Friday 17 April: Testing for virus infection is now futile as a route out of lockdown

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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/2020/04/16/letterstesting-virus-infection-now-futile-route-lockdown/

992 thoughts on “Friday 17 April: Testing for virus infection is now futile as a route out of lockdown”

  1. New police guidelines issued on lockdown rules, and ‘reasonable’ reasons to leave home. 17 April 2020.

    People can drive to do a country walk but only if the walk is longer than the drive, says new police guidance on the lockdown, that decrees you can also move in with friends if you fall out with your husband or wife.

    The new guidance, which appears to contradict some officers’ interpretation of the law, also says people can exercise more than once a day and stop to rest or have lunch on a park bench provided you are on a “long” walk.

    Morning everyone. From Police State to Concentration Camp. I did go to the Supermarket yesterday. About half way there a Police Car pulled up onto the pavement about 50 yards in front of me then waited as I walked past and then started up again and drove off. Accident? Coincidence? Intimidation? Probably the latter. The good thing is there seemed to be more people and cars around than I had seen before. I’m for ignoring all the restrictions except those that you yourself think are sensible and practical. F*ck the Government!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/16/official-can-cant-do-lockdown-according-new-police-guidance/

      2. So, the police gang up on a solitary woman walking a dog but (at 0.06 seconds in) ignore completely the two ‘New British, shuffling along with their shopping and breaking the social distance advice. Heavy handed and discriminatory policing; the ‘service’ appear to be trying to instil fear rather than respect for their role in society.

        1. I hope these police were just as enthusiastic outside their local mosque this afternoon……answers on a postcard.

      3. ‘Morning, Rik, and I’ve put it up on Facebook where it can be viewed by friends in America, Sweden, France and Spain.

        Let’;s shew the world what a jackass looks like.

    3. I’ll repeat what I’ve said before, because I live in a pleasant rural location with walks a’plenty straight out of my front door, I will not criticise any urban dweller, especially those trapped in flats or without gardens, who feels the need to drive a short distance to go for a walk or uses their local park to relax, provided they keep a safe distance apart from other people.

    4. How do they intend to measure the length of the walk? “Yes, officer – I’ve just walked 5 miles.”

  5. Repeat from late last night:

    Q: How many of the 3,600 beds in the Nightingale pop-up hospital in London are occupied as of 16 April?

    A: Twenty-four !

    1. Just in case……but to be fair the government of course, by all the hindsight knowalls are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
      It’s now been revealed that China has not been telling the truth (who knew) about the spread or the source of the virus. And there had been a 50% increase in cases in Wuhan alone.

    3. In much the same vein

      Exclusive: NHS volunteer army of 750,000 has been given fewer than 20,000 tasks, data reveals
      NHS Volunteer Responder scheme has helped a maximum of around 3,500 people every day since its launch, figures have revealed

      By Bill Gardner – 16 April 2020 • 11:16pm
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/16/least730000-volunteers-nhs-scheme-yet-deployed-care-home-bosses/

      P.S. It turns out that volunteers need an up-to-date smartphone running the latest version of android in order to participate.

      1. NHS Volunteer Responder scheme has helped a maximum of around 3,500 people every day since its launch, figures have revealed.

        It was only ever a publicity gimmick!

      1. This comes from the chrous of our Lovely Maggie’s favourite song: ‘Dorset is Beautiful’?

        It’s pleasant to sit in the thunder and the hail
        Wi-yer girl-friend on a turnip clamp and hear the sweet nightingale

        1. I learned it as:-

          Wi-yer girl-friend on a turnip tump and hear the sweet nightingale

    5. The NH’s should be used as isolation hospitals for C19 patients. Since visiting isn’t allowed, travelling distances for families aren’t a problem.
      Then the original hospitals can get back to their normal job of treating cancer patients, heart and stroke victims and even do elective surgery, rather than prolong the pain for people with agonising but not immediately life threatening ailments.

  6. GOP seizes on newly declassified material to raise further questions about Steele Dossier. April 16, 2020.

    The footnotes, which were previously classified in the inspector general report and still contain some redactions, show the FBI was warned in 2017 that some of the information Steele received could have been part of a Russian disinformation campaign. The declassified material also shows the intelligence community told the FBI in 2017 that “two persons affiliated” with Russian intelligence were aware of Steele’s investigation in July 2016.

    “As we can see from these now-declassified footnotes in the IG’s report, Russian intelligence was aware of the dossier before the FBI even began its investigation and the FBI had reports in hand that their central piece of evidence was most likely tainted with Russian disinformation,” Grassley and Johnson said in a joint statement.

    This is a part of the current campaign being waged to get Steele off the hook. He is not alone in wanting this. All those with a stake in this story now wish to distance themselves from it, not least because it is a Presidential Election Year. If you are for example puzzled as to why two Republican Party Chairmen would go along with this the answer is quite simple. In discrediting the Steele Dossier they also get Trump off. No more Putin/Trump conspiracy in the MSM during the election. There is no Democrat dissent because it also leaves them in the clear in that they look like victims of Russian perfidy instead of purveyors of lies. I don’t doubt that all the interested parties have had their heads together in private and settled this between themselves. A rare example of Cross Party consensus! That it still leaves the Russians looking guilty of meddling in American Elections is a win/win for all sides.

    To break through the lies, disinformation and obfuscation and understand what unutterable barking mad drivel all this really is; it is necessary to take a step back and see the broader implications. If the Russian Intelligence Services really were aware of Steele’s Dossier and feeding it false information to discredit Trump then the inescapable implication is that they wished instead for Hilary Clinton to win the Presidency! I won’t go so far as to say no one will believe this, just no one sensible.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/16/politics/christopher-steele-footnotes-russian-disinformation/index.html

        1. Most certainly – sort of modelled on Waitrose where everyone is a ‘Partner’……

          Morning Anne

    1. The boys and girls in blue are getting a lot of stick on this site. If only one of us could come to their defence!

      3. Let us nominate you to do so.

        What have you to say to enlighten us? Is Grizzly here today? As a former Mr Plod he too might have some valuable points to make?

  8. Q: how many of the 13,760 deaths from/with Covid19 in the UK so far have been persons under 20?

    A: FIVE (0.0003%)

    3. It’s the same here where I live, the best time to commit a crime or the worst time to need urgent help must be at 8pm on Thursdays

    1. .Morning Paul

      Even more disturbing than the video is the dickhead comment

      “Why couldn’t he just cooperate? If you have nothing to hide then what’s the big deal. The police is trying to do their jobs, being uncooperative, and acting all defensive like that is only going to make the police suspicious that you must be trying to hide something.”
      Now THERE’S a blockwarden in the making

        1. I can’t agree, Herr Oberst. If you were the wife of the obnoxious householder and were being beaten up by him, resulting in neighbours calling in the police to deal with “a disturbance” you would not be accusing the police coming to investigate as intending to take all you and your husband’s freedoms away.

          2. Apparently not. But the police were not to know that when they received the phone from the neighbour. Would you be happier for all police to stay at the station drinking cups of tea and ignoring phone calls for help because the police thought “that is not the case, so we won’t attend”?

          4. I don’t follow what you are trying to tell me, Herr Oberst. You are a bear who is winking at me?!?!?

    2. Yo Ol

      I see the perlice service person with a bumpy front is a Rainbow Warrior, we

    3. We did not see the start of this event (when the householder presumably was asked to open the door, refused, was warned that the door would be kicked in, still refused and hence resulted in the door being kicked in. But the attitude of the householder was much, much worse than that of the police who remained calm and rational at all times, even when being constantly sworn at and called F…ing C..ts and D..kheads.

      1. I am on the side of the householder. He said he told them why he wouldn’t open, so they kicked the door in anyway. Guilty. I would have used similar language if the gestapo broke my door in.
        They deserve being sworn at. Arseholes.

    4. Mr Angry eh. But unfortunately he’s right.
      Nothing some decent PVA and a few clamps can’t fix.
      I’m on me way.

  11. I’m just waiting now for stage two of the dystopian drastic climate action measures to kick into action

    – When the scientists and the green blob try to persuade people that we don’t want to go back to our old way of living.
    – we are better off with clean air, low pollution, low grade jobs.
    – we are better off if we don’t exist at all, oops I’m slipping into stage three already.

    1. And when the panic is over – they’ll all bugger off again and say that they are too short of staff to deal with murder, burglary, theft etc etc.

      1. …and will invent a new form of ‘hate’ crime encompassing anyone who posted anything rude about perlice behaviour during the lockdown and bringing those beastly, cruel, insensitive members of the public to justice is their new top priority.

    2. Morning, LD.
      It is obvious that the 20,000 were there all along.
      They just didn’t fancy tackling real crime.

  13. At least with Twin Peaks the music was good:

    By Malcolm Kendrick, doctor and author who works as a GP in the National Health Service in England. His blog can be read here and his book, ‘Doctoring Data – How to Sort Out Medical Advice from Medical Nonsense,’ is available here.

    The prime minister must be honest and admit that unless the restrictions last forever, which they can’t, in the long term we cannot prevent almost everybody getting infected and a portion of them dying.

    Several politicians, including Keir Starmer, the opposition Labour Party leader, have been demanding to know the exit strategy for the lockdown. “We should know what that exit strategy is, when the restrictions might be lifted and what the plan is for economic recovery to protect those who have been hardest hit,” he said this week.

    This is an entirely valid question, but the government cannot have an exit strategy unless they have an overall strategy. One follows directly from the other.

    And there are only four possible strategies:

    To eradicate the virus from the entire population by enforcing lockdown. Or to enforce lockdown until there is an effective treatment. Or to enforce lockdown until there is a vaccine. Or to enforce lockdown to slow the spread of the virus, so as to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed.

    Eradication is virtually impossible with such a highly infectious disease. Even if the UK was successful, if other countries were not, keeping Covid-19 out would require border closures for years, maybe decades. Endless checks on planes, boats, lorries, cars. Constant testing and restrictions. It is almost certain that the virus would still slip through. This does not seem a viable option.

    What about finding an effective treatment? The chances are vanishingly small. Influenza, a very similar virus, has been around for decades, and no game changing medications have yet been found.

    As for a vaccine, this solution is so distant that it does not really exist. It will be a minimum of 18 months before an effective vaccine can be developed, then tested, then produced in sufficient quantities to be of any use. Waiting for 18 months before ending the lockdown would be socially and economically impossible. We would be committing national suicide.

    So there is only one overall strategy that can be followed. Control the spread to avoid overwhelming the NHS. This has never been made explicit, but the government has, albeit indirectly, told us that this is exactly what they are doing.

    In the last few days, a letter was sent to all households, signed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, before he himself was confirmed to have contracted the disease. It was entitled ‘Coronavirus – stay at home; protect the NHS, save lives’. It contained this key passage: “If too many people become seriously unwell at one time, the NHS will be unable to cope. This will cost lives. We must slow the spread of the disease, and reduce the number of people needing hospital treatment in order to save as many lives as possible.”

    The key sentence is the first: “If too many people become seriously unwell at one time.”

    This fits with the initial UK strategy. Contain, delay, research, mitigate. The UK has passed through ‘contain’ and is now in ‘delay and mitigate’. Research sits in the background and may, or may not, provide a solution.

    However, ‘delay and mitigate’ doesn’t mean that people will not become infected and die. It just means that the NHS will not be overwhelmed by a wave of them happening at the same time. We are simply, it should be made clear, trying to control the ‘peak’, which now will likely be a series of ‘peaks’.

    There is hardly anything said about the fact that the average age of death is around 80, that the vast majority of those dying are old (92 percent are over 60), and have several other serious medical conditions.

    The reality is that for anyone younger than about 60, Covid-19 is only slightly more dangerous than suffering from influenza. The infection fatality rate (IFR) currently stands at around 0.2 percent in those countries doing the most testing. This figure will inevitably fall once we can identify those who were infected but had no symptoms.

    By avoiding this more reassuring message, by frightening everyone into compliance, the government has painted itself into a corner. How can they say to people that last week you couldn’t drive two miles to walk in the countryside, or go to the beach, or go to a restaurant, or lie in a park sunbathing, in order to prevent the spread of this deadly killer disease… but this week you can?

    Worse than that, when cases begin to rise again, about a month after lockdown is relaxed, will we all have to lock down again to prevent the next surge? How will the public respond to this? I don’t know, but I expect that it is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to force everyone back into lockdown again.

    By this point, millions will have been financially crippled and will be desperate to work, if their jobs still exist. Thousands of businesses will have fallen over, bankrupt. Hundreds of thousands of operations, and cancer treatments, will have been postponed and cancelled. I have already warned that it’s possible, perhaps even likely, that significantly more people will die as a result of the lockdown than will die from coronavirus.

    That great harm is being done by it was made clear in an article this week in the Health Service Journal: “NHS England analysts have been tasked with the challenging task of identifying patients who may not have the virus but may be at risk of significant harm or death because they are missing vital appointments or not attending emergency departments, with both the service and public so focused on COVID-19.”

    “A senior NHS source familiar with the programme told HSJ: ‘There could be some very serious unintended consequences [to all the resources going into fighting coronavirus]. While there will be a lot of COVID-19 fatalities, we could end up losing more ‘years of life’ because of fatalities relating to non-COVID-19 health complications.’”

    It may well seem that all this suffering was… well, for what exactly? To simply prevent a surge of cases. This government, all governments, must be honest about this and admit that in the longer term, we cannot prevent almost everybody getting infected and acknowledge that some of those infected will die.

    When lockdown restrictions are lifted, this does not mean that the virus has gone. It does not mean that people cannot infect each other. It does not mean we can simply carry on as before. It means that we have kept the first surge under control.

    So, what is the exit strategy? The answer is that we don’t have one. We have a strategy of delay and mitigation which will continue until… when? Until everyone has been infected? Until we have an effective treatment? Until we have an effective vaccine? Until enough people have been infected that we have achieved herd immunity?

    The government must tell us the truth and be clear about what end point they are seeking to achieve. Only then can we have an exit strategy.

    https://www.rt.com/op-ed/485513-uk-government-covid-lockdown/

    1. Eradication is virtually impossible with such a highly infectious disease. Even if the UK was successful, if other countries were not, keeping Covid-19 out would require border closures for years, maybe decades. Endless checks on planes, boats, lorries, cars. Constant testing and restrictions. It is almost certain that the virus would still slip through. This does not seem a viable option.

      They’re not even doing that now, so that option is clearly off the cards.
      150 East European farm workers have just arrived in Stansted. Another 5 or 6 charter planes also expected:

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8n77F_TtL0
      Brits Stay At Home While We Fly In European Farm Workers

      They’re really taking the mickey out of us now…

    2. “The government must tell us the truth and be clear about what end point they are seeking to achieve.”

      Ay, there’s the rub.

    1. Would they have an enquiry if it affected white people disproportionately, I wonder? I very much doubt it.

    2. Any NoTTLer will tell you it’s genetic and further exacerbated by poor life-style.

      Next.

      1. And perhaps cultural disinclination to do social distancing. But you can guarantee that will not be mentioned. And the poor lifestyle will be reframed as victimhood.

