while also paying people to sit at home on the arris.
      This is exactly the problem with globalism, we lose the skills and the know how, even it is manual work.

      1. SWMBO’s boss also grows strawberries. In a good year, she would make about 5% profit.
        The biggest margin is likely at the supermarket.

      2. “…the overcrowding in hospitals, schools and for housing…”

        A valid criticism for most of the mass immigration we have suffered but in agriculture I think a majority of the migrants are young and if they have children they rarely bring them because they live in accommodation that is unsuitable.

    2. One question:
      What happened to the working time directive, or doesn’t it apply to agricultural workers?

    3. Soft fruit is now grown in poly tunnels that has extended the season for soft fruit from a few weeks to several months. As strawberries are grown in a medium on trays a table height, they probably are not as good as they were when they were grown in the actual ground decades ago.

    4. Training? Training for hand-picking fruit is around ten minutes at the most.

        1. No doubt. I’ve read some of their comments. On the other hand, I’ve been there, done it, got the scars.

        1. Yup.

          ‘The Farmers Union and the Asaja agricultural businesses association need 450 seasonal workers for harvesting fruit and vegetables. At present, they can rely on there being only around one hundred. The rest would normally come from Colombia, many of whom come each year and are considered to be well qualified for work that lasts some six months.’

      2. Norway brings them from Vietnam.
        Big concern, farmers wondering if it’s worth planting at all.

      3. The Ecuadorians and Columbians are very active across the island and are often involved in turf wars., it’s not just the food they’re there to harvest but the stupid drug buying visitors wallets, it’s a lovely island and I’ve had some lovely holidays in Pollensa but there’s always an undercurrent of petty and not so petty crime from these people.

      4. The Ecuadorians and Columbians are very active across the island and are often involved in turf wars., it’s not just the food they’re there to harvest but the stupid drug buying visitors wallets, it’s a lovely island and I’ve had some lovely holidays in Pollensa but there’s always an undercurrent of petty and not so petty crime from these people.

    2. Of the three (two below), May is the only one who get’s close.
      Easily the best rendition.

          2. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. It was an upload by mistake.

            If it wasn’t a mistake, that was dreadful, not even remotely funny, and if you think it was, I’ll assume you are enjoying sitting on Justin Trudeau’s prick wriggling with pleasure..

  110. The Government had a plan to fight this pandemic – but it lost its nerve

    PHILIP JOHNSTON

    Is there a more overused word in this crisis than “unprecedented”. No one could have expected this, we are told. How could any country prepare for such a disaster? Who knew? Well, the Government did, for one. And I don’t mean they were warned in January or February that a new coronavirus was heading our way. I mean they had planned for this for years.

    As we get deeper and deeper into the mire, there is a growing clamour to blame Boris Johnson for being asleep at the wheel. He was so fixated with Brexit and distracted by his private life at the critical moments when the pandemic began to spread that crucial decisions were ducked. He failed to attend vital meetings of the emergency planning group Cobra, which despite its dramatic sounding name is merely an acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Room, as the PM reminded us when he was criticised for not attending in February.

    How fair is this? Tony Blair, the former prime minister, sympathised with his successor, acknowledging that hindsight is easy and that what is important now is to make the right decisions to avoid an economic catastrophe that will far outweigh the impact of the pandemic. The Bank of England’s analysis setting out the likely consequences of this lockdown must make any responsible government start preparations now for an early and managed relaxation. It suggests the Office for Budget Responsibility’s report last week predicting a 35 per cent fall in output may have been too optimistic and that an early bounce-back – a V-shaped recovery – is not going to happen. A study by the Centre for Policy Studies forecasts that borrowing this year will hit £300 billion, equivalent to twice the annual spending on the NHS.

    To say this cannot be sustained much longer without wrecking our way of life is a statement of the obvious, and yet many seem prepared to do just that if it means some people will not die today of coronavirus, even if others will die tomorrow of cancers or heart ailments because they are not being properly treated.

    The Government needs to be honest with people about the need to live with this virus and not pretend it will be beaten. There needs to be a grown-up debate about risks, which people take in every other walk of life, from travelling on a plane to driving a car. We know they are there but do our best to mitigate them.

    But while Mr Blair is right to say that hindsight is a wonderful thing, that is really only true for something that is unexpected. This wasn’t. For a start, it isn’t unprecedented. Pandemics have been with humanity for millennia. We have had far worse that this in the past. The Black Death killed half the population of some countries.

    There were more fatalities from the Spanish flu of 1918/19 than there had been in the entire First World War. There were pandemics in 1957 and 1968. Ten years ago, the near breakout of Sars would have replicated the death tolls of yore had it not been contained.

    Indeed, so certain were we that this would happen again that a list of threats was compiled to guide government decision-making. This is called the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies and was referred to recently by Alan Johnson, health secretary in the last Labour government. “At the top of our risk register was a pandemic,” he said. “We know they come along; there’s been three every 100 years for the past 300 years.”

    The issue, therefore, is what to do about them, and to that end successive governments have devised a national framework for such an event. Its mortality assumptions are that a pandemic will cause between 50,000 and 750,000 excess deaths, depending on its severity. Figures from the ONS yesterday showed that, in the week to April 10, there were 18,500 deaths in the UK which is 7,000 more than average because of Covid-19 but about the same as in the first week of January 2000, a bad flu year.

    According to Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University and a clinical epidemiologist, we passed the peak of deaths on April 8, which suggests that the mortality from Covid-19 is not much worse than it was 20 years ago. Indeed, with a much higher and older population, it is statistically less so. Arguably, it has been suppressed by the lockdown and yet two countries that have not had one, Sweden and South Korea, have fared better than the UK.

