Monday 19 October: Andy Burnham has been haggling for compensation while the Manchester house is on fire

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),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/10/18/letters-andy-burnham-has-haggling-compensation-manchester-house/

582 thoughts on “Monday 19 October: Andy Burnham has been haggling for compensation while the Manchester house is on fire”

    1. ‘Economy R.I.P.’? And its dependent daughter ‘Prosperity R.I.P.’?

      ‘Morning, C1.

  5. Moscow’s bars and restaurants are packed with carefree customers shunning face masks and ignoring social distancing despite resurgence of coronavirus infections sweeping Russia. October 19 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe69649b51da9a6c0aa3fe91d6ad6eeca41d25dd62988eb7f203b7abce3b9e47.jpg

    Moscow’s bars and restaurants continue to be packed with carefree customers who ignore social distancing and shun face masks despite the resurgence of coronavirus infections sweeping Russia.

    The outbreak in Russia this month is breaking the records set in the spring, when a lockdown to slow the spread of the virus was put in place.

    But, as governments across Europe move to reimpose restrictions to counter rising cases, authorities in Russia are resisting shutting down businesses again.

    Morning everyone. This is what we should be doing!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8853153/Moscows-bars-restaurants-packed-resurgence-coronavirus-sweeps-Russia.html

    1. The retired RAF officer living in St. Petersburg had a point.
      What are the hunting and gun laws in Russia?
      Morning, Minty.

      1. What are the hunting and gun laws in Russia?

        Morning Anne. They are far more lenient than they are here in the “Democratic” UK.

      2. Put “russian gun laws” into Youtube and you’ll get some explanations.
        IIRC, rifles and shotguns – no big deal. Handguns – very big deal.
        Morning, Anne!

        1. Sounds much like the UK then. 1.3 million shotgun certificates cover, by some estimation, about 5 or 6 million shotguns (many individuals will own a pair or more (and father’s licence will also cover sons’ guns as long as they are all kept one place), some clay pigeon clubs will hold 20 or 30 under a single certificate) and there are over half a million legally registered rifles of various sizes, the majority are sporting rifles but there are not a few target rifles – again mostly kept in secure rooms in gun clubs, but there are a surprising number of rifles in urban homes. Anyone with a place to shoot (be it open land or club), a clean slate with the law, and a secure place to store it, can get a shotgun certificate, firearms licences are a bit more fussy, but not much. I’ve counter-signed more than one renewal over the years.

          No one knows how many handguns because they are all in the hands of the criminal fraternity. Which is sad because our really enthusiastic pistol shooters have to go abroad to keep up their sport – and we don’t have young folk learning how to use handguns properly because they have no opportunity. On the other hand I don’t think that selling them in Walmart is such a good plan – and it’s a fact that people who own guns but don’t understand them are more likely to be killed by an intruder than to be able to defend themselves successfully.

          1. Here, you need a permit for every firearm, and so it’s number is registered on the permit. It would make sense to have a permit that says “This person is allowed to have guns”, and then you get what you want.

          2. If you have a firearms licence you can’t just add rifles willy-nilly, you have to complete more paperwork; but once passed all your firearms can be listed on one licence. The licence has to be produced to buy ammunition and it is listed on the licence; what bought, and when – if inspected you are supposed to be able to account for all rifle ammunition, which should be kept locked up, separate from the rifles. Rifles should not be stored with their bolts in place – lock the bolt up with the ammo, is the usual habit. You can’t buy bullets except of the calibre for the guns you own. During the rabbiting season bullets would be found on windowsills, corners of shelves, in the pockets of all of J’s outdoor coats and probably at least two of mine. As the “lampman” I would be given a boxful to tip into my pocket and the empty magazine to reload for him if it was a busy night. It took me a bit of practise but I learned to fill a magazine inside my pocket with my left hand – whilst holding the light steady with my right. I couldn’t do it now! We used have rootle round about the end of February and collect them all back into boxes in the proper place.

            A shotgun is not a firearm (at least as far as the law is concerned, a firearm has a rifled barrel) and one certificate covers as many guns as you wish to collect. There’s no record kept of shotgun cartridges sold (or made – we had a cartridge loader when I lived in Yorkshire) but if inspected they should be locked away in a separate place from the guns.

      3. Put “russian gun laws” into Youtube and you’ll get some explanations.
        IIRC, rifles and shotguns – no big deal. Handguns – very big deal.
        Morning, Anne!