      2. Downing St needs to watch Sargon of Akkad videos – he pretty much dealt with this some days ago.

    4. The review will conclude that BAMEs must get priority in any queue for treatment, if such a virus returns.

    5. Has it not got as much to do with economic and social circumstances and savoir-vivre as much as it has to do with race?

      Take but degree away, untune that string
      And hark what discord follows.

    6. Hang on a second , black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds appear to be disproportionately affected by coronavirus make up a third, surely it is racist to suggest that whitey’s should represent MORE than two thirds of the population to take the hammering of Covid 19?

      1. No more racist than,….
        on a news programme earlier this week saying that the ‘Bangladesh community’ are more likely to be a larger part of the poorest in the UK than white people.
        Not sure what point they were trying to make, but I would imagine most of the poorer white people are not associated with any specific imported community. And the vast majority speak English, (the language of this country) have actually been able to hold down some type of job even in extreme circumstances.
        And probably have parents who may well have been employed most of their adult lives. And didn’t arrive as a migrant in another with their hands wide open and permanently held out to exist wholly on taxpayers supported
        benefits.

        1. Poor white people are ignored , and have had their traditional industries grabbed and destroyed .. and then to make matters worse have had to endure the indignity of having to accommodate migrants and troublesome disruptive factions . White poor people used to have Chapels and a strong sense of community , over the years ruined by the Labour party importing migrants .

          No wonder many of them voted Conservative in the last election, they were just hoping that some one would recognise their plight .

    1. Cressida Dickhead ensuring that she’s front and centre with the virtue-signalling.

    2. I’m curious about this because Cochrane said during the last outburst that everyone was clapping where he lived. Bearing in mind his record I wasn’t sure whether to believe this or not but seeing this video he was probably telling the truth for a change. All this is by way of saying that when the last clapping session was due I went outside and listened. There was not a sound to relieve the silence. So what is going on? We can see here that this exhibition is arranged. The Stasi are on duty and clapping to order. Is that the truth? That this is some Potemkin exercise in enthusiasm and that everywhere beyond the purview of the State silence reigns?

      1. We had one family next door bashing pots and pans and clapping. The rest of the neighbours in the Close had more decorum and common sense.

      3. Utter ‘ush round Allan Towers.
        But then Le Creuset is cast iron which shatters easily.

          2. Mostly fit old farts hereabouts – give or take the odd hip replacement.
            (Neighbour and I have been sharing walking sticks; well, her sons did go to school with our boys. Community spirit and all that.)

      4. I suspect it’s more likely to happen in suburban areas, where it may only need one enthusiast to get a street of households joining in. Probably more contagious than the virus itself in cofined areas.

  16. I learned at school that the art of Theatre was to engender “a total suspension of disbelief”.

    A few hours ago I logged on to The National Theatre’s streamed production of Treasure Island
    After a couple of minutes it became clear that the producers had lost the plot. I simply couldn’t believe how they had transformed the gender of Jim. Woke beyond belief. I gave up after five minutes. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if they hadn’t introduced Long Jean Silver….

    1. I saw Treasure Island at the Crucible in Sheffield early seventies. The cast spoke in Bristolian accents which was most effective and I imagined the quayside of the old Bristol docks, since concreted over.

      The steeply raked seating and thrust stage with four entrances worked well. If you looked upwards the high intensity spots meant you swiftly looked downwards onto the stage. It was the realisation of Stephen Joseph’s ideas as expressed in his book: Theatre in the Round.

    2. Morning, Stephen.

      The name would not be “Long Jean Silver”

      It would be “Longue Jean Argent”. And he would still be male! 🤣

      1. Morning Grizz

        I assure you that in this Islington sur Mer (de) production Jean would most likely be a she….

    4. As have been a few old gavourite stories. Specially and specifically
      remade in the interests of diversity ?

      1. Specially and specifically made to rub our noses in diversity.

        For more information, see #YouClapForMeNow

  17. From the Spekkie: it may have been posted before, but all this catching up with ironing and window cleaning has restricted my time for enjoying the finer things of life – like NOTTL.

    Steerpike

    Six questions that Neil Ferguson should be asked

    16 April 2020, 2:28pm

    “It was a tale of two interviews on the Today programme this morning. First up on the show was Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, who has been instrumental in forming the UK government’s response to the coronavirus crisis, and whose virus modelling led to the current lockdown being put in place.

    On the show, the professor received an almost deferential line of questioning from Sarah Smith with his views seemingly taken as near-Gospel as he declared that a ‘significant level’ of social distancing could have to be maintained indefinitely until a vaccine becomes available.

    Then came along the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock. As you would expect, he was treated to the traditional Today programme mauling, as his record and pronouncements on testing, the growing virus outbreak in care homes and PPE were scrutinised by Nick Robinson.

    While Mr S thinks it’s only right that Hancock faces tough questions, Steerpike can’t help but wonder whether Ferguson should receive similar treatment. After all, his advice is heavily feeding into government policy and therefore ought to face a similar level of scrutiny. What’s more, Ferguson’s scientific work can’t exactly be described as bulletproof.

    Given that it’s the trend these days for former spinners, hacks and politicians to suggest questions that the media isn’t currently asking of politicians, Mr S has decided to do his bit for public discourse by penning a few for Ferguson. Below are six questions Steerpike would like to see Neil Ferguson pressed on the next time he embarks on a media round:

    Q1.

    In 2005, Ferguson said that up to 200 million people could be killed from bird flu. He told the Guardian that ‘around 40 million people died in 1918 Spanish flu outbreak… There are six times more people on the planet now so you could scale it up to around 200 million people probably.’ In the end, only 282 people died worldwide from the disease between 2003 and 2009.

    How did he get this forecast so wrong?

    Q2.

    In 2009, Ferguson and his Imperial team predicted that swine flu had a case fatality rate 0.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent. His most likely estimate was that the mortality rate was 0.4 per cent. A government estimate, based on Ferguson’s advice, said a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ was that the disease would lead to 65,000 UK deaths.

    In the end swine flu killed 457 people in the UK and had a death rate of just 0.026 per cent in those infected.

    Why did the Imperial team overestimate the fatality of the disease? Or to borrow Robinson’s words to Hancock this morning: ‘that prediction wasn’t just nonsense was it? It was dangerous nonsense.’

    Q3.

    In 2001 the Imperial team produced modelling on foot and mouth disease that suggested that animals in neighbouring farms should be culled, even if there was no evidence of infection. This influenced government policy and led to the total culling of more than six million cattle, sheep and pigs – with a cost to the UK economy estimated at £10 billion.

    It has been claimed by experts such as Michael Thrusfield, professor of veterinary epidemiology at Edinburgh University, that Ferguson’s modelling on foot and mouth was ‘severely flawed’ and made a ‘serious error’ by ‘ignoring the species composition of farms,’ and the fact that the disease spread faster between different species.

    Does Ferguson acknowledge that his modelling in 2001 was flawed and if so, has he taken steps to avoid future mistakes?

    Q4.

    In 2002, Ferguson predicted that between 50 and 50,000 people would likely die from exposure to BSE (mad cow disease) in beef. He also predicted that number could rise to 150,000 if there was a sheep epidemic as well. In the UK, there have only been 177 deaths from BSE.

    Does Ferguson believe that his ‘worst-case scenario’ in this case was too high? If so, what lessons has he learnt when it comes to his modelling since?

    Q5.

    Ferguson’s disease modelling for Covid-19 has been criticised by experts such as John Ioannidis, professor in disease prevention at Stanford University, who has said that: ‘The Imperial College study has been done by a highly competent team of modellers. However, some of the major assumptions and estimates that are built in the calculations seem to be substantially inflated.’

    Has the Imperial team’s Covid-19 model been subject to outside scrutiny from other experts, and are the team questioning their own assumptions used? What safeguards are in place?

    Q6.

    On 22 March, Ferguson said that Imperial College London’s model of the Covid-19 disease is based on undocumented, 13-year-old computer code, that was intended to be used for a feared influenza pandemic, rather than a coronavirus.

    How many assumptions in the Imperial model are still based on influenza and is there any risk that the modelling is flawed because of these assumptions.”

  18. Now the know all in hindsight London labour mayor is saying people should be wearing face masks.
    Okay clever clogs, where do you suggest we get them from ?

    1. Not only was it unnecessary to impose such a draconian lockdown, our appalling MSM have stirred up 70+% of the GBP to believe that full lockdown should remain until we have a vaccine or some other indeterminate date in the far future. The teaching unions don’t want schools to open until after the summer hols. The London tube drivers are laughing all the way to the bank, etc., etc.

      It’s not just Chinese Ferguson who has a lot to answer for.

  20. Yesterday I went shopping to a large hardware store in Tomelilla (my nearest town) called Bo Ohlsson.

    The store was full of shoppers who mingled freely and passed each other without issue along the many aisles and corridors in the shop. However, when it came to the checkouts, broad bands of black-and-yellow tape had been placed across the floor prior to the tills to ensure that customers standing in the queues kept a minimum distance of 2 metres apart.

    There was no necessity for people to observe any “social distancing” throughout the large store yet this only came into play at the checkouts.

    Why?

    1. Someone must have concluded that there was greater danger of being coughed or sneezed on from standing in close proximity for a longer period in the checkout queue than in the brief passing in the aisles.

      Giving people a false sense of security, I suspect.

      1. There’s something in that.

        A few weeks ago, when all this was kicking off we were being advised to practice social distancing. The definition then was not to be within 2m of another person for a period exceeding 15 minutes.

        Since then the 15 minute part of the advice has been forgotten and vanished without trace.

    2. Typical Swedish stupidity. No wonder we (the German dentists) called them die blonden Paviane.

    3. You know why. 😊
      Once the British make a mistake Griz they rub it in big time.
      And when it all goes wrong and pear shape, it’s always everyone else’s fault.

    4. Because people chat at the checkouts, chat about things ‘they’ may not want them to chat about – and pass on information….. stir things up for revolution (I know this is Sweden we are talking about but you never know!)

      1. There were numerous groups of people, some staff, some customers, standing around close to each other and chatting throughout the shop.

    2. What? Can’t the people who don’t understand this joke even tell everyone else to “Believe the Science” any more?

      1. I would say so. No organisation needs to stockpile everything they might ever need. They do need to make sure that their suppliers are geared up to produce what is needed as soon as required. I worked for s business that supplied supermarkets with a fresh product. The customers had no hesitation about suddenly ordering something new. New meant new samples, tests, specification samples, tasting, and packaging. As I was responsible for packaging buying, my suppliers (and back-up suppliers) were all geared up to instantly respond.
        New product launched for Sainsbury’s within 3 weeks from first phone call to product in store.
        Hard work, needs foresight, pre-planning, tried and tested suppliers. etc. It can be done.

        1. Indeed, it can be done, but your penultimate sentence highlights why it’s unlikely to be done in a nationalised/state industry 🙂

        1. The bloke who couldn’t be bothered to look at their website to find their telephone number, presumably 🙂

  24. In case anyone is bored, here is a link to go with the video I posted a short while ago:
    https://computingforever.com/2020/04/16/connecting-the-dots/

    On this site are listed multiple other links for all the information referenced the video, e.g.:

    https://villagemagazine.ie/shocking-media-failures-to-report-success-in-irelands-handling-of-coronavirus-the-icus-and-graveyards-will-not-be-swamped-and-were-looking-at-500-1000-deaths-not-68000-and-19/
    Media fails to report truth – success in Ireland’s handling of Coronavirus. The ICUs and graveyards will not be swamped. We’re looking at 500-1000 deaths, not 68,000; and c19,000 infections not 1.9 million – the projections were out by a factor of 100.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/30/immunity-passports-could-speed-up-return-to-work-after-covid-19
    ‘Immunity passports’ could speed up return to work after Covid-19

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-in-scotland-app-surveillance-can-help-to-lift-restrictions-j5zl6jpqt
    Coronavirus in Scotland: app surveillance can help to lift restrictions

    https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/reaching-everyone-everywhere-with-life-saving-vaccines
    Reaching everyone, everywhere with life-saving vaccines

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/government-corruption/gates-globalist-vaccine-agenda-a-win-win-for-pharma-and-mandatory-vaccination/
    Gates’ Globalist Vaccine Agenda: A Win-Win for Pharma and Mandatory Vaccination

    Vaccines, for Bill Gates, are a strategic philanthropy that feed his many vaccine-related businesses (including Microsoft’s ambition to control a global vaccination ID enterprise) and give him dictatorial control of global health policy.

    Gates’ obsession with vaccines seems to be fueled by a conviction to save the world with technology.

    Promising his share of $450 million of $1.2 billion to eradicate polio, Gates took control of India’s National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI), which mandated up to 50 doses (Table 1) of polio vaccines through overlapping immunization programs to children before the age of five. Indian doctors blame the Gates campaign for a devastating non-polio acute flaccid paralysis (NPAFP) epidemic that paralyzed 490,000 children beyond expected rates between 2000 and 2017. In 2017, the Indian government dialed back Gates’ vaccine regimen and asked Gates and his vaccine policies to leave India. NPAFP rates dropped precipitously.

    The most frightening [polio] epidemics in Congo, Afghanistan, and the Philippines are all linked to vaccines.

    1. ‘Immunity passports’ Get your ‘Immunity passports’ here: Send your sort code to Mr Goodwill M’Bongo, PO Box 121212 Lagos…..

  26. The Agenda™. How the media gradually removes us from history. Part 94.

    Recently ITV has shown a mini-series: ‘Quiz’. Based on the 2001 ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ cheating scandal. I saw some of it the other day.

    A lot of effort has been made to cast people who look the part.

    Diana and Charles Ingram played by Sian Clifford and Matthew Macfadyen.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fb6fb8474fa73e6d8167b174c5c5a7f005d855394fcca572f16bc5df7190fe85.jpg

    Chris Tarrant played by Michael Sheen.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4736343cc61f22fdca2de999f7b842123de8b7ed6e9c1c3a8b72578d5a67775.jpg

    They were some of the people who were prominent in front of the camera at the time. And then there are people from behind the scenes. Like Celador PR/press girl Ruth Settle for example – played Seraphina Beh. The likeness is uncanny, I’m sure you’ll agree.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f5e29a59a843796cfaf74463afc694cdab46472ae0550d62418717022b99578.jpg

    1. Watched the last part yesterday evening. Sheen as Tarrant was remarkable, particularly the voice. The script seems to have followed the story very closely, although no reference to Ingram’s subsequent dodgy insurance claims mentioned in his Wiki entry.

    2. Watched the last part yesterday evening. Sheen as Tarrant was remarkable, particularly the voice. The script seems to have followed the story very closely, although no reference to Ingram’s subsequent dodgy insurance claims mentioned in his Wiki entry.

      Edit – Wiki link here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ingram

    3. I was once a ‘friend’ for someone who appeared on the show. It used to be filmed slightly in advance, and I had to sit by the telephone for a while. Sadly, the lady decided to phone someone else. I knew the answer, they didn’t.
      The trick to appearing on WWTBM was to spend a small fortune on premium rate calls, then disguise your intelligence when you received a call from a selector.