    Prof Heneghan says infection rates halved after the Government urged people to wash their hands and distance themselves from others on March 16. But ministers “lost sight” of the evidence and rushed into an unnecessary lockdown.

    The point about the national pandemic plan is that it is specifically required to be proportionate to the risk, though it does err on the side of a “reasonable worst-case scenario”. This means that there can be over-responses, as there was to the swine flu in 2009 which turned out not to be as bad as feared.

    For coronavirus, the Government was following this framework almost to the letter while preparing the country for what would be a difficult period. But that all changed on Mother’s Day when pictures of people out and about led to a clamour for a lockdown that was never planned for. Prof Heneghan says the Government lost its nerve. Concerned that it would be seen to be putting the economy ahead of the NHS, it is now inflicting worse damage on the country than the virus itself.

    Nor is there any sign of an end. Five benchmarks were announced for relaxing the measures, the fifth of which is to prevent a second wave of infections in the autumn. But this will not be possible without continuing the lockdown until then and further wrecking the economy.

    The question that arises is not was the Government caught napping but why did it not follow its own painstakingly devised strategy? To paraphrase the Prussian general Helmuth von Moltke, this plan did not survive its first contact with the politics. All the carefully argued medical and economic assessments were blown apart by a fear of being blamed for a death toll that was going to rise come what may.

    It is not the virus that is unprecedented. It is the response.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/21/government-had-plan-fight-pandemic-lost-nerve/

    1. I do have a bike. I also have a similar carrier for Dolly. My problem is… is that she wants to drive.

  112. Just in case the hydroxychloroqiunine trials confuse you, here are the results of another small trial at the US Veterans Affairs medical centres.

    In the study of 368 patients, 97 patients who took hydroxychloroquine had a 27.8% death rate. The 158 patients who did not take the drug had an 11.4% death rate.

    https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.16.20065920v1

    To be treated with as much cynicism as other analysis.

    1. Yup.

      These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs.

      Isn’t that going to be too late for many patients? Unless there’s a second, third and other waves of CV?

      1. 318394+ up ticks,
        Evening Pm,
        Like it , very good, nice touch, not wishing it on anybody though, even him.

    1. Most such things are very poor, this one is absolutely oustanding, timing, music, story. Wonderful.

      And well done Allan Stewart too.

    2. Great response to this true hero’s efforts, above and beyond the call of duty to raise funds for NHS Charities

  117. A YouTube video showing takeaway food delivery drivers eating their customers’ food prior to delivery has removed its facility to comment. Shame.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGfMQz53YwM&t=48s

    I’ll just have to comment on there then.

    I have no sympathy, whatsoever, for those people who order their “food” to be delivered in this way. It’s no use saying that they do not have the time nor the skills to buy fresh ingredients to cook their own food. That is a load of bollocks. Every generation prior to this one bought raw ingredients and cooked their own food. They had done this for centuries.

    If you are too stupid or idle (or both) to cook your own food and would prefer something concocted from unknown ingredients, cooked in some iffy kitchen by some unhygienic “cook”, and then have it delivered to your home by some filthy, unwashed and unregulated chav, then you deserve all you get.

    1. But, but but….

      Ya godda keep de fast food people employed in this time of crisis.

    2. My shifts are 15 hours when travel in included. Doesn’t leave a lot of time for nutritious home cooking, particularly as everyone in the house likes different things.
      Back in the day it was quite normal for there not to be two full time workers in every household.
      You’re not stupid, you know the world has changed from that time. You know to support housing and childcare costs most families need two full-time workers.

    3. My apologies for jumping down your throat yesterday evening, Grizz. It was unnecessary of me. Sorry.

      1. Apology graciously accepted, Paul.

        My comment was not directed at anyone in particular, it was simply me letting off my frustrations at how silly the world has become. I had no intention of upsetting you or anyone else.

        1. The world is crazy. So am I – apols again.
          We prefer to eat out when we get an opportunity, and a Friday after a busy week is a good time. There’s a buzz about a restaurant, the food and drink is different, and there’s no washing-up! Unfortunately, all we can do is get take-away’s now, but the favourite curry-house (with an excellent chef) say that they have never been so busy…

          1. No need for an apology, Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I love visiting good restaurants and I’m not averse to visiting a decent take-away, be it Chinese, Indian, kebab, fish and chips or whatever.

            My point (terribly made, I admit) was against this new “culture” of dial up food that is delivered by motorcycle courier from wherever. You have no way of inspecting the premises the food was cooked in nor do you know the veracity of the individual delivering it. As the video clearly showed, there is more than ample scope for mischief all along the line.

            That is why I am wary of such ventures and, if I am not going out to a restaurant or personally visiting a takeaway, I would much rather be old-fashioned and cook my own food.

            Paul, you’re still a mate. :•)

    4. I too work long hours, and I cook a proper breakfast before leaving (eg pancakes, eggs, porridge), and also prepare a midday meal (salad mostly nowadays, but I have done things like chili con carne and rice packed in lunch boxes in the past). Apart from that, I only take snacks like chocolate and nuts. Nobody actually needs three meals a day unless they’re ill.
      We only ever have takeaway if we’re travelling.

    1. Possibly at last Branson’s tricky accountants are having difficulty moving the same capital from one outfit to another to enhance his apparent wealth…

      1. Branson is like the granpa applying for a means-tested benefits and distributing the liquid savings elsewhere or spending them before filling out the application.

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