      1. I went to our local small cinema yesterday. They have moved the rows of seats so they can now only seat about 60 max (from 110, but they were seldom full) and masks are required for moving around but can be removed whilst seated watching the film. Everyone very cheerful and glad to be getting on with life.

        1. We have a multi-plex in Stroud, some parts very small. We haven’t been since the last live opera night, or perhps it was the Downton Abbey film a year ago, so I don’t know what changes they’ve brought in. They probably could quite essily accommodate their usual size audiences without over-crowding.

          1. I had a ticket for Fidelio from the ROH at the end of March, which was cancelled. Yesterday’s film was Jonas Kaufmann’s “My Vienna” concert – which should have been shown in April. ROH is supposed to be offering a 2014 recording of Manon Lescaut in cinemas sometime between November and January, but they promised venues and dates almost a month ago and they haven’t appeared yet so it may not happen.

            It’s a nice auditorium in a converted building and they have a film club and screen a variety of things. I’m not a big film fan but I’ve seen a couple of ROH offering and will go to more if they don’t fall during my really busy times.

          2. Jonas Kaufmann is always worth seeing! I don’t know what is on offer at our local one these days.

            Music and theatre has been one of the casualties of this year – the big stars will survive, but lesser-known people must be having a very hard time.

  7. Charles Moore
    Spectator
    From magazine issue: 17 October 2020

    In this column (26 September), I pointed out that the National Trust’s new ‘Gazetteer’ of its 93 properties linked with slavery and ‘colonialism’ was not so much a scholarly documentation as ‘a charge sheet and a hit list’. Once the organisation entrusted with the care of a building denigrates that building’s most famous occupants, logic suggests it will care for the building less well than for that of an occupant it admires. This logic is already starting to work through. The National Trust owns Thomas Carlyle’s house in Chelsea, but now it has closed it ‘until further notice’, whereas all the other small houses of the Trust in London will reopen in March. For the first time since it was opened to the public in 1895, the place will have no live-in housekeeper. Although not stated, the reason for this downgrading would seem to be Carlyle’s racial views. When it does reopen, members are promised ‘a different visitor experience’. If you click on the Trust’s website entry for the house, you can listen to a podcast entitled ‘Think a Likkle: Lineage of Thought’ by Ellie Ikiebe, who is a New Museum School trainee at the National Trust. She appears not to have visited 24 Cheyne Row until making the podcast, but she knows what she wants to do with Carlyle. ‘If we truly acknowledged the lineage of thought, popular society would see the links between colonialism, white supremacy to the injustice of Breonna Taylor death and the black lives matter movement’, she says. She is ‘shifting the narrative to under-represented histories’. The ‘hidden history’ here is that Carlyle was a racist. His ‘lineage of thought’, which she wishes people to ‘break from’, is that white men dictate what we think. Two thoughts strike me. The first is that the history of Carlyle’s views has never been hidden: he has always been intensely controversial, and critics have alleged that some of his views assisted, long after his death, the development of fascist thought. The second is that a charity which publishes such a hostile piece by someone who appears not to know much about the subject is not a fit body to look after his heritage.

    1. These “woke” people are just as guilty of “thought control” as any of the people they seek to have erased from history for their “colonialist and racist” views. Why should we pander to their views any more than the preiviously acceptable ones?

      It was unfortunate for Breonna Taylor that she was caught in crossfire but stuff like that happens all the time, especially in gun-happy America. Would there have been any sort of outcry if she had been white? Would anybody have cared if Floyd had been a white criminal?

      1. Considering the crime rate against white people in the US the answer is apparently no. After all, if every time a white person was killed by a black man were a cause for rioting, looting and mob violence, we’d never get anything done, let alone have built an entire civilisation from the ground up.

    1. Those whose lives matter are to be deemed by Serco (according to the regulations against Unconscious Bias) to be free of virus and therefore all restrictions lifted.

      Those whose lives don’t matter can be duly incarcerated in their homes, or in prison if they do not co-operate. They can die there, as far as the authorities care, and simply put down as a statistic to warrant further action against them.