  27. Good morning, all. Nice looking day.

    I did mention this yesterday – The Great Mountain Sheep Gather. We watched the rest last night.

    In this age of endless doom and gloom and buggerment -the PERFECT antidote. BBC 4 TV.

    NO music’ NO frenetic presenter leaping about waving his arms; NO climate change propaganda; NO BAMES.

    Just a shepherd and his amazing dogs and his sheep for an hour and 40 minutes.

    There were some stupid “pomes” (sic) read by the ever irritating leftie, remainiac, metoo Maxine Peake – but the
    mute button took care of her.

    DO WATCH IT. It’ll bring you some peace and tranquility.

        2. ‘Morning, Bill, now you’ve made me go back and watch it again. Oh, bum! Yes, she has a nice one.

    2. Bon jaw Bill 😊
      A few months ago BBC 4 ran a film set in New Zealand, not a word spoken, it was wonderful.
      There have also been a few silent canal journeys. These programmes beat the hell out of most of the other stuff shoved in our faces.
      And now it’s time to leave Captain Tom Moore alone I say.
      Didn’t he do so well.

      1. Another fine programme with similar qualities was about the Flying Scotsman – filmed mostly from the footplate, no music, and just the occasional comment from the crew.

        ‘Morning, Eddy.

        1. G’day huge 😊
          Yes I saw that and the film of the train from Fort William to Malaig.
          It filled in a few scenery gaps for me, as it was chucking it down when we made the return journey a few years ago.
          Nice fish and chips at the cafe in the port.
          I have a lot of bbc 4 progs saved, especially digging for Britain etc. And a lot of old music progs.

          1. Ah yes…thanks for reminding me, Eddy. Digging for Britain…excellent and informative. And Alice Roberts is not only highly qualified, she is a good presenter too.

          2. I’m not sure if I agree with her theory that the northern European people originated in Africa.

      2. I saw the NZ programme, no spoken words, an occasional sentence scripted at the foot of a scene. So peaceful.

        1. I loved the way it ended with the boat leaving the sound. In silence. Very apt.
          My best mates wife, a Kiwi was overjoyed by the film.
          As he was,……it saved him a small fortune in airfares etc. ☺

          1. Well, I thought that too, no need for us to visit (should we be ever unlocked) because we’ve seen it all now! And in some ways, saw more than we would have done if we were to go. Too far for me, though, now, anyway.

      3. Re the gallant Captain. I just hope that he gets good advice on what to do with the money.

        It will be so easy for thieves and scoundrels (AKA NHS managers) to grab it.

          1. Thank you.

            I am even more sceptical. This outfit is a blanket organisation that administers other organisations that administer charities. Talk about top heavy – and, no doubt, very expensive to run.

            One wonders what percentage of the millions donated will end up as “administrative overheads…”

          2. I agree. The cookie warning and the grinning mug rang alarm bells.
            Morning, Willum.

          4. Spartie has bounced back. And bounce is the operative word.
            Today I plan to tie my own shoe laces once again and then we will tackle Hilly Fields; first time in a couple of months.
            (I never thought I’d be relieved to wear sensible shoes – let alone rejoice at being able to bend down long enough to tie the laces.)

          5. Hope your walk does not mean that you ill be breaking the limit of 100 yards from your door…

          8. Rich fruit please. Not only personal preference, but the file won’t sink to the bottom.

          9. There’s a site where you can look these numbers up. Don’t remember the link.

        2. Absolutely Bill, you old septic you, i wonder who its with or where all that money is at the moment. And how it’ll be fairly distributed.

          A few years back our youngest had a very nasty car accident. At the hospital later he was stuck waiting to be transferred for ‘plastic surgery’ assessment. I tried for hours to get in touch with the ward management to no avail. I eventually found the office, it was locked. I stood out side and rang the number I could hear the phone ringing inside.
          A hospital worker in uniform came past and asked me what I was doing, apparently out of bounds. I explained, he said go into the car park stand by the most expensive cars and a manager will turn up sooner or later !

          A friend of mine lives in Marston Mortaine…….I’ll pop up to visit, with some essentials. Masks, protective head gear, overalls, essential tools. 😆
          Only Joe King or course.

    3. ‘Morning, Bill. Couldn’t agree more…mostly filmed from overhead it was fascinating to watch the dogs at work as they brought the sheep down from Scafell Pike for shearing. As you say, no music and no over-animated windmilling presenter. A programme without either of my pet hates!

      While we are on programmes, I can recommend a very good series on the World Service called 13 Minutes to the Moon. For those who are interested in the technical side of space travel, and in particular man’s ingenuity in bringing back the crippled Apollo 13 against all the odds, this is a real feast. The only drawback is more wretched music, but this is more than counterbalanced by interviews of the astronauts and others, as well as hitherto undisclosed conversations between them and the ground. I can still remember following every scrap of news – as did many others – over the days it took to get them back. (The final episode of series 2 has been delayed because the presenter, Kevin Fong, is a doctor who is heavily involved in Covid-19.)

      1. We find ‘Repair Shop’ a island of calm in an ocean of insanity.
        Even the repeats are watchable.

        1. ‘Moaning, Annie. We did watch Repair Shop when it first appeared, but latterly we became irritated by the almost universal ’emotion’ that now seems to accompany the majority of the hand-overs following repair. It’s rather like the programme that investigates the family trees of slebs, where blubbing is the norm. We gave up on that, too. I’m sure the producer receives Brownie points each time it happens.

          I’m just a cynical old bastard…

  28. ‘Morning All

    “The NHS is to investigate the disproportionate impact of coronavirus on black and minority ethnic Britons, Downing Street confirmed today.

    The

    health service and Public Health England will review evidence after

    data on patients with confirmed Covid-19 from the Intensive Care

    National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) suggested ethnic minorities

    are over-represented.

    The first 10

    doctors to die in the UK from Covid-19 were all from black, Asian and

    minority ethnic (Bame) backgrounds – with ancestry from regions

    including Asia, the Middle East and Africa, a figure Labour described as

    ‘deeply disturbing’.

    Analysis from Sky News suggests that of 54 medical and care staff killed by coronavirus, 70 per cent were non-white.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8226103/NHS-probe-disproportionate-coronavirus-impact-black-ethnic-minority-Britons.html?ito=native_share_channel-home-preview
    The virus is racist?? Who knew……………..
    I feel this terrible foreboding that somehow this is going to turn out to be Whitey’s fault and the cure is more taxes

    1. A friend has reported the death from kung flu of a neighbour, whose surname is Shah. He happens to live in a very up-market part of town, so we can’t blame poverty for his demise.

  30. BBC Breakfast TV Mental Health Discussion

    People who think you should talk to your family about your mental breakdown must be nuts.

    1. Perhaps the nightingale will come in handy after all.
      I wondered how all the streets sleepers have been fairing since locked down ? Where have all the homeless people gone ?

      1. I seem to recall there was some directive central government to all local councils to get them all into temporary accommodation for the duration of the lockdown.

  31. The USA made the mistake of taking Imperial college advice the same as we did. US does not need the two hospital ships they sent and it looks like we do not need the tempory hospitals we built or the army did.

    1. Just said the same, hadn’t seen your comment first, but it’s blatantly obvious that the predictions were way, way out.

      There are people who are desperately ill because of the virus, but it’s not in the numbers predicted or anywhere near it.

    2. What’s in a name and a rose?

      Doesn’t the word ‘imperial’ refer to the empire?

      And should we not all despise the British Empire if we aspire to being politically correct?

  32. Answer the questions, Ferguson – “this is an instruction, not a request”:

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/six-questions-that-neil-ferguson-should-be-asked

    It was a tale of two interviews on the Today programme this morning. First up on the show was Neil Ferguson, professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, who has been instrumental in forming the UK government’s response to the coronavirus crisis, and whose virus modelling led to the current lockdown being put in place.

    On the show, the professor received an almost deferential line of questioning from Sarah Smith with his views seemingly taken as near-Gospel as he declared that a ‘significant level’ of social distancing could have to be maintained indefinitely until a vaccine becomes available.

    Then came along the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock. As you would expect, he was treated to the traditional Today programme mauling, as his record and pronouncements on testing, the growing virus outbreak in care homes and PPE were scrutinised by Nick Robinson.
    While Mr S thinks it’s only right that Hancock faces tough questions, Steerpike can’t help but wonder whether Ferguson should receive similar treatment. After all, his advice is heavily feeding into government policy and therefore ought to face a similar level of scrutiny. What’s more, Ferguson’s scientific work can’t exactly be described as bulletproof.
    Given that it’s the trend these days for former spinners, hacks and politicians to suggest questions that the media isn’t currently asking of politicians, Mr S has decided to do his bit for public discourse by penning a few for Ferguson. Below are six questions Steerpike would like to see Neil Ferguson pressed on the next time he embarks on a media round:

    Q1.
    In 2005, Ferguson said that up to 200 million people could be killed from bird flu. He told the Guardian that ‘around 40 million people died in 1918 Spanish flu outbreak… There are six times more people on the planet now so you could scale it up to around 200 million people probably.’ In the end, only 282 people died worldwide from the disease between 2003 and 2009.
    How did he get this forecast so wrong?

    Q2.
    In 2009, Ferguson and his Imperial team predicted that swine flu had a case fatality rate 0.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent. His most likely estimate was that the mortality rate was 0.4 per cent. A government estimate, based on Ferguson’s advice, said a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ was that the disease would lead to 65,000 UK deaths.
    In the end swine flu killed 457 people in the UK and had a death rate of just 0.026 per cent in those infected.
    Why did the Imperial team overestimate the fatality of the disease? Or to borrow Robinson’s words to Hancock this morning: ‘that prediction wasn’t just nonsense was it? It was dangerous nonsense.’

    Q3.
    In 2001 the Imperial team produced modelling on foot and mouth disease that suggested that animals in neighbouring farms should be culled, even if there was no evidence of infection. This influenced government policy and led to the total culling of more than six million cattle, sheep and pigs – with a cost to the UK economy estimated at £10 billion.
    It has been claimed by experts such as Michael Thrusfield, professor of veterinary epidemiology at Edinburgh University, that Ferguson’s modelling on foot and mouth was ‘severely flawed’ and made a ‘serious error’ by ‘ignoring the species composition of farms,’ and the fact that the disease spread faster between different species.
    Does Ferguson acknowledge that his modelling in 2001 was flawed and if so, has he taken steps to avoid future mistakes?

    Q4.
    In 2002, Ferguson predicted that between 50 and 50,000 people would likely die from exposure to BSE (mad cow disease) in beef. He also predicted that number could rise to 150,000 if there was a sheep epidemic as well. In the UK, there have only been 177 deaths from BSE.
    Does Ferguson believe that his ‘worst-case scenario’ in this case was too high? If so, what lessons has he learnt when it comes to his modelling since?

    Q5.
    Ferguson’s disease modelling for Covid-19 has been criticised by experts such as John Ioannidis, professor in disease prevention at Stanford University, who has said that: ‘The Imperial College study has been done by a highly competent team of modellers. However, some of the major assumptions and estimates that are built in the calculations seem to be substantially inflated.’
    Has the Imperial team’s Covid-19 model been subject to outside scrutiny from other experts, and are the team questioning their own assumptions used? What safeguards are in place?

    Q6.
    On 22 March, Ferguson said that Imperial College London’s model of the Covid-19 disease is based on undocumented, 13-year-old computer code, that was intended to be used for a feared influenza pandemic, rather than a coronavirus.
    How many assumptions in the Imperial model are still based on influenza and is there any risk that the modelling is flawed because of these assumptions?

    1. So what if his magic numbers are really inaccurate, did the actions save countless lives?

      I doubt that other countries used the same computer model although it is quite likely that the medical types compared notes on the value of various measures when developing their own projections, are they all wrong?

      We seem to have reached the point where doubters say “Told you it wasn’t worth it” and the believers equally vehemently say “See it was the right thing to do”.

    2. It is absolutely incredible that we are using this doom-mongering charlatan’s figures to inform government policy. That list of wildly inaccurate predictions should be shared far and wide.

      This lockdown is a wholely unnecessary attack on the livelihoods, wellbeing and civil rights of ordinary people. Since when did the government have the right to order private businesses to close? What scrutiny was there in parliament of this extraordinary power grab?

      The people need to be treated like adults. If we wish to return to work, knowing full well the risks (relatively minor that they are) then we should be allowed to do so. The alternative is mass unemployment, poverty, homelessness, suicide, marital breakdown, domestic violence, government and private debt rocketing, etc etc.

      End the lockdown now!

      1. It’s not just the UK who have taken advice from the Imperial College model, but the US as well. They were expecting a doomsday outcome, which was why Governor Cuomo was freaking out about needing more ventilators, but doomsday never materialized, so MY is donating ventilators to hospitals elsewhere. The two hospital ships were never needed, and I suspect the same is true of the Excel centre. Anyone else seen film footage of the beds filled up there???

        1. Really? Ths main US model was developed at University of Washington by the Institure for Health Metrics and Evaluation IHME. Quite a few states did develop their own projections because the federal model was not believed.

          Do you really think that the nationalist Trump would listen to an outsider?

        2. 19 patients over the weekend apparently.

          As with all government models (Brexit vote/Climate change/previous pandemics) the reality is nothing like as severe as the predictions. The huge financial and social harm caused by this lockdown is practically a crime against humanity.

          1. As I have said before; these pop-up hospitals should be used as isolation units for C19 patients.
            Then the other hospitals could return to their proper function.
            I really do wonder how many avoidable cancer, heart and stroke deaths will result from this obsession with a rogue virus.
            Plus the amount of extra suffering endured by people waiting for elective surgery; the psychological, as well as physical pain while waiting for hips, knees, back etc…. is not only debilitating it can lead to loss of employment.

      1. Sorry, looked down a couple of pages and didn’t see it … too many NoTTles!

        1. No worries, old chap, at this point that would be over 660 posts to trawl through.

    2. In the words of the police officer berating a journalist for filming an arrest, ” They’re killing people.”

      They’re taking the p*** out of us now, no question.

    3. If that was taken by a drone, it didn’t go low enough – right over their heads to know what it feels like to be ‘under surveillance’.

      The sooner someone invents a micro-wave blocking device for drones and CCTV cameras, the better.

      There is far too much ‘Big Brother’ out there

  34. To me its just unbeleivable that the NHS is so short of such basic equipment like gowns.All talk and no action.

    1. I would have thought that the laundry people would be busy now, surely they are not incinerating all those gowns.
      And if instructed I wouldn’t know how to get hold of a face mask.
      I tried to buy a pack from Screwfix more than 6 weeks ago. They had none at all nor as the lady on the counter said, were they able to get hold of any.
      My neighbour had a couple spare, I used them for sanding.

      1. My niece works in the local A and E department. I was shocked to find out that the hospital does not launder her clinical clothing on site. She has to take it home and do it on a very hot wash herself. This was the norm even before the virus came along.

        1. The more this problem goes on, it seems there are more anomalies that could have been easily handled and corrected.

  35. Good Morning Folks,

    The fine weather has left us, cloudy and breezy here at the moment.

    1. Yes agreed.
      The media have been having a field day or several.
      Job done, It’s time to leave the wonderful old chap in peace. Let him rest he deserves it.

      1. It is a good news story, something to lift spirits.
        But alas I don’t think the media see it that way, to them it is a welcome diversion as it begins to sink into even the most gullible that we have been conned again.

          1. THAT is my big worry.
            NHS charities, forsooth. I’m afraid Tom Moore has been used.
            Morning, Minty.

          3. The NHS of his youth, set up in wave of post-war euphoria, is not the NHS of 70 years later.

    2. Good for the old chap.

      I wish they’d show us the whole of the garden and the circuit he follows – they always just show the bit in front of the house.

  37. Morning all

    SIR – Testing is futile if introduced at a late stage and in relatively small numbers once a pandemic outbreak has reached such proportions.

    The number of tests required to reach a meaningful conclusion would be in the millions, not the thousands the Government is currently targeting.

    A positive test may confirm a diagnosis, but negative tests cannot determine an exit strategy, as long as the potential for reinfection remains.

    The test itself requires mass processing of reagents to prepare kits that presently takes up to 48 hours to report. A reliable antibody test might be useful if it confirmed immunity.

    Singapore and South Korea contained the contagion as a result of early testing and targeted tracing via apps, combined with isolation.

    The way forward for Britain is to ease the lockdown in a phased way, while providing necessary support to the elderly and vulnerable to continue an extended, stricter self-isolation.

    Dhiren Nehra FRCS

    Tadworth, Surrey

    SIR – There is an increasing political threat to make the use of face masks routine, even outdoors.

    Advertisement

    You report (April 14) a statement by Prof Robert Dingwall, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group, that “he had seen no evidence presented that coronavirus posed a major threat through outdoor transmission”.

    If this opinion is correct, we must ask two questions. First, is there a need for widespread use of face -masks outdoors, provided social distancing is maintained? Secondly, if so, can the potential demand for the most effective type be met?

    We must be able to leave enough available for healthcare workers and those in close proximity to others who are potentially infected with the virus.

    Dr Carl Gwinnutt

    Kingsbridge, Devon

    SIR – Is it necessary for the Government to wheel out three spokesmen every day to update us about the coronavirus situation? Monday, Wednesday and Friday would be quite sufficient. Then they could get on and do some work.

    Jeremy Richards

    Purley, Surrey

    SIR – If the Government was marked on how it had dealt with the virus so far, it would receive 4/10 – good on rhetoric, poor on delivery. Must try harder.

    Ian Grice

    East Haddon, Northamptonshire

    SIR – What is the correct drinking etiquette during the nightly televised press briefing?

    Should one pour a drink at the beginning of the conference in order to be fortified for the grim news ahead?. Or should one wait until the questions from journalists are posed, so that one can have something to swig while shouting: “Answer the question”?

    Or should one stay dry until the war briefing is over, then drown one’s sorrows?

    Patrick Fuller

    Upper Farringdon, Hampshire

    1. A well chosen representative sample of people for testing would give a very good idea of the situation in the general population and it would only require a few thousand to be examined. It could be accurate within a 1% degree of confidence which is no worse and probably better than Prof Ferguson’s hysterical outpourings..

      https://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm

      This is better than the current best estimates of the number of people dying of as opposed to with CV.

    2. Come on, Patrick. A bracer before they start, a supplement when they ask the questions and a stiffener at the end!

  38. SIR – In Britain today, a typical family of four comprises two furloughed adults (each in receipt of 80 per cent of normal income) and two children who are off school. Some costs – childcare, travel and social outings – have been eliminated, and, after panic-buying, food expenses are minimal. The only real price to pay is being restricted to one outing a day for exercise.

    On balance, this family has never had it so good. All four support the Government’s lockdown policy and are heading towards a belief that this lifestyle is their right.

    Meanwhile a seaside café owner has just spent a sun-drenched Easter weekend with no customers. He applied for self-employed state assistance, but had his application rejected.

    “We are all in this together.” Pull the other one.

    Paul Campbell

    Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex

    The deserted beach and promenade at Blackpool over the Easter weekend

    The deserted beach and promenade at Blackpool over the Easter weekend CREDIT: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

    SIR – It is the hard-working, lowest- paid people who are keeping this country going. Senior executives and well-paid professionals are living off their fat, while virtue signalling by taking derisory cuts in remuneration.

    I anticipate a social revolution.

    Michael Groom

    Teffont Evias, Wiltshire

  39. SIR – I am 86 and have been in lockdown for three weeks. My neighbour is 83 and has motor neurone disease. I have called in on her every day for many months.

    On Tuesday morning, her well-meaning carers would not let allow me in the house.

    Let’s get real.

    Marigold Clevely

    Shaftesbury, Dorset

    3. Fortunately I was already in my cousin’s house and delivering her provisions for the week when her carer arrived and told me that I shouldn’t be there. She kept her distance while I completed my activities and left…

  40. SIR – I am a retired consultant physician. The General Medical Council restored my licence to practise for the duration of the coronavirus crisis.

    I submitted the forms required by the NHS on March 27, and was soon told soon afterwards that I was approved. I then had two more communications asking for the same forms to be returned. I still don’t know whether I am wanted or not.

    The NHS is incredibly bureaucratic at the best of times, and this recruitment chaos shows it is unable to be flexible. A lot of good will may be lost, and many, like me, will be frustrated at not being able to help.

    Dr Brian Cooper

    Bromsgrove, Worcestershire

    1. Gosh, Doc – a bit like trying to get an appointment with a GP…..

      Just saying.

    2. The NHS is incredibly bureaucratic at the best of times, and this recruitment chaos shows it is unable to be flexible. A lot of good will may be lost, and many, like me, will be frustrated at not being able to help.

      This is just a symptom of the utter dysfunctionality of the British State!

  41. Morning again

    SIR – Has anyone else noticed a surge in the number of bumblebees buzzing around the garden? Perhaps, at last, it ishas been a good spring for them, or maybe it’s just that lockdown has given me more time to see the world around me.

    Caroline Trotter

    Duncote, Northamptonshire

      1. One came in through the open pa’io door a couple of days ago, buzzed around for 10 minutes, then went out again.

  42. SIR – John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids opens with the sentence: “When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.”

    I know the feeling.

    Brian Ross

    Bradford, West Yorkshire

        2. Mine come at 6 o’clock every Wednesady morning without fail. One thing Birmingham City Council seem to be getting right. Until they closed the local tip that is.

  43. SIR – We’ve shopped at Waitrose for years, but have been shocked by its inability to deliver essential items. However, we’ve found online Cornish fish suppliers and Worcestershire farm shops ready to do so. I don’t see us going back.

    David Jones

    Malvern, Worcestershire

      1. The owners of Donald Russell used to run Dewhirsts who were on every High St for decades before going bust
        Argentinian beef was the staple offering.

          2. That picture doesn’t show the enormous slurry ponds at the end of each platform. They are dark blue/purple. They do try to contain it but when it rains they overflow. Don’t drink the local water.

    2. And that’s what the Australian government got rid of guns, much like as in the UK.
      Presumably they guessed that the public, like in the UK, might take the law into their own hands after seeing the results of all that cultural enrichment.

  45. A ten year old article on the sainted RNHS by T Dalrymple

    I strongly suspect not much has changed in the last decade
    except the waste has increased dramatically

    The Government has lavished unprecedented sums on the NHS but it is

    still difficult for patients to see the same doctor twice. From the

    point of view of those working in the service (some 1.6million people),

    an important result of all this expenditure has been the creation of an

    increasingly Soviet atmosphere, where fear, lies and a nomenklatura

    reign.

    A friend, who works in a hospital not far from the one in

    which I worked until my recent retirement from the NHS, sent me a copy

    of the monthly newspaper published by his NHS trust. I fear to name the

    trust because those who work there might be suspected of ‘treason’.

    The

    newspaper, distributed to thousands of staff whether they want it or

    not, is in colour. Its production must cost a fair bit. Its model seems

    to be the Soviet Monthly: happy, smiling workers, everything getting

    better and better.

    The chief executive appears in 11 photographs.

    This compares with six photographs of doctors, one not named, and none

    of them appearing twice. This helps to explain why the NHS now employs

    400,000 more people than it did ten years ago: after all, a nomenklatura

    needs its apparatchiks.

    One of the doctors photographed is

    praised for his 40 years of devotion to a particular speciality. What

    the caption does not mention is that the unit to which he devoted much

    of his working life has just been closed.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1241874/THEODORE-DALRYMPLE-Nine-Promises-say-Soviet-style-NHS.html

    1. Sounds just like the NHS Trust where I worked. It may even be the same one, I don’t know.
      We used to get the monthly newsletter, in colour, all glossy photos and happy-clappy opinion pieces that would have made the East German communists proud. I never read it, but put it straight into the recycling bin.

    2. One of the photos of the chief executive shows him with the winner of the trust’s talent competition, a nurse, to whom he presented the £500 first prize. Second prize was £200 and there were several third prizes of £100. The caption does not mention the source of the prize money.

      The chief executive was also shown hosting the annual staff awards. ‘More than 200 guests attended the event and were treated to a red-carpet arrival, a three-course meal and live music.’

      Again, what is not mentioned is who paid for all this. If it was the trust, most taxpayers would regard this as a misuse of public funds.

      Probably not public funds, but donations from patients, other donors, which is meant to go towards the staff.
      Doesn’t make it any less gag-making.

  46. The farmer bought a young rooster from his cousin Billy-Bob to replace his old rooster.

    The young rooster went up to the old rooster and said, “Ok old man, you’re out of it! I’m here to replace you.”

    The old rooster said to the young rooster, “I tell you what, we’ll have a race around the farmer’s house and whoever gets back here first can stay and rule the roost.”

    The young rooster said, “You’re on! And since you’re so old, I’ll even give you a 15 second head start.”

    The little chicken clucked GO! Off they went, running around the barnyard. However, when they passed the front of the house, the farmer was on the front porch. He saw the young rooster chasing the old rooster, grabbed his rifle and shot the young rooster’s head off.

    “God damn it!” yelled the farmer, “that fuckin’ Billy-Bob done sold me ANOTHER Homo rooster!”

  47. Lots of care homes come under one umbrella , Indian industrialists own huge chunks of them .

    There are also care homes run by local councils, but not many , because they buy places at privately run homes for dementia care etc.

    Interesting article here https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/oct/06/care-home-firm-advinia-investigated-amid-fears-over-its-finances

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/19/84-of-care-home-beds-in-england-owned-by-private-firms 84% of care home beds in England owned by private firms

    The NHS comes in for a lot of criticism, but some privately run care homes fall down badly.

    May I suggest that foreign owners of British care homes are absolute cheap skates .

    2. Morning TB. 😊
      It’s pretty obvious that the virus didn’t appear suddenly inside the homes via the residents. The staff must have been responsible for transmission.
      I can’t believe that they were not tested before entry. It’s a typical debacle one expects in this country associated with money making enterprises.
      I just hope as much investigation takes place on this issue as has Grenfell tower fire and loss of life. But I doubt it.

    1. Sacking behaviour.
      If he’s paid for them, they have absolutely no right to do that, and if he hadn’t paid for them, they still shouldn’t have man-handled him like that, and either way, should lose their jobs.

      1. No doubt, they’ll find some stairs at the nick for him to fall down.

        I haven’t seen the article as I can’t/won’t remove my adblocker but we, collectively, need to take a harder line against the lawlessness that is becoming rife in this once, beloved, country of mine.

        I’ve already advocated the return of capital punishment and public birching. To my mind they are the only effective deterrents.

    2. Allegedly the man is a known thief.
      People are perpetually complaining that thieves are not apprehended and prosecuted and yet when the security guards do their job there is an outcry.
      What do they want?
      Should all petty theft be ignored and prices put up so that the honest can pay for it?

      1. He still shouldn’t be man-handled like that.
        If he did steal it, they should apprehend him, but not drag him around by his feet.

        2. Why not?
          He is a thief and was struggling to get away.
          What would you have done?

          If that had been a black thief and white security guards I have little doubt that many on here would be saying that the thief brought it on himself.

  49. Speccie article:

    Below are six questions Steerpike would like to see Neil Ferguson pressed on the next time he embarks on a media round:
    Q1.
    In 2005, Ferguson said that up to 200 million people could be killed from bird flu. He told the Guardian that ‘around 40 million people died in 1918 Spanish flu outbreak… There are six times more people on the planet now so you could scale it up to around 200 million people probably.’ In the end, only 282 people died worldwide from the disease between 2003 and 2009.
    How did he get this forecast so wrong?
    Q2.
    In 2009, Ferguson and his Imperial team predicted that swine flu had a case fatality rate 0.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent. His most likely estimate was that the mortality rate was 0.4 per cent. A government estimate, based on Ferguson’s advice, said a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ was that the disease would lead to 65,000 UK deaths.
    In the end swine flu killed 457 people in the UK and had a death rate of just 0.026 per cent in those infected.
    Why did the Imperial team overestimate the fatality of the disease? Or to borrow Robinson’s words to Hancock this morning: ‘that prediction wasn’t just nonsense was it? It was dangerous nonsense.’
    Q3.
    In 2001 the Imperial team produced modelling on foot and mouth disease that suggested that animals in neighbouring farms should be culled, even if there was no evidence of infection. This influenced government policy and led to the total culling of more than six million cattle, sheep and pigs – with a cost to the UK economy estimated at £10 billion.
    It has been claimed by experts such as Michael Thrusfield, professor of veterinary epidemiology at Edinburgh University, that Ferguson’s modelling on foot and mouth was ‘severely flawed’ and made a ‘serious error’ by ‘ignoring the species composition of farms,’ and the fact that the disease spread faster between different species.
    Does Ferguson acknowledge that his modelling in 2001 was flawed and if so, has he taken steps to avoid future mistakes?
    Q4.

    In 2002, Ferguson predicted that between 50 and 50,000 people would likely die from exposure to BSE (mad cow disease) in beef. He also predicted that number could rise to 150,000 if there was a sheep epidemic as well. In the UK, there have only been 177 deaths from BSE.
    Does Ferguson believe that his ‘worst-case scenario’ in this case was too high? If so, what lessons has he learnt when it comes to his modelling since?
    Q5.

    Ferguson’s disease modelling for Covid-19 has been criticised by experts such as John Ioannidis, professor in disease prevention at Stanford University, who has said that: ‘The Imperial College study has been done by a highly competent team of modellers. However, some of the major assumptions and estimates that are built in the calculations seem to be substantially inflated.’
    Has the Imperial team’s Covid-19 model been subject to outside scrutiny from other experts, and are the team questioning their own assumptions used? What safeguards are in place?
    Q6.
    On 22 March, Ferguson said that Imperial College London’s model of the Covid-19 disease is based on undocumented, 13-year-old computer code, that was intended to be used for a feared influenza pandemic, rather than a coronavirus.
    How many assumptions in the Imperial model are still based on influenza and is there any risk that the modelling is flawed because of these assumptions?