  9. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Alison Pearson’s column today. Personally my interest in the stats is limited to the number of hospital admissions and the number of deaths. Rightly or wrongly I find the number of ‘new cases’ to be generally irrelevant…

    For weeks, when it comes to the Government’s restrictions against Covid-19, the political tide seemed to be turning. The new ‘rule of six’ was controversial, threatening to sink countless businesses, just as they were sensing recovery. Unemployment has been rising ominously – even before furloughing is scrapped at the end of this month.

    Daily new “cases” of Covid are up, of course – and are now above 18,000, more than three times higher than in early April, the peak of this pandemic. But ­crucially – and this is the bit we so rarely hear on the television and radio news – we’re now doing almost 300,000 tests a day, well over ten times more than back then. So, scaled in terms of tests conducted, daily case numbers are actually down, something the broadcasters never point out.

    What really matters are the numbers receiving medical treatment and dying from this virus. Daily Covid-related hospitalisations are now around 680, compared to over 3,000 in early April – and even then the NHS was far from overwhelmed. The daily Covid death rate is around 85 – each one a tragedy, of course, but well under a tenth what it was at the peak. And many of those fatalities are “co-morbidities”, with patients possibly dying from non-Covid causes instead.

    Fatalities have gone up in recent weeks – as the media doom-mongers keep telling us. But that happens every year, as winter draws in and deaths from respiratory diseases rise. There were 9,945 deaths overall in England and Wales during the first week of October, only very slightly higher than the same week average between 2015 and 2019, long before this pandemic.

    The difference this year is we’ve endured the biggest economic collapse in three centuries, racked up the largest national debt in peacetime history and imposed untold psychological damage on our population, not least the young. Then there’s the non-Covid health care we’ve denied to countless millions, with so much of the NHS on stand-by waiting for “the second wave”.

    That’s why scientists at Edinburgh University have just published a major study concluding that the Government’s anti-Covid restrictions could be costing more lives than they save. Over a million women have missed breast cancer screenings due to lockdown, for instance, stymying the prevention of untold future tragedies. Then there’s the shocking impact of multiple company collapses and mass unemployment on health outcomes – resulting in what economists call “deaths of despair”.

    With hospitalisation and fatalities still low, as Covid cases rise, the lockdown logic of the Government’s health experts, and the broader medical establishment, is now rightly being challenged. More and more scientists have begun calling for age-specific shielding, with the elderly taking precautions, as the rest of us build population immunity by getting on with our lives.

    Rather than recognising the growing gap between cases and deaths, Boris Johnson is now turning the screw even tighter. The new three-tier system, given the huge north-south rift it’s causing, could yet become a de facto national lockdown by the back door.

    The Prime Minister is being pushed by his medical advisors to, once again, close down the country almost entirely. They, like so many lockdown enthusiasts, are paid by the state – it’s not their jobs and mortgages on the line. Johnson must weigh the now very questionable gains of lockdown against the absolutely certain drawbacks of economic collapse – which will cost lives, as well as livelihoods.

    “We oldies should just use our common sense, while everyone else gets on with their lives,” says James, who is 79, writing to us at planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk. “We’re sacrificing the health, wealth and well-being of millions for this messianic, ill-founded belief that curtailing freedom can control a virus,” says Deborah, who is 71.

    While cases are rising, fatalities remain mercifully low – and are almost entirely among the elderly with other life-threatening conditions. So help them shield, while the rest of us carry on while taking precautions. No.10 must ignore transitory pro-lockdown opinion polls driven by loaded questions and media fear-mongering. For there’s a much broader public mood that we’re going in the wrong direction and need to step back from the brink.

    Join us on our metaphorical capsule of common sense, by listening to the latest Planet Normal podcast, which comes out every Thursday. It’s free, and available at telegraph.co.uk/planetnormal or via iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

    Why Sue Cook is turning a critical eye on her old employer, the BBC
    Sue Cook is a BBC broadcasting legend. From the late 70s to the late 90s, she presented a string of primetime shows, from Nationwide to Crimewatch. Teaming up with Terry Wogan to present Children in Need, a double act lasting over a decade, she became a “national treasure”.

    Now retired and writing novels, Cook has become deeply critical of the BBC during this Covid pandemic. “I’ve given up listening to [Radio 4’s] Today as it was getting so stressful – they don’t let anyone develop a thought, there is so much interrupting,” she tells the Planet Normal podcast. “They seem to want to bolster the line that it has been necessary to impose these strict restrictions.”