    1. The Speccie comments section is worth being signed up to it for.
      Great source of material, very few trolls and most commenter’s appear to be like minded.

  50. No matter how much left-footers despise and detest him, the Commie in the Vatican persists with his usual tricks…

    Vatican Thanks China but Not Taiwan for Donated Medical Supplies
    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2020/04/vatican-china-640×480.jpg

    THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.17 Apr 20208 – 4:21

    ROME — Both China and Taiwan have donated masks and medical supplies to the Vatican in recent days but while the Vatican thanked China publicly it has kept silent over Taiwan’s generosity.

    As Breitbart News reported, on April 9 the Vatican issued a glowing public statement thanking the People’s Republic of China for donations of medical supplies to combat the spread of the coronavirus, calling the gesture a sign of China’s “solidarity” with the Holy See.
    https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/04/17/vatican-thanks-china-but-not-taiwan-for-donated-medical-supplies/

      1. Oh, that inseparable amalgam of religion and politics: the two most powerful forms of mind-control ever formulated. And in tandem!

        Kipling got it wrong when he called triumph and disaster the “two imposters”. If he’d said politics and religion he would have hit the mark.

        1. “When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders
          believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong –
          faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles
          and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush
          until it’s too late.”

          ―

          Frank Herbert,

          Dune

        1. It is a tjalk.
          Pronounced ‘challuk’. Very popular dutch clog shape. Originally sailing boats with engines added later. … They were also usually very well loaded when used as cargo boats

          3. I’m always barging about.
            I’m particularly good at pushing Williams around. Lifetime of practice.

          2. That is pulling.

            You can also draw on your savings, i.e. pulling them towards you.

            Interesting that one of the Swedish verbs to pull is dra (jag drar – I pull)

          3. We tend to close our curtains in the evenings these days, but when I was young we used to draw them more often than not. Occasionally we still do.

            It’s interchangable. most evenings we close them, but in the large minority of occasions we shut ot draw them.

          5. That comes under pulling: Landlord, pull me a pint of your best bitter, if you please!

          7. Actually, they push into the collar (or breast harness these days because made to measure collars cost so much).

  52. Tributes to pioneering climber Joe Brown, who has died aged 89. Thu 16 Apr 2020.

    Tributes have been paid to Joe Brown, the British climber regarded as an outstanding pioneer, who has died aged 89.

    The mountaineer, whose extraordinary skill and dexterity earned him nicknames such as “the Master” and the “human fly”, died peacefully at home in Llanberis, Wales, having been ill for some time.

    A lot of famous people and by that I mean people who are known to me by reputation are dying recently. It’s probably an end of generation thing. I thought that I would put Joe up here because I did meet him once and he is in some sense a contemporary of mine in our love of the mountains. I am no longer able to visit them or walk the peaks but they formed a large part of the activities of my youth where they provided an escape from the many vicissitudes of my life.

    Rest in Peace Joe.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/16/tributes-joe-brown-pioneering-climber-died-aged-89

    1. Yo Minty

      Undoubtedly, Covid 19 will claim the corpse

      RIP Jue

      I liked your music too

      2. How odd – the little ones are rather darker than young Archie ‘Sussex’1

        1. My body-clock has gone haywire these past few weeks. Some days I am so exhausted at 9pm that I take to my bed and wake a couple of hours later. Dawn comes and I get up at around 5 am, then feel exhausted at around 2 pm so go back to bed for an hour’s sleep but sleep for a couple of hours, then I can’t get up so I turn over and sleep for another couple of hours, then I’m up until around 3.30am (like now) – and so it goes on. At least I am finding lots to do during my waking hours.

      1. 318244+ up ticks,
        Morning B3,
        Another Big Dada up & coming,
        Best, swimmer,best footballer, best all-rounder, ever,
        His excellency president for life Field Marshall
        alhaji Dr idi amin dada, VC,MC,CBE.

        1. ‘Morning, Ogga, Khan is no Big Dada, he is more of a limp and spent dick to be consigned to the outer darkness and ignored.

          1. 318244+ up ticks,
            Morning NtN,
            Sorry can’t be so, we already have in place a
            spent dick dick that position is taken.
            I did say he is aspiring to be a replica big dada
            not that he will ever achieve it all the time he has a rear rectum.
            Thinking on it he is a rear rectum.

  56. Just back from shopping Lidl, Home Bargains & Iceland: most things available

    (at Iceland Kellly’s Cornish Double Cream Ice cream is just £2.00)

    The irony came from the ‘shop’ next door but one to Iceland: The undertaker is closes because of Covid 19

    4. Mass graves used to be the order of the day in times of plague? Forget the trimmings, just dig a big hole.

      2. Nor am I curling up in embarrassment after my at home haircut, I even managed to go to the supermarket without anyone laughing at me.
        Our national TV news last night had a few snippets of home haircuts gone wrong, showing that some should never be allowed near a pair of scissors (I never claimed that Canadian news coverage was anything other than dire).

      1. Thank you – I did that and it sorted the problem. Poppiesdad came in from the garden and he got the problem on his iPad so we unplugged the router/hub/modem thingy and left it to its own devices for a few minutes, plugged it back in and it seems to be sorted for now.

  58. The Beeb has a piece on the forecast Mega Drought coming to the Western USA. It is acknowledged that El Nino /El Nina have a role to play in this and there have been droughts in the past (as the top graph below shows). But this time ‘experts’ reckon it will be worse due to climate change. I thought I would take a look at Solar activity over the same time period and guess what the droughts mostly coincide with solar activity. The lower chart stops in the 1900s and since the late C20th solar activity has been decreasing giving rise to a new solar minimum.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90b096745885fcee51576648012a1c3003bf1054d1a776697eb8e8816b846c8f.png

      1. I don’t think Piers is in the Alarmist camp but he is red hot on solar activity….

        1. Piers is in the anti-alarmist camp. He believes all the climate emergency stuff is nonsense.

  59. Afternoon Folks,

    Just seen the video of the police at Westminster clapping the Hospital workers.
    Should they call it – A Bridge Too Near

    1. As you say, Bloody Hell. Only watched the first few minutes so far. Truly terrifying times but we are powerless. I worry for the future of my children and grandchildren.

    2. Seems like the only ant-dote to this idea of World Governance by a small cohort of the ‘elite’ is Anarchy. Guerrilla tactics to undermine and destroy them all.

      It’s a shame that I am now too old and too crocked, otherwise I’d be up there, covertly stashing weapons, bombs, anything that we – the citizens of that world – might use to destroy them.

    3. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wWnx8iSRlYc

      Connecting the Dots.

      She’s not the only one seeing a horrifying pattern emerge here.
      I’m not suggesting that the virus doesn’t cause horrible symptoms in some people, but the numbers affected are nowhere near what was feared or predicted initially.
      The worldwide clampdown on populations is no longer justified if the numbers are as low as now believed.

  61. Oi Laffed,I’m going to hell aren’t I

    “The doctor rang and said “We’ve got the results of your wife’s test back. She’s either got COVID-19 or Alzheimer’s”.

    I asked them what I should do and they said “Drive her out into the
    countryside and leave her. If she can find her way home don’t open the
    door”.

  62. ‘There’s no direct evidence that the lockdowns are working’. Spiked 17 April 2020.

    For example, we are currently in lockdown for two reasons. One is that the initial figures suggested that we were dealing with a very highly virulent disease. The World Health Organisation initially suggested that the case-fatality rate – the proportion of people diagnosed with the disease who die – would be 3.4 per cent. This is a very high number which would have caused a huge number of deaths. But as we have had gradually more and more data coming in, those percentages have been falling. In many examples, more complete data are now suggesting case-fatality rates of 0.4 per cent. My guess is that it will end up between 0.5 and 0.1 per cent, and probably nearer to the lower end of that. So if the disease isn’t as virulent as was originally thought, the number of deaths will be correspondingly lower.

    Some sober thinking here an all aspects of the CV epidemic. Worth a read!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/04/17/theres-no-direct-evidence-that-the-lockdowns-are-working/

    1. I’d be interested to know how many patients have been taken to the Excel hospital. I suspect the numbers are low to non existent, otherwise it would be all over the MSM.
      Not that I watch or read the MSM. I come here for a summary…

      1. 318244+ up ticks,
        O2O,
        Seems A …. scrote along with it’s multiple facets
        is a tad upset so the truth type weed killer is taking effect.

        1. 318244+ upmticks,
          O2O,
          So now The multi facet down voter
          A …….scrote plus, is as far as I can ascertain, a bloodless Irishman as in
          A ne mic.

  64. Keir Starmer can outflank the Tories if he takes a surprising stance on the economy
    TOM HARRIS

    Austerity 2.0 is heading our way, and the big question to be answered, once this current crisis has passed, is: how will our politicians deal with it?
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/17/keir-starmer-can-outflank-tories-takes-surprising-stance-economy/

    Corona virus : it will cost the Conservative Party the next General Election ; the people will be looking for a scapegoat …

    3. If they want a scapegoat, they should look to the Chinese Communist Party.
      If the current government plays its cards right (highly doubtful) they could come out of this ok, especially if they do something sensible like a U-turn on Huawei and 5G, HS2, encouraging more manufacturing to take place here instead of shipping jobs overseas, plus a major clampdown on inward migration. The very last thing the British public (all but around 5-6% of them, that is) will want in the face of a recession and high unemployment is more people coming in to compete for jobs. The lunatics who want open borders and the 3 billion poverty-stricken from around the world to all move to the UK can take a running jump off a very long pier whilst wearing concrete boots.

  65. Wash your hands and stay at home

    That’s the conclusion of this video about the advisability of wearing face masks.

    Having looked at a video of the construction of the 3M N95 hospital face mask it is clearly designed to protect the medical professional who could be treating a patient who is infectious. It does nothing to protect the patient from the doctor, nurse or carer if the latter has become unknowingly infected because there is an exhaust valve at the front of the mask which directs the breath of the wearer downwards towards the patient.

    The highest rated personal protection mask is therefore an effective spreader of the virus from an asymptomatic health professional with a COVID-19 infection to an uninfected patient.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11416263/millions-staff-workers-wear-facemasks-lockdown/?utm_medium=browser_notifications&utm_source=pushly

        2. You need to bend the stiff insert around your nose & against your cheeks. I know the problem since I wore masks every day for the last 20 years of my professional life.

      2. I look in the mirror every morning and it takes me a little while to realise that I’m not wearing a face mask.

      3. I wear a dust mask for filling the hods and dealing with the ash from the Rayburn. That’s enough to convince me I wouldn’t be wearing one just for the sake of it.

  66. There was a picture in the DT of thousands attending Cheltenham races the other week. No social distancing there.
    Does anyone know if this affected the stats in Gloucestershire?
    How are the hospitals doing in Cheltenham? What about staff in the hotels, bars, etc? Has it proved that we need to be as worried as we are or is this hysteria?

    1. The South West, including Gloucestershire, has the lowest number of cases in the UK.

      The attendees at the races mostly come from elsewhere, so they probably took it back with them.

      1. There would have been a large Irish contingent. Does anybody have the figures for Ireland?

          1. That would be for the whole of Ireland, I take it. No distribution available is there? I mean, you’d expect Dublin to have a higher concentration than somewhere like Fethard, I think (although people from Fethard might be more likely to go to Cheltenham ).

          2. You’d probably need an Irish newspaper for breakdown figures. I just took that from the Worldometer site.

    2. Hello all. My brother-in-law is in Cheltenham and is involved with racing. He and his trainer are planning on racing starting at the end of May behind closed doors. My BiL recently had an op for a cancer on his head but this has not been followed with any further treatment. Restaurants are delivering.

      1. Jumps racing isn’t starting until 1st July. Hopefully the flat (with the possibility of regional racing – Newmarket, Newcastle, Lingfield – taking place in May behind closed doors) will get going earlier. My shared racehorses are mostly in the fields (the jumpers) on their summer holidays and the flat horses are ticking over waiting for the opportunity to run. Thankfully, all the broodmares have been covered (and tested in foal).

        1. Congratulations! BiL and trainer are pleased with the weather and conditions. All flat racers and ,as you say, ticking over! It’s quite positive!

          1. Thank you. I love the breeding side of things, but we’ve had some terrible bad luck of late, losing a blue hen* mare and her filly foal. The irony is, the horse I have a share in at Donald McCain’s hates soft ground. The firmer conditions we’ve had since lockdown and the end of racing would have been ideal for him, instead of which he’s just been cantering up the gallops.
            *a mare that has produced high quality offspring

          2. I read about your bad luck before I took the plunge and joined the discussion! I suppose it’s just a part of the things that we love – good, bad or just b. awful! It’s amazing what we can adapt to without losing sight of what we are. KBO and good luck!

          3. I bring pretty much all of my news, good and bad, to the blog 🙂 It’s cathartic.

          4. O we all chat about anything that is getting us – it’s wonderful, especially when other NoTTLers empathise.

  67. Afternoon, all. I am beginning to wonder if I shall survive another three weeks of lockdown; I had to go shopping again today. The queue was even longer than last time, the weather not as good, somebody jumped the queue to howls of vituperation from those of us who had been waiting for ages (there was nobody on the door and it was beyond the wit of the first person in the queue to go in after a half a dozen people had come out) and when I finally did get in, I couldn’t get everything on my list. Still, on the plus side, they did have some wine on offer, so it wasn’t entirely wasted (although it wasn’t the wine I had intended to buy; they had sold out of that).

      1. I did think the duller weather (it is at least dry) might have discouraged people, but alas, no. As the woman behind me remarked, at least it wasn’t as long as the queue at Sainsbury’s. I shall not go anywhere near Sainsbury’s until the madness is over.

        1. When shopping at Waitrose they wheel you out an armchair and a cup of tea while waiting in the queue.

          1. I think, apart from Missie, you shop for yourself, don’t you, peddy? MOH has preferences which only Sainsbury’s can supply. The domestic front has not been as harmonious since I have refused to queue at Sainsbury’s 🙂

      2. If there are more than three people ahead of me I ask myself – Do I really need this?

        1. I am the same, but unfortunately, there were items I needed which I’d run out of. Needs must, as they say.

        2. I’m only going once a week so there is stuff we need to keep us going for another week.

      3. My next planned expedition is on Tuesday.

        Just had my monthly meds delivered by a new driver in full NH kit including blue nitrile gloves.

      1. Morning Anne

        Saturating drizzle very much needed . Feels very warm though.

        Clematis has recovered , it needed a good soak every day , and the tendrils now look healthy .

        Hope you are now racing around with out your stick?

        1. Good. Is it a Montana or one of the other really rampant climbers?
          Haven’t used a stick or crutch for over 2 weeks. For a while I popped a folding stick into the bum bag that holds Spartie’s walking accoutrements. On a couple of occasions I needed it on the return journey.
          Biggest worry was the deepest part of the scar slightly re-opening. I checked with the nurse and the physio; they advised waiting and observing for 48 hours. It has now dried up and the swelling reduced. No anti-Bs which I do prefer to keep for ‘big’ events.
          But, of course, the problem occurred over the long Bank Holiday.