    An experienced investigative reporter, Cook wonders why BBC journalists aren’t more inquisitive: “The gap between cases and deaths keeps going up, but nobody has really investigated the veracity of these tests – so why isn’t the BBC asking why this gap is getting wider and wider?”

    Remarking that it “pains” her to criticise her former employer – “my instinct is to be loyal” – she says there “would have been lots more investigation in my day, of what happens in the test laboratories, what the tests involve”.

    As ministers and the corporation grapple over BBC funding, Cook weighs in on the future of the licence fee. “I’m not entirely sure how defensible it now is and wonder if its days are numbered,” she says. “The BBC just does the programmes everyone else does – cookery and house makeovers and so on – so it isn’t distinctive enough.”

    And she castigates Ofcom guidance that the BBC avoids undermining the Government’s approach to Covid: “We weren’t issued with warnings like that in my era,” says Cook. “This is little short of censorship.”

    The world according to Sue Cook
    “BBC news coverage now seems to be all about a gotcha attitude. It doesn’t seem to be about information gathering any more, you don’t really learn anything – it’s all about scoring points.”
    “Many of my friends, and people I don’t know in the street, ask what on earth is the matter with the media? It is all so fear-mongering and doom-mongering. So many people have now given up watching the news.”
    “I’d like to see some stories of people’s recoveries, of stories that ‘I had Covid and lived, I came out the other side’. But we are only hearing about the doom and the deaths.”
    “I’m not really a political person, but sometimes it’s quite nice – just occasionally – for your opinions to be upheld by what you are hearing, and not everything being against what you think.”
    “The BBC’s top presenters are now paid too much, it’s just silly.”

    1. “Personally my interest in the stats is limited to the number of hospital admissions and the number of deaths. Rightly or wrongly I find the number of ‘new cases’ to be generally irrelevant” – my position exactly. If you are only mildly ill, then why the fuss – other than you might spread it to others who could be savagely ill, I suppose, but that seems less & less likely, judging by the (serious) case numbers of hospital admissions.

      1. There are still a lot of people around (and not only the old) who are susceptible, so it makes sense for people with mild cases to stay out of circulation (as it does with any contagious illness) and no one should kick too much at staying put for 10 days if necessary.

    2. “…we’ve endured the biggest economic collapse in three centuries…”
      Possibly. However, look on the bright side. The Chinese economy is doing very well.
      Almost as if the virus was planned and used to remove economic competitors, perhaps.

      1. ‘Morning, Horace, you’ll have the Snottinghamshire thought Police onto you. According to them, calling WuFlu a conspiracy is now against the law. The world gets a trifle more barmy each Covid-filled day.

  10. Some thoughts on the EU and our fish:

    SIR – The letter from B T McDonnell (October 15) regarding the strength of the UK’s bargaining position over our historical fishing grounds is spot on. Eighty per cent of fish consumed by the French comes from British waters. No wonder they are worried.

    As for financial services, it is very refreshing to see published the factual statement that this sector is our most important export to the EU. This is not generally emphasised.

    We have been accused of wanting to have our cake and eat it. The EU, particularly France, wants to have their fish as well as ours to eat.

    President Emmanuel Macron knows only too well that the French eat a lot of fish – and where most of it comes from. We hold the bargaining chips and needn’t give any away.

    Simon Bathurst Brown
    Camberley, Surrey

    SIR – The European Commission does know that if the United Kingdom leaves the EU with “no deal” it also has “no deal”. I am 
not entirely sure it has worked this out yet.

    Jonathan Fulford
    Bosham, West Sussex

    SIR – We should let them have all the fish they want. We can catch it. They can buy it .

    Michael Dines
    Lowestoft, Suffolk

    1. If we can escort illegal immigrants’ rubber boats into port we can certainly escort illegal fishermen into port too.

      1. Why not take a Christian approach and kill two birds with one stone? Make the foreign fishermen “fishers of men” which they can take back with them.

      2. A rubber dinghy full of migrants, most of whom can’t swim, is a different kettle of fish from French fishermen in their own boats.

          2. I’m expecting Boris to announce a deal with the EU on fishing our waters. THEY get to fish our waters and in return WE get to fish right up to the borders of Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Serbia. Says it is a great deal as they only get to fish round one country – – and WE get to fish round six.

  11. Morning all.

    SIR – In essence, Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Manchester, has been arguing with the loss-adjuster, rather than putting the fire out.

    Andrew C Pierce

    Barnstaple, Devon

    SIR – Mr Burnham says that the Government has been gambling with people’s jobs. With his politically motivated stance he has been gambling with people’s lives.

    John E Thornton

    Marlow, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – The country seems to have returned to feudalism with barons fighting their corners. It makes the job of central government impossible and gives the appearance of chaos.

    Lesley Snell

    Hoylake, Wirral

    SIR – One moment leaders of certain regions in the North of England are demanding that Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, negotiate a bespoke coronavirus deal to suit each area. The next, they are demanding they all get an identical deal.

    Brian Christley

    Abergele, Conwy

    SIR – How many of those rebelling against tougher restrictions were banging saucepans and clapping their hands for the NHS a few months ago?

    Carey Waite

    Chailey Green, East Sussex

    SIR – Forgive me, but I always thought that it was the role of the NHS to protect the public, not the role of the public to protect the NHS.

    Clive R Garston

    London SW11

    SIR – I read on the Letters page that some correspondents are “angry”. Who are they angry with and why?

    Do they think the pandemic is the Government’s fault? Are we in any worse set of circumstances than many other countries around the world?

    Frustration, disappointment, panic, disbelief, confusion and many more are words with which I can relate – but anger?

    Charles Holden

    Micheldever, Hampshire

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    SIR – I am part of a large family and belong to several WhatsApp groups where everything is discussed, from birthday presents to the condition of the golf course.

    However, following Saturday’s Covid-19 regulations, I have observed a new phenomenon: a quiet, pervasive and firm “no” to further restrictions on our family lives. We did not engage in any activity which could have been regarded as risky before. No one has cancelled any arrangements now.

    I suspect we are not alone in this.

    Alisdair Low

    Richmond, Surrey

    SIR – If Geoff Riley from Essex (Letters, October 17) hoped to have his daughter for lunch indoors, he is correct: that is not to be allowed. Weather permitting, lunch outside would be all right, as would outside visits to see his other daughter in Hertfordshire and his son in Cambridge.

    But those visits are not allowed if indoors. The Statutory Instrument states: “No person living in the Tier 2 area may participate in a gathering outside that area which (a) consists of two or more people, and (b) takes place indoors.”

    Tom Allen

    West Byfleet, Surrey

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    SIR – In the discussion of a two-week circuit breaker, I was amazed at the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies saying that the damage to children missing out on school “would last a lifetime”.

    I was a small girl living in Fiji, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. That afternoon my school closed, and our teacher fled.

    Despite this total disruption, my friends who were scholastic all had successful professional careers, rising above the interruption of a long war.

    Barbara Dowling

    London SW19

    1. Ah, Barbara, your generation was made of sterner stuff. Gives the appearance of chaos, Lesley? It IS chaos.

  12. SIR – I recently witnessed an emergency ambulance trying to make progress along a congested Tooting High Street in south London. The addition of cycle-lane bollards had made it just wide enough for two-way traffic, but the vehicles could not get out of the way of the ambulance, and it was held up for some minutes.

    Having been an ambulance person, 
I know this delay can be the difference between life and death.

    Neil Jay

    Cockernhoe, Hertfordshire

  13. Morning again

    SIR – Charles Moore’s comparison of Trump against Biden (Comment, October 17) did not mention the achievements of the present administration in energy policy.

    Fracking has curtailed the power of Opec, reduced oil prices by 60 per cent and provided abundant cheap methane. The latter is the chemical source for synthetic fertiliser which in turn is also cheaper in helping poorer countries to feed themselves better.

    By not following the Paris agreement Mr Trump is saving the United States from the headlong dash to economic irrelevance of zero carbon, as pursued by the European Union and the United Kingdom.

    Michael Hughes

    Newbury, Berkshire

    1. Trump has balls. Boris’ were ripped off ages ago when he ceased to be a Conservative. If this government would like to grow a pair we would be investing in capital projects, and fracking must be close to the top of the list.

      ‘Morning, Epi.

    2. Trump has balls. Boris’ were ripped off ages ago when he ceased to be a Conservative. If this government would like to grow a pair we would be investing in profitable capital projects, and fracking must be close to the top of the list.

      ‘Morning, Epi.

      1. Offshore fracking. It costs a little more, but we are well versed in the technology. It would keep our countryside free and clear for building houses for immigrants,or even for farming.

  14. ‘Morning again.