          1. Montana Rubens .. now flowering.

            Wound reopening is alarming, glad it is drying up . Agree re the anti B’s, our bodies are capable of self fixing , some times.

  71. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are pictured for the first time in LA delivering food for a charity in masks and gloves after duchess wanted her husband to see the city ‘through the eyes of philanthropy’. Mail 17 April 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d9497f48f149689e14a28cfbb71ff6777b930c0199bed1320c2c05d30db1467d.jpg

    The Duke and Duchess were seen delivering food packages on behalf of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Project Angel Food on Wednesday.

    Harry and Meghan were captured on surveillance cameras arriving at the Sierra Bonita Community Apartments in West Hollywood in their SUV at 10:55am. A security team accompanied the couple in a separate SUV that followed closely behind, but they opted to walk up to the apartment to deliver the food alone.

    I’m surprised they weren’t shot!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8228125/Meghan-Markle-Prince-Harry-photographed-time-LA.html

    1. I’m sure the close protection bods were glad to get out of the house for a bit of fresh air…..

      2. And then, having been seen and photographed and beamed round the world, she’ll complain that her privacy was invaded…..

    6. And they did it all in private without a glimmer of publicity.

      They even wore masks so that no-one would realise it was them. Almost like the Lone Ranger and Tonto, but with an extra mask.

      Hi-Ho Silver, Away….

  72. This chap seems to be putting the Bat amongst the pigeons!

    Professor Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Prize winner for Medicine, claims that SARS-CoV-2 is a manipulated virus that was accidentally released from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Chinese researchers are said to have used coronaviruses in their work to develop an AIDS vaccine. HIV DNA fragments are believed to have been found in the SARS-CoV-2 genome.
    We knew that the Chinese version of how the coronavirus emerged was increasingly under attack, but here’s a thesis that tells a completely different story about the Covid-19 pandemic, which is already responsible for more than 110,000 deaths worldwide.
    According to Professor Luc Montagnier, winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008 for “discovering” HIV as the cause of the AIDS epidemic together with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, the SARS-CoV-2 is a virus that was manipulated and accidentally released from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, in the last quarter of 2019.

    According to Professor Montagnier, this laboratory, known for its work on coronaviruses, tried to use one of these viruses as a vector for HIV in the search for an AIDS vaccine!
    “With my colleague, bio-mathematician Jean-Claude Perez, we carefully analyzed the description of the genome of this RNA virus,” explains Luc Montagnier, interviewed by Dr Jean-François Lemoine for the daily podcast at Pourquoi Docteur, adding that others have already explored this avenue:

    Indian researchers have already tried to publish the results of the analyses that showed that this coronavirus genome contained sequences of another virus, … the HIV virus (AIDS virus), but they were forced to withdraw their findings as the pressure from the mainstream was too great.
    In a challenging question Dr Jean-François Lemoine inferred that the coronavirus under investigation may have come from a patient who is otherwise infected with HIV.
    “No,” says Luc Montagnier, “in order to insert an HIV sequence into this genome, molecular tools are needed, and that can only be done in a laboratory.”

    According to the 2008 Nobel Prize for Medicine, a plausible explanation would be an accident in the Wuhan laboratory. He also added that the purpose of this work was the search for an AIDS vaccine. The truth will eventually come out. In any case, this thesis, defended by Professor Luc Montagnier, has a positive turn. According to him, the altered elements of this virus are eliminated as it spreads:
    “Nature does not accept any molecular tinkering, it will eliminate these unnatural changes and even if nothing is done, things will get better, but unfortunately after many deaths.” Montagnier added that with the help of interfering waves, we could eliminate these sequences and as a result stop the pandemic.

    This is enough to feed some heated debates! So much so that Professor Montagnier’s statements could also place him in the category of “conspiracy theorists”:
    “Conspirators are the opposite camp, hiding the truth,” he replies, without wanting to accuse anyone, but hoping that the Chinese will admit to what he believes happened in their laboratory. To entice a confession from the Chinese he used the example of Iran which after taking full responsibility for accidentally hitting a Ukrainian plane was able to earn the respect of the global community. Hopefully the Chinese will do the right thing he adds.
    “In any case, the truth always comes out, it is up to the Chinese government to take responsibility.”

      1. I don’t know but a couple of thoughts did occur to me. China is currently the World’s largest holder of US Treasuries – $several trillion (from memory). If it can be proved that an accidental release from the category 4 lab in Wuhan, China caused this pandemic legal action will be taken in courts around he world especially in the US. If the Chinese government refuses to acknowledge any judgements found in favour of the plaintiffs, I can see the US Government cancelling some / all of those Treasuries as reparations for the damage cased to the economy. China might not take too kindly to that scenario and start revising some of its Arts books…

      2. This explanation fits in with the prophesy that just as baffling was the speed with which the pandemic died away. The bad bit: only to return 10 years later and then completely vanish. I’ll see if I can find the quote.

      1. After the tsunami we were made to feel sorry for them. I wish they had all drowned.

          1. A load more moved in.

            I don’t like to sound so heartless in my comments about them but they worship a disgusting death cult and randomly slaughter ordinary folk going about their peaceful daily lives.

          2. They randomly slaughter animals with cruelty as well. In fact I can’t think of anything positive to say about that belief.

  74. Headline in the Daily Wail:

    “Britain’s infection rate is ‘frightening’ EU leaders: Austria’s grim warning as World Health Organisation brands UK’s rise to 103,093 cases a ‘dark cloud’ dragging down Europe’s positive performance “

    I’d forgotten just how well they were doing in Italy, Spain and France…..

    1. |I’m surprised they haven’t totally disowned us and claimed we don’t count as part of Europe.

      1. If one also factored in people per sq km, the UK, let alone England, would look even “better”.

          1. The population of Iceland is around 330,000. I was wondering about the 1 million figure.

          4. Gibraltar’s first case recovered well. Probably caught it on a visit to Italy, but he recovered at home.
            Well known official; my informant told me that his identity was strictly confidential, but that everyone knew.

  75. Maybe its just me – the incompetence of NHS management was broadcast loud and clear by the BBC News at 10 who trumpeted that they had been contacted by a Director of an NHS Trust and asked if he could put them in touch with Burberry to get more PPE. The halfwit posing as a journalist did not have the intelligence to observe that someone on over £100k a year running an organisation of such size and complexity really shouldn’t be in the job if they cannot look up a telephone number on the Burberry website.

    The Government I am sure has made many mistakes, its not as though they have a pandemic instruction manual in front of them is it? But if it is also their job to man manage the NHS what on Earth are all of those managers in the NHS actually doing?

        1. What point?

          We looked up Burberry on the internet and found the telephone number.

          Is the point that this Director doesn’t have access to a computer, or cannot operate one?.

    2. No, it’s not just you. I had the same thought, and decided that either he’s utterly incompetent, or he’s out to discredit the Tories. Or both.

      Not sure I agree that the Government doesn’t have a pandemic instruction manual, though. Since practically every government is acting in more or less exactly the same way, I’m pretty sure they have each been issued with a copy. Brazil and Sweden’s copies were lost in the post.

      2. As Grizzly might be able to confirm, police forces used to have an office or control room available for emergencies. There were outline response plans available for almost every eventuality, eg an escape from prison or an aircrash. Presumably the armed forces have a similar system.
        But the NHS has suffered so many cuts that the vital papers were found to be shredded.

  76. The NHS has welcomed applications from refugee doctors to work as medical support staff. Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock
    Hundreds of foreign-born doctors, including refugees, have signed up to become medical support workers as part of a new scheme aimed at helping the NHS tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

    NHS England launched the initiative for international medical graduates and doctors after calls to fast track the accreditation of overseas medics.

    The NHS plans to deploy the workers, who have passed an English language exam, in small numbers initially.

    The UN’s refugee chief this week called for more countries to allow refugee medical professionals to tackle the health crisis.

    Filippo Grandi, the UN High commissioner for refugees, has praised the “selfless determination” of medical professionals who have already responded.

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/17/refugees-among-hundreds-of-overseas-medics-to-respond-to-nhs-call

    1. …and how many hospital beds are empty today?

      Is the Nightingale Hospital packed to the rafters?

    2. Medical schools seeking to rake in fees from foreign students by giving them preference over British applicants and offering such graduates training in our hospitals. Medicos coming here from foreign parts had an easy route to a visa and a good life. This combination has depressed the number of British medicos to a number well below what it would otherwise have been.

    3. So when they lost their passports on the way to the next safe country but twenty, they somehow held onto their medical degree certificates?
      How very convenient!

    4. Where are their qualification certificates? There’s quite a process to be approved in Norway.

  77. Further to my post yesterday about the cafe in the village that some snooper reported to the environmental health and got her take-out and delivery service stopped, it has raised a shit-storm on Facebook and local councillors have been made aware. Facebook has its uses.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if I looked out and saw a busybody dangling from a lamp-post with a fire under his/her feet in the near future.

    Apparently a similar thing happened to another business in a nearby village, but after a week and discussions with the council they are opening again.

    Some people.

    2. This crisis has revealed the sheer petty nastiness of some people.

      When I was at school the sneaks were held in complete contempt and those who sucked up to masters were considered to be worms.

      What has alarmed me is that the sort of people whom we naturally and instinctively despised when were young now hold far too many of the reins of power in politics, the civil service, the police force, local government and in teaching.

      1. My late father used to remark that if the Germans had invaded Britain in 1940 they would have found plenty of volunteers to do their dirty work.
        Once I had a long chat with an elderly Dutch lady who recalled that in her high school there was only one collaborator, and none in her class. Of that she was rightly proud.

          3. Thanks for the compliment. I know I am, now tell us about the weasel. He’s clearly very skilled, look at that braidwork.

          4. Thanks for the compliment. I know I am, now tell us about the weasel. He’s clearly very skilled, look at that braidwork.

          5. I was standing at the harbour with my camera, chatting to someone I’d met, when over his shoulder I spotted the weasel run across the quay and disappear into a stack of lobster pots.

            I staged an ambush for when it popped out again.

        3. Bit late but … lay off the noble weasels!! They shouldn’t be compared to scum like sneaks, politicians etc!

      1. One of the tragedies of the shaming (and occasionally worse) of women who had “liaisons” with German soldiers, was the number of them, especially prostitutes, who used their trade as a cover for work with the underground and escape routes who were similarly treated.

    4. Why are Councils so willing to act on complaints from ONE person? It reminds me of the furore about the flag with the definition of ‘woman’ emblazoned on it during International Women’s Day, a complaint made by a trans activist.

      1. Shows they are busy – too busy to deal with real ishoos – such as potholes, roadside litter, useless road signs…..

  78. Testing photograph – I haven’t been able to post photographs since we moved to the new premises. However, I have a new iPad with absolutely bigger everything within its casing. Here goes. If it works, this is where we live, https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ef802dcc0eca746b7dd5283d4b505071056cbbe5f3a1afa860e46b2df35dd297.jpg
    Yay! It works and I am back in business. So much more fun (I need all the fun I can get at the moment. Here’s another, I’ve just turned 180 degrees. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/42353335f3b7dcc5fd95fa45505d3698868ac4f8e665b38354a2f7a2cae879e2.jpg

          1. Out of sight, further up the green, it is bordered by pretty thatched cottages many with huge orchard gardens sadly being sold off for infill development. Sigh.

          2. Infill, the great curse; because so often the houses are ticky-tacky and attract the type of incomers who object to church bells, frogs croaking, cockerels etc.

      2. Mais oui. We have lived here for 40 years but did a turnabout for 6 months in France until September 2018. Our friends in France now think we must have had the gift of foresight.

      1. South Cambs, Belle. Sadly they are in the process of building another 240 houses a quarter of a mile up t’road in an old cement works, a much sought after ‘brown field’ site. It will double the size of our village.

        2. Sorry to hear that PM.
          Our precious green spaces are all under threat , trees and hedgerows are cut down, roads become busier and light pollution ruins the night sky . Strangers move into the area and vandalism and reckless behaviour become the norm .

      1. Hey, P-T, Poppiesmum ain’t pond-life. There are some who are but not that dear lady.

    12. For now, I’m in equally rural splendour. But it has to go. I’m just putting the final touches to an application for (frankly) an old folks’ bungalow.

      1. I know. Good, isn’t it?! 😉😉😉Quintessentially English, the estate agents call it.

        1. My Council refused to allow me to register my identity as ‘English’. I could be Irish (?) but I would need to fill in a fresh form. I now tick ‘Other’ in all circumstances.

    14. For some time now, I have found it impossible to post a photo using the default Safari browser on an iPad. It’s OK if I use another browser but this is a pita. What browser did you use to post those excellent photos?

      1. Safari was the browser and the camera was a Fujifilm X-E2. I have just got an iPad Air 2019 and it has more features (my older iPad was quite clunky in comparison) as well, it reveals the names of those who have upticked and downticked (always interesting!); it seems to have more tricks up its sleeve! Thank you for your nice comment, and my apologies for the late reply.

      2. I had not been able to post photographs since nttl changed sites. However, a couple of weeks ago I got a new iPad, a refurbished job, iPad Air 2019. At first I couldn’t post photographs with this new one, it kept telling me I needed to log in – and I was logged in otherwise I would not have been able to post text. I tried again a few days later et voilà – success! The only thing I had done meanwhile was clear history and cookies (for something else). I do not know if this had made a difference or not. The new iPad has more features, for instance it now allows me to see who has upticked and downticked (always interesting!) and scrolls much more smoothly and reacts so much more quickly. The camera I use is a Fujifilm X-E2, and the browser is Safari, as it was with my previous iPad. Thank you for your nice comment and my apologies for this late reply.

          2. I’m really pleased! Happy postings!

            The above may appear twice, the message on a red banner is the text comment box tells me I have already made this comment…. I know that, but it doesn’t appear ‘in discussion’ or the ‘notifications’ section where one can make a comment. This is the weirdest system ever.

      1. I noticed Damask Rose who has been commenting a lot on the DT pages paid us a visit earlier today….

    2. That’s why before long only our subscribers will be able to comment on our articles.

      Just another step on the road to the extinction of public comment.

      1. Hence NoTTLers to the rescue. Best Beloved has a subscription, so give me your comments and they can be published – even, “Eff U DT.” That’s succinct.

  80. I watched this last night, and was filled with horrified anger. Despite the numbers of those dying, and those very ill are considerably lower than had been projected by Ferguson in Imperial College, governments around the world are gearing up for full surveillance and control of their populations:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wWnx8iSRlYc
    Dave Cullen: Connecting the Dots

    1. And if you don’t let them in to search your premises when they want to, they’ll kick your door in.

  81. And now…..hundreds of Romanian farm workers have arrived at Stanstead airport today to pick veg and fruit.
    Bit early for fruit I’d say.
    Ahem…. surely there are enough Brits sitting around at the moment that might avail themselves. Oh i just remembered they are not allowed out.
    They could be fined or arrested !