    I know of friends who are long overdue for referral and treatment, so it is high time Handycock was dragged into the Commons to explain what he proposes to do about such a scandalous situation…

    From today’s DT:

    The devastating cost of efforts to “protect the NHS” in the pandemic has been exposed by a new analysis of 200 health conditions which reveals hospital admissions plummeted by up to 90 per cent.

    The major report shows that consultations for the most common cancers fell by up to two thirds during lockdown, while heart-attack checks reduced by almost half.

    Experts said the findings were “staggering” and could mean thousands of extra deaths. They warned that the situation must not be repeated during the second wave of the pandemic, as hospitals come under growing pressure, with operations being cancelled.

    During lockdown, the Government urged the public to “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives.” This message was intended to ensure people followed the lockdown advice, but saw people with urgent needs deterred from attending hospital, for fear of catching coronavirus or being a burden on the health service, while planned treatments were routinely put on hold.

    There are fears the same could happen again, as ministers have echoed that message in reference to the second wave.

    Earlier this month, Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned the pandemic was at a “perilous” moment that could cause the “implosion” of the NHS this winter unless levels were suppressed.

    He said: “We know from bitter experience that the more coronavirus spreads, the harder it is to do all the other vital work of the NHS.

    “The message to the public must be that we all have a part to play to control this virus.”

    Hospitals in Nottingham, Birmingham, Liverpool, Swansea and Plymouth are among those who have begun cancelling planned surgery. And University Hospital Birmingham has warned that it will turn away A&E arrivals who do not need urgent help.

    On Sunday, there were a further 16,982 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.

    Separate figures show there were 4,974 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England on Sunday, up from 3,451 a week ago. A total of 632 patients with confirmed Covid-19 were admitted to hospitals in England on Friday, compared with 544 a week earlier.

    The research by healthcare analyst Dr Foster shows in April and May this year, admissions relating to a host of diseases saw a sharp drop. Those for prostate cancer – the most common form of cancer in men, which is normally diagnosed in around 50,000 men a year, fell by 64 per cent.

    There were just 4,640 admissions to hospital in April and May, compared with a five-year average of 12,589, NHS Digital figures show.

    Bowel cancer – the second biggest cancer killer in the UK – saw a 39 per cent drop in admissions, with just 8,184 cases seen, when around 13,488 would have been expected.

    And the number involving breast cancer – the most common form of cancer for women – slumped by 30 per cent, with 25,711 rather than the 36,848 average.

    Admissions for patients with “nonspecific cardiac chest pain” – a red flag condition which can indicate a heart attack – fell by 41 per cent, while those for patients with a specific heart attack diagnosis dropped by 27 per cent.

    Meanwhile, those to diagnose or treat gastrointestinal disorders were down by 90 per cent.

    Earlier this month NHS chiefs launched a campaign – Help Us to Help You – assuring patients that they will not be viewed as a burden if they seek help for non-Covid ailments following concerns about the effects of the the Government’s advice to “Protect the NHS”.

    Experts have said poor access for diagnosis and care during the pandemic could see an extra 35,000 deaths from cancer this year.

    Last week, the Care Quality Commission said millions of patients had missed out on GP appointments since lockdown, meaning fewer referrals to hospital for vital checks.

    In total there were almost 27 million fewer GP appointments carried out between March and August this year, compared with the same period last year.

    Kruti Shrotri, Cancer Research UK policy manager, said: “These figures provide further evidence of the devastating impact that Covid-19 has had on diagnosing and treating patients.

    “As health services are now having to manage a resurgence of Covid-19 on top of usual winter pressures, it’s critical that we take forward the lessons learnt so far to ensure cancer patients get the care they need through a second wave of the virus.”

    The number of patients starting cancer treatment such as chemotherapy and radiology between April and July is 26 per cent lower than the same period last year, with around 31,000 patients missing out, the charity said.

    Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation and a consultant cardiologist, said: “We are sadly seeing the fallout of people not getting cardiovascular care during this pandemic – with thousands of excess deaths caused by these conditions.

    “It’s vital that people can access healthcare as they usually would.”

    Data shows more than 4,400 extra deaths from heart disease and stroke in Britain during the first four months of the pandemic.

    Karen Stalbow, from Prostate Cancer UK said that while most localised prostate cancer grows slowly, it was critical that the most urgent cases were not forced to endure further waits.