    1. At least 26,000 Brits had volunteered to help pick fruit and veg….

      Anyone else think we’re being conned?
      Or to put it another way: they’re peeing on us and telling us it’s raining.

      1. 318244+ up ticks,
        Morning Ims2,
        Have they ,the incomers been sifted for previous
        felonies as in paedophilia, terrorism, etc,etc ?
        Then again that will fly in the face of the politically used submissive,PCism,& appeasement brigade.
        Are we being conned ?
        In a right royal manner, the indigenous are wire brushed & issued a fresh hair shirt daily, and the black comedy beauty of it is many voted for it……….again.

      3. Indeed. So many volunteered they had to start turning people away. They think we are both stupid and uninformed.

      4. NWO ?
        Those young people will never return to where they came from. And who is paying for the transport and accommodation food etc.
        They’ll be able to get free health treatment.

    2. Our happy bunch of village carwasher’s, Romanians and others , tried to restart a couple of days ago .. They are in an isolated spot , not doing any harm , can take 3or 4 cars at a time , hard workers .. Just sit in the car and they will wash away quite happily .. The old Bill closed them down .. just like that .

    3. What happened to all the young EU hospitality workers so essential to UK hotels? Did they all go home? Or are they receiving unemployment benefit for doing nothing?

    3. 318244+ up ticks,
      G,
      The greed virus returning to spread her odious take
      among those suffering from her actions.

      1. Thankfully it’s not. Do you really think you could stand “serious jockin’ ” every day?

        1. Plum I get the impression you are not feeling yourself at the moment….

          (Note to Sue M – The above is a good example of a phrase that might be misconstrued…)

          2. I don’t know why but before I opened your comment I felt absolutely sure the author was going to be Phizz!

          3. I don’t know why but before I opened your comment I felt absolutely sure the author was going to be Phizz!

          7. Very good. I can see you’ve had excellent tutors – either that or you’ve arrived fully formed!

          8. That kind of flattery will get you everywhere with me I don’t bloody think!

    2. 318244+ up ticks,
      Afternoon PT,
      In poetic pose ready to fast track, P o e t s,what Fridays were made for.

    1. Baby boom expected at Christmas, Ferguson forecasts that 5 million births in December and January will swamp the NHS.

      2. Great. Given that they have been talking about a shortage of midwives for a long time, that should just about put the kybosh on the tottering NHS. Bet there will be no Nightingale hospital to cope with the baby rush either.

    1. Send it Corona Cressida Dickhead et al to be sure that plod is looking for a well-deserved kick in the gonads and an outbreak of uncivil disobedience. You have been warned, arseholes.

      1. Toyota have built and sold (in the US anyway) both a Corona and a Cressida. Odd that.

  91. Normally, with my toms in the greenhouse border, I have been using overhead mist for watering. This isn’t going to work with the growbags, so I ordered a bargain price drip watering kit from Two Wests and the Late Elliott. I’ve dealt with them for years, ever since the original Elliott wasn’t late. It’s arrived today by Hermes, so they are shipping normally. Now for the challenging installation part… With a day’s delay to allow any remnant packaging covid particles to die…

  93. Farewell for the moment, fellow Nottlers. I am off to delve in the freezer and see if I can come up with something for my evening meal (to justify opening a bottle of red, naturally). I may be some time 🙂

    1. I’m just about to put a bit of salmon in to marinade in a mix of soy sauce, a clove of garlic, a chopped red chilli and a spoonful of ginger.

        1. I made it a few weeks ago as an alternative to the usual way I’ve been doing it. I keep a bit of the marinade mix separate to spoon over the fish at the table. The rest gets spooned over the fish as it grills. Good with green beans.

          The other way I do it is with a clove of garlic and a tablespoon each of soy sauce, oil, honey, brown sugar and butter. Marinade for 30 minutes to an hour and spoon the mix over the fish as it grills. It forms a nice dark sweet crust.

    2. Cooked yesterday and to be gently warmed through today. A simple recipe with readily available ingredients.:

      Cubed Beef & Gravy

      Ingredients

      1 lb. lean beef cubes
      Plain flour
      Salt and pepper to taste
      Sprinkle of paprika
      1 onion cut into small chunks
      I red pepper cut into small chunks (optional)
      2 tbsp olive oil
      1 garlic clove, chopped fine
      2 cans beef broth
      1 tablespoon tomato purée
      56 ml dry red wine

      Method

      1. Mix about 30 grs flour, salt, pepper and paprika in a dish or paper bag.

      2. Add the beef cubes and shake to coat them well.

      3. Remove meat from bag and brown in a frying pan with a little oil.

      4. When brown, put the meat in a large pot.

      5. Add the onion, garlic, tomato purée, peppers, broth and wine.

      6. Bring to the boil then reduce heat to a simmer; cover with a lid and simmer for 1-1½ hours until tender, stirring once in a while.

      Notes
      You may need to add a little water if too much broth cooks out.
      Serve with rice, mashed potatoes or noodles.
      You can also add cubed, peeled potatoes and carrots the last hour of cooking time if desired.
      A green salad and rolls to go with the beef cubes and vegetables.

      For your delectation, good NoTTLers.

      1. You could gainfully replace one of the cans of broth with the same amount of red wine.

      2. Big suggestion – cook it longer and slower to ensure that any carrots and potatoes are not so ‘al dente’ and the beef is tender. This I know from expeience.

    3. I’ve had enough. The local pub is delivering ours. I was rather disappointed as I was looking forward to our driving a mile or so down the road to collect the meal.

      1. It’s not often you get to look up at a headstone from 6 feet down and walk away from it.

        1. At my aunt’s funeral, my uncle said “I’ve just looked into my own grave”.
          It wasn’t long before he was in it too.

    2. “The grave’s a fine and private place,
      But none I think do there embrace”.

      1. Bugger, graves, the thought of being buried under clods of earth is abhorrent to me. I hope to leave my bedraggled and buggered up body to medical science – they’ll cremate it after three years and a load of belly laughs. It’s the only way to go!

        1. You might also get the students as mourners.

          I was told by someone who organised the distribution of cadavers that they get quite emotionally attached to “their” bodies.

        2. I hope you get your wish. My understanding is that you have to have had a range of interesting conditions for the medical students to explore…

        3. My wife and I have bequeathed our bodies to a University Medical Science Department. Under normal circumstances, our bodies would be collected by the Department but I asked what would happen should either of us die during the current crisis. I received a very courteous and sympathetic reply but which was essentially “you’re on your own”. Oh well, the garden could do with some soil enrichment!

      2. All the while you are looking down at the green side of the turf, you are winning.

    1. One shouldn’t laugh at those in an advanced stage of dementia but should he perhaps withdraw from the Presidential race? Answer, NO he will help Trump to win again.

    1. Welcome to our blog, Paul.

      I have put you on our approved list
      but take care……I have a very trigger happy finger!! :-))

      Enjoy!!

  99. A couple of Carl Benjamin (Akkad Daily) videos:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ykTrxXT_FKg
    China Lied and People Died
    “Published on 16 Apr 2020
    The World Health Organisation (#WHO) totally failed in its duty to warn people about the #COVID19 pandemic in Wuhan, ignoring warnings from Taiwan, and the #CCP sat on the information for nearly a week before taking action. This coronavirus was a preventable pandemic and the Chinese dictatorship of Xi Jinping must face consequences. ”

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1dXU-jT1j9k
    The #YouClapForMeNow Campaign is Hideous
    (Skip to 2:10 to avoid the gag-inducing embedded video.)
    “Published on 16 Apr 2020
    Passive-aggressive commentary claiming that #immigrants are currently propping up #Britain, and that all the native Brits are just cowering in their homes while immigrants keep the country running is tone-deaf anti-nativist propaganda at its worst. Thanks, I hate it, #YouClapForMeNow. “

    1. 318244+ up ticks,
      Afternoon Ims
      Along the lines of Gerard Batten, Richard Braine, Tommy
      Robinson yet another truthsaying far righter, racist, that many refuse to give credence to, the reason being it takes many out of their comfort zone.

  100. Well, Spartie and I did get to Hilly Fields.
    However, as on several previous walks, Spartie is now getting spooked. These are all walks he’s been on before, but he is now nervous and hesitant.
    Today, he would not let me get near enough on put on his lead; I haven’t had this problem before. He ran back home (a busy road was involved, so I was near hysterical but trying to hide it) so obviously I can’t take him to the fields for a while.
    This behaviour is just so aberrant. I really think he is picking up the peculiar atmosphere where people are walking but not mixing; they are also exuding edginess. I suspect this might be like living in the USSR.

    2. In some parts of south east Asia, dogs are regarded as edible. Perhaps he can sense the rise of the orient.

    3. Animals are remarkably perceptive. Missy reads by body language & facial expressions like a book written in Cat-alan

    4. Down and up Sussex Road and back again? You are doing remarkably well after your op. Shame about your Spartie’s reaction, though.

        1. La seule vérité absolue, c’est que tout est relatif”. C’est relativement à la médiocrité …

  104. My daughter just told me that Boris had hydroxychloroquine but I cannot confirm it. Can anyone else?

      1. Hi, Belle.

        Tony did not like to admit that his comments were the main reason
        our favourite poster picked up his tent and left the plantation!

    2. He took offence at being told that he can be a bit sharp sometimes but Hat Man tells me that Tony is still a regular on one of his blogs (almost said channels but of course that’s old Disqus).

    2. Once again from my journal:

      “I wandered on and came across a road sign with a picture of ducks. Unsurprisingly the road led to Christleton’s large village pond about as big as a full-size football pitch. It had lots of ducks and some bench seats thoughtfully provided by the local residents. As I was in no hurry, I sat down to enjoy the peace and quiet. It was then it dawned on me that as a fairly new recipient of the State Age Pension, I was technically an OAP stereotypically doing what OAP’s are supposed to do – sit and do nothing whilst watching the world go by.
      Shortly afterwards a gang of veteran OAPs arrived as a working party clearing weeds from the footpath and the embankment. As they toiled in the very warm sunshine, I began to feel really guilty that I didn’t feel a bit guilty at watching them at work! Yes indeed I was now officially an OAP!”

    1. Let them in.
      Let them after giving them free medical checks and treatment.
      Or do as we do now; Let them in, give them free medical treatment for life. Free housing for life, Free education in the madrassa of their choice. Pocket money for life. The same benefits for all their children and their children’s children, for life.

      Difficult one, isn’t it?

      1. 318244+ up ticks,
        evening N,
        You would think that after years of the same
        “regardless of what the peoples want” treatment the peoples would notice, and vote accordingly, sad to say, no way, ever.

    3. It is just about possible that Mr Batten meant to write ‘intern’ rather than “inter”.

      1. 318244+ up ticks,
        Evening T,
        Maybe, to err is human, then again it depends
        what condition they are in when dropped of
        does it not ?

  108. I am away for the day. Lovely sunshine all day long – but a bitterly cold east wind. With luck, some rain tomorrow morning. One lives in hopes that the droplets will be useful….

    Play nicely. A demain.

    1. Whether released either by accident or else deliberately the virus combined with WHO advices and national government panic reactions (fuelled by the usual academic charlatans as those at Imperial College London) has crippled the world economy. The actual epidemiological and immunology experts advise that the Covid-19 virus could not have evolved ‘in the wild’ and has been created in a laboratory based on the AIDS virus + SARS + Bat virus.

      Whether the Wuhan laboratory was actively seeking to develop the virus with cross over to humans or whether they were experimenting on an AIDS vaccine, as some claim, is open to serious investigation.

      Nobody but a fool would believe anything the Chinese Communist Party and WHO say for the reason that they are joined at the hip.

      The mere fact that Bill Gates, whose Windows 95 Microsoft software was forever warning us about ‘fatal exceptions’ and ‘your computer will now close down’ then the explosion of computer viruses says it all. The man is certifiable and a deeply evil influence on the world stage. The evil bastard is now into flogging vaccines for illnesses he and his mates are busily creating. Weirdly, a not dissimilar sales ploy as practised so successfully by his Microsoft industry.

      This is all about the New World Order attempting to affirm its grip on the masses. Well, frankly, they can get stuffed!

      1. I generally prefer to believe in incompetence rather than dastardly plans, and in the case of software (Windows), I’d stake my life that it was and is incompetence.

      2. https://www.theepochtimes.com/documentary-tracking-down-the-origin-of-wuhan-coronavirus_3313091.html

        But this article has been censored by facebook who label it as factually incorrect. They estimate that when they attach their warnings 95% of people don’t bother to read on. Interesting that their fact checker actually was fact checking a NYP article where this claim was made, justified or not, but the Facebook algorithm then looks for similar articles and blanket labels them as factually inaccurate without necessarily specifically fact checking the related articles.

        Oh, and their fact checker is a virologist who worked at the Wuhan Lab for around 2 years and thus is not either impartial nor objective and has errors in her own factual statements.

        https://www.theepochtimes.com/who-fact-checks-the-fact-checkers-on-the-origin-of-the-ccp-virus-coronavirus_3316781.html

      3. As a side note, Bill Gates was using his foundation to promote health programs in India. According to many media reports he is the messiah or as near as can be expected, but there are other reports that suggest otherwise. These days you can pick and choose which to give credibility to…..and his association with WHO might be a factor in deciding which side you want to believe.

        Articles such as this one about illegal cancer drug trials..

        https://steemit.com/life/@pranavsinha/bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-kicked-out-of-india

        or this one on the side effects:

        http://www.newdemocracyworld.org/culture/gates.html

        Of course, Bill gates is an expert on viruses…. computer viruses, maybe, but human? And his objectives? Do they border on the same goals as Eugenics?

    2. Whether released either by accident or else deliberately the virus combined with WHO advices and national government panic reactions (fuelled by the usual academic charlatans as those at Imperial College London) has crippled the world economy. The actual epidemiological and immunology experts advise that the Covid-19 virus could not have evolved ‘in the wild’ and has been created in a laboratory based on the AIDS virus + SARS + Bat virus.

      Whether the Wuhan laboratory was actively seeking to develop the virus with cross over to humans or whether they were experimenting on an AIDS vaccine, as some claim, is open to serious investigation.

      Nobody but a fool would believe anything the Chinese Communist Party and WHO say for the reason that they are joined at the hip.

      The mere fact that Bill Gates, whose Windows 95 Microsoft software was forever warning us about ‘fatal exceptions’ and ‘your computer will now close down’ then the explosion of computer viruses says it all. The man is certifiable and a deeply evil influence on the world stage. The evil bastard is now into flogging vaccines for illnesses he and his mates are busily creating. Weirdly, a not dissimilar sales ploy as practised so successfully by his Microsoft industry.

      This is all about the New World Order attempting to affirm its grip on the masses. Well, frankly, they can get stuffed!

  113. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8229979/Britains-coronavirus-daily-death-toll-dips-slightly-847.html

    And thus the stakes are raised; 1 type, 4 types, 4 waves, 10 waves…

    I’ll see your 10 and raise you a wankerectomy, you panic-mongering total prat.

    Every one of these “experts” who turns out to have been utterly wrong should be bankrupted when this is over.

    It’s fine for the little people like us to speculate, but when Government policy is being driven by these cretins there should be some accountability.

    2. The papers shouldn’t even be taking the drivel that emanates from the WHO seriously, let alone parroting what its “experts” say!

    3. Depressing to see how supine the UK public are in general. So many seem to have been woke-washed and infantilised. In the US there is a much more interesting split in opinion.

    5. That moron is a professor at Imperial College London and thus in the pay of the Chinese Communist Party and entwined with GSK; same as that other charlatan Neil Ferguson.

    6. UK’s coronavirus death toll stands at 14,576 but it is feared thousands of hidden victims are being missed

      Hmmm.

      Public Health England estimates that on average 17,000 people have died from the flu in England annually between 2014/15 and 2018/19. However, the yearly deaths vary widely from a high of 28,330 in 2014/15 to a low of 1,692 in 2018/19. Public Health England does not publish a mortality rate for the flu.

      and that:

      Every year, about 600,000 people in the UK die. And the frail and elderly are most at risk, just as they are if they have coronavirus.

      Nearly 10% of people aged over 80 will die in the next year, Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter at the University of Cambridge points out, and the risk of
      them dying if infected with coronavirus is almost exactly the same.

      I can foresee some interesting debates in the future about not just the origins and the abysmal politicised performance of the WHO, the extent to which the Chinese were not just the cause but also the reason everything is so much worse than it might have been but on the nature of the response and the media’s alarmism in feeding hysteria……

      1. I certainly hope that the MSM are castigated, but, apart from censorship I can’t see what penalties, if any, can be applied.
        The thought that the politicians could determine what can and what cannot be published appals me.

        1. Oh, I agree about governments but the answer is, as ever, the money. Advertisers money.
          CNN, the dems propaganda outlet with activists posing as journalists, has lost so many viewers it has just one program that made the top 25 in the USA while Fox has 14 programs in the top 20. Now they have lost their airports contracts.
          With falling viewr numbers they have laid off thousands over the last few years and advertising revenues are falling. Much the same for the Huff Post and other propagandist media and this is how we the people can affect things by who we watch and who we support and this has had some serious repercussions for a number of industries, not just media, who have taken a side in politics, in telling us how to live and vote.
          That is the best way.

    1. Morning all. Just spent an hour in the village queueing at the chemist for 2 prescriptions. At least people are talking to each other in the queue.

      It makes me so angry that people are still being allowed into the country. Not from the point of view that they may be bringing in more of the virus, although they may, but from the point of view that the government “strategy” makes no sense at all. They’re not. Wing tested or quarantined while the rest of us are locked up.

      If at first the object was to prevent the NHS being overwhelmed with patients that seems to have worked with reports that the Nightingale hospital is practically empty and all the empty beds in ICU. However so many other appointments have been cancelled, follow ups, referrals, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, countless operations cancelled … the consequences of this lockdown will be far worse than the effects of the virus itself. I wish we were like the Americans, protesting against lockdown. The country should be allowed back to work and restrictions lifted.

      1. 318244+ up ticks,
        Afternoon V,
        Forward planning by governance politico’s, the incomers are make up members for the
        lab/lib/con coalition party numbers, for if & when
        the electorate ever tire or make serious contact with common sense and vote accordingly.
        They are in point of fact the queue outside the polling booth / factory gate.

  116. Just been for my walk – to the postbox and back. Can’t be bothered to go to Morrisons today and stand in the queue in the rain for 20 minutes.

    1. The wind is freshening here, so rain on the way.

      Just noticed that the first blooms on my Frühlingsgold roses are opening in the front garden.

    2. The queues at ASDA were snaking back and forth like the queues for the Tut exhibition in 1972.

  117. Completely and utterly off topic.

    Our fresh milk comes in clear plastic bottles. Because we only shop every two weeks we freeze some of it.

    When it comes out of the freezer it appears to have a green tinge in sunlight while it is melting.

    When the milk completely thaws it reverts to the normal white.

    Why?

    Is it to do with the green of the vegetation that has been digested or some other reason?

    1. Well you see we think the sky is blue but in reality the space above the Earth is black it’s just the sunlight reflecting off the water that makes it look blue. It’s a similar thing with semi-skimmed milk and the green tops…

        1. In which case I’ll park that one along with Pete & Dud’s Jam Sandwich theory as to why the dinosaurs died out….

    2. Yellow fat globules formed by separating out as it froze, combined with blue reflecting from the sky?

    3. When I defrost mine it is more opaque than when fresh but tastes the same.
      I’ve just found some powdered milk in the back of a cupboard and it a beige colour – I’m not sure if I can use it although it still smells like milk

      1. Ours is fine, once cleared, it just looks very strange while it’s doing its thing.
        No fan of dried milk however it appears.

    3. the only Hiking we are likely to see when the wave has passed will be in taxes….

  120. Well, sitting here feeling thoroughly bloated.
    Thank you, The Crown, Lexden.
    Fat chips ….. For MB, a kate & sidney pud that practically needed scaling to the summit.
    It’s not quite going out, but it’s a break from the monotonous routine.

    1. Kate and sidney? Were they the animals sacrificed for your dinner, or is that a new alcoholic beverage?

  121. 318244+ up ticks,

    BORIS WOULD SAY ‘NO’ TO BREXTENSION IF EU ASKS,
    ( brietbart)
    If I remember right “nige” asked for one once
    did he not ?

    2. What was that expression from the Atomic 50s & 60s? – Oh I remember: “Duck and Covid”….

      1. It’s funny. I was at school through the ’50’s and getting my degree in the early ’60’s. The first I heard of “Duck and Cover” was when we moved to the US. My first thought was, “You were had, if one went off nearby, you would have been toast no matter what”. Later on I remember talking it over with a younger American colleague who had been in elementary school at the time and being told all the children were terrified when the Duck and Cover practices took place. Bit like today’s XR mob frightening the schoolchildren over “extinction”.

        As to the Cuban crisis, it was clear than in any shooting war, Britain would be obliterated, so life went on as usual for most of us as there was nothing we could do either way. The pubs did good business, though. Besides, Jill and I first met in October 1962, and had more important things on our minds..

        1. I always thought the advice in the UK to hide yourself under the stairs was in part so that the wood above you might just act as a funeral pyre as it collapsed on top of you…

          1. Things got close in Britain. I remember my Dad who was with the Home Office telling me after the event that the government had been within 3 days of hauling all those to be saved off into the official shelters and activating the RSG’s.

          2. I spent much of my teens at RAF Waterbeach – where there were three jet fighter squadrons; 56, 63 and 253.

            Frequently, one squadron would be on 4 minute alert – with the pilots sitting in the cockpit for what seemed like hours on end. I am sure that Tom or Spikey will know more about this than I do.

          3. For much of the Cold War, RAF stations in Lincolnshire and other eastern counties were on constant alert. It was the same in Germany where, because the Iron Curtain was just a few minute’s flying time away, the alert requirements were very demanding. Where I was stationed, two Lightning fighters were always fuelled, armed and crewed at a special hangar at the end of the runway. Battle Flight, as it was called, had to be available 7/24 whatever the weather – no excuses. During exercises, the whole station and all its squadrons were involved and this could go on for days, everyone armed with personal weapons and wearing NBC suits, sleeping wherever there was space, and putting on gas masks when a siren went off.

          4. I can’t remember if I’ve posted this before…from my journal:

            “On the way back towards Reading on the K&A, I moored at Burghfield Bridge and treated myself to a well-earned pint of apple juice (ABV 5%) part of my “Five-a-day”! It was early evening and the pub was empty except for one old boy so it seemed the friendly thing to do to join him for a chat.
            I asked him how he came to live in Burghfield and he replied that his work had brought him there. It was natural to ask him what he used to do before retirement. He explained that at the start of his career he had joined a technical branch of the Civil Service working in machine shops that developed weaponry for the armed forces. As his career progressed, he found himself in charge of assembling nuclear bombs. He told me that in the early days it was common practice to assemble a complete bomb and deliver it in a General Post Office lorry to the requisite Royal Air Force base. When the security risks of this practice were re-assessed it was decided that the parts for the nuclear bombs would in future to be delivered to the appropriate RAF bases in separate instalments. He and his team would then travel to the base and assemble the bomb in situ.
            He happened to be engaged on this task at one RAF base in October 1962 when RAF Pilots were ordered to be ready at 10 minutes notice to take off with armed nuclear weapons on board. Fortunately, between them President Kennedy and Mr Khrushchev managed to come to an amicable settlement of the Cuba Missile Crisis, which is why the Pillboxes are still intact today, you could say dozing quietly all along the Kennet and Avon canal”

          5. The deal was done between the KGB Resident in New York and his American counterpart. Americans were not told at the time of the quid pro quo of removing US nuclear missiles from Turkey, so it was presented in the US as a “we won”, rather than the reality.

        3. Jack, I was very involved – in Britain – with the Cuba crisis. the only time in my life that I was really scared. After that WuFlu is a breeze.

    6. So (© Cathy Newman) what you are saying is that they could not be allowed to share the same oven.

  124. Well that was fun; lots and lots of thunder and lightning, bright skies followed by brooding darkness.

    No rain at all.

    Power on and off and now peace and quiet. It’s amazing how quickly it changes around here.

      1. Exacto (© Peddy). The Telegraph ran a story about a clash between her and Boris on this very topic a couple of weeks ago (before he was rushed into St. Thomas’ hospital).

      1. You’d think they be happy for all the whiteys out in the sticks to be left to catch covid.

    2. Hancock’s half hour. Now that was a good program though I doubt he’d fit the modern Beebs idea of a comic. But are we talking about the same “where’s the lion” (on his egg) Hancock?

  129. Do you think these King Canute governments have any idea what the have released in trying to wrap their populations in cottonwool.

    1. Well they all know that when they sit and laud over all and their feet get wet, it’s never any fault of their own.

    1. Unseen, off to the right, there are hundreds of cyclists all waiting to park their bikes…

    2. Good God ! That is just so scary and sinister, like a praying army waiting to attack

      Our Christian churches have women and children, how on earth did we allow such sinister people
      to dominate our culture .

      1. 318244+ up ticks,
        Afternoon A,
        Product of the ballot booth & voting for the mass uncontrolled immigration coalition, trouble is you
        cannot return the goods to their place of origin.

  131. Good afternoon / Evening from a Saxon Queen with, longbow in handbag.

    It’s a cloudy and dreary day, maybe tomorrow will be better .

  133. My wife Carol has just summed it up for me.”The Germans look after the Germans, the French look after the French, the English look after the whole fucking world.”

    1. Well someone has to. The US is starting to look after the US, China is looking to it’s own and that leaves the soft liberal UK to be world sop. Just don’t tell Trudeau, he will jump in with self satisfying largess .

      2. Now let’s be fair, Meghan and Harry are busy handing out meals to anyone in front of a camera….the article didn’t say if they paid for the meals or just saw a good opportunity for media exposure handing out meals. Or maybe they thought the poor would be impressed with their largess.
        Meanwhile Nancy the ripper pelosi has been showcasing her $24,000 fridges full of 413 a pint (us pint- 16 floz) ice creams….and AOC earlier was seen mixing some sort of cocktail with Cointreau….. and apparently they think this will endear them to those who don’t have gated communities, numerous multi million dollar mansions and people who shop for them.

        But at least St Great has dropped of the radar. Shame, actually, I was looking forward to her dramatically and rhetorically demanding “How dare you” of the Chinese president or his puppet Dr Tediouseros of the WHO (I thought they had disbanded or am I confused with the PC correct, these days, Dr Who series?)

    2. I think your wife has just swallowed a small portion of Coronavirus in her evening cup of tea, Corrie. To prevent further infection kindly wash her mouth out with soap. (20 seconds whilst singing Happy Birthday.)

      :-))

  135. Good night all.

    No rain here so far, although according to Rain Radar we’ve been in the hick of it all evening.

    2. So what? He still is unable to use t’internet to find out the telephone numbers for himself.

  137. I see that the twit fest has reached new lows in the US today.

    It must be really comforting for someone in lockdown to see the different levels of governmenthell bent on insulting each other.

  138. Dear card holder/ account holder/mortgagee,

    We are here to help you.

    If you are, or think you will be, in financial difficulties please contact us immediately..

    We will happily wreck your credit rating, whilst piling on the interest, if you choose not to make payments.

    1. I am very suspicious of all these offers of assistance that appear to have very similar wording.

      At the moment I’m fortunate, all cards are paid off.

      But often, because of our strange cash flow with pensions coming in as a lump sum once a year, the cards/overdraft can have balances for a couple of months if we get an unexpected bill.

      I would resist the temptation to take a payment holiday, better to pay the minimum.

      1. Actually I was impressed with one of our local banks. They called, and asked if we were OK, then asked whether we needed to arrange any emergency financing (with special low interest rates), or was there anything else they could do for us?

        Nice thing about dealing with regional banks and not the big boys. Plus having plenty of branches is the norm. Proper branches with people, not just a row of ATM’s, that is.

        Heard nothing from the credit card people – except their monthly bills of course.

      1. There is a mountainload of credit risk out there and the repercussions will be seen for years to come.

  140. In the middle of watching a 1952 western, The Big Sky’. Nice to see the forum is full of decorum. (Right)

  143. A two-step process is used when testing a person’s blood for evidence of a Lyme

    disease infection. Both tests in this two-step process measure the body’s immune system

    response to an infectious agent and do not test for the infectious agent itself.

    The IgM antibodies are the first antibodies to be produced in the body in response to an
    infection. IgM antibodies are larger than IgG antibodies and when present in high
    numbers, may indicate a recent or new active infection. In short, a positive IgM may be
    a sign of a current, or very recent, infection.

    The IgG antibodies are produced once an infection has been going on for a while, and
    may even be present after the infection has been resolved. The presence of IgG
    antibodies to an organism when accompanied by a negative IgM test for the same
    organism means that the person was exposed to that organism at one time and
    developed antibodies to it, but does not have a current active infection of that organism.
    People who test positive by IgM but not IgG should have the test repeated a few weeks
    later if they remain ill. If the person is positive only by IgM and has been ill longer than
    one month, this is likely a false positive result for Lyme disease.

  144. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/ibuprofen-coronavirus-symptoms-which-painkillers-should-take-anti-inflammatory/

    Furthermore, it should be noted that ACEIs have been reported to modify the adaptive immune response,22 suggesting that long-term use of ACEIs might suppress the adaptive immune response, which is a key defence against viral infections. Similar effects on the adaptive immune response are known for most non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. These effects need to be addressed in an extended discussion and investigated with clinical trials in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30159-4/fulltext#back-bib7

    The implications of this research are that the use of widely available NSAIDs after infection or vaccination may lower host defense. This may be especially true for the elderly who respond poorly to vaccines and heavily use NSAIDs.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2693360/

    Don’t the PTB realise that actually we currently are in a clinical trial and the evidence is staring us in the face. As clearly illustrated by the BBC they are the elderly, African, Asian, Hispanic and hypertensive sectors of society that are taking the brunt of the COVID-19 onslaught.

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