    She said: “Some men simply cannot afford to wait, and as we enter the second wave of the pandemic, it is vital that hospitals can continue to provide treatments for those most at risk of their cancer progressing.”

    Tom Binstead, director of strategy and analytics, at Dr Foster, said some of the figures were “staggering” with falls seen “across the board” including in almost all emergency activity, other than childbirth.

    He said: “Overall, the analysis suggests that the long-term effects of the pandemic are likely to be far reaching, with a future spike in demand possible due to missed diagnoses and postponed procedures.

    “Cancers may now require a greater level of treatment, or even be untreatable, if they have been left undetected or untreated as a result of the crisis.”

    An NHS spokesman said: “At the height of the first coronavirus peak and lockdown, some people chose to postpone care, but since then hospital admissions have now rebounded, routine operations have more than doubled and cancer treatments are now taking place at well above usual levels. The NHS message to the public has been quite clear – do not delay, help us help you by coming forward so you can get the care you need.”

    1. “some people chose to postpone care” – and pretty well all people had their care cancelled by that bastion of efficiency, and the “envy of the world”, the NHS.

      1. But anyone arriving at Dover after setting off from Calais in a rubber dinghy will be seen straight away by the waiting ambulance crews.

    2. Morning all. Re the last paragraph above. The NHS spokesman is an out and out liar. “Some people” did not choose to postpone care they were told in no uncertain terms their appointments were cancelled . “The NHS message to the public has been quite clear” – appointment cancelled for the foreseeable future.

        1. And private dentists – my hygenist appointment in June was cancelled with no mention of a replacement time. We’ll see if the next one in December takes place. In the meantime, they still take my monthly fee.

          1. We’re great ‘pay as you go’ people.
            Before all this nonsense erupted, we noticed that we were not getting our money’s worth from dental insurance (I realise that the whole premise behind insurance is that most people with don’t claim or don’t get full recompense). Like Spartie’s vet treatment, we now put money aside.

        2. Absolutely right Anne. So not only are we paying for, but not receiving treatment from, our National Covid Service but we are also paying for the use of private hospitals and the Nightingale hospitals.

          The Con party has found a whole forest of money trees.

          Sorry for the late reply – been up to Birmingham to see our granddaughter at University.

    4. Our surgery still isn’t doing routine treatments like ear syringing. OH was told to try Specsavers.

      1. I don’t think GPs have been doing ear syringing for yonks. Or maybe our old friend ‘post code lottery’ applied.

        1. It’s certainly very many yonks since I had mine done. Perhaps it’s just one of theoe services they quietly dropped.

    5. So, all the English Covid-19 patients in England could easily be accommodated in Scottish hospitals with plenty of empty beds left over? ©Cathy Newman.

    6. But seriously, why should the NHS not be used to the absolute limit?
      We should ignore General Montgomery’s famous speech where he stated before El Alamein, “that he would not use all his guns, or all his ammunition and he would not use his tanks at all, in order to save them for later”.
      We all have this “save for later” mentality. We keep our best clothes for best, unworn. I will have a decent selection of new suits in which to be buried or burned. It does not make any sense.

  15. SIR – After pondering whether to download the NHS Test and Trace app, I eventually decided to accept government assurances that data would be treated confidentially, and so installed it on my phone.

    Yesterday we read that “the Department of Health and Social Care has agreed a memorandum of understanding with the National Police Chiefs Council to enable police forces to have access on a case-by-case basis to information that enables them to know if a specific individual has been notified to self-isolate”.

    I have accordingly uninstalled the app and imagine that anyone else who values their privacy will do likewise.

    M A Stanley

    Lymm, Cheshire

      1. Don’t be too hard on him. He’s not the first to have learnt the peril of trusting a political promise.

        1. Morning, Jeremy.
          Since we can assume that Mr. Stanley is not a 5 year old, he must be a slow learner.

  16. Just caught up with this article by Douglas Carswell:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/18/clueless-political-class-treating-public-like-cogs-machine/

    “Our clueless political class is treating the public like cogs in a machine

    The tier system is the product of a government which has entirely lost touch with ordinary people

    18 October 2020 • 9:00am

    Eight months after the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in Britain, the Government has come up with a hideously complex tier system to try to cope with it.

    It has been designed by public officials who have entirely lost touch with the way people actually live and work, and presume their fellow citizens are cogs in a machine they can control.

    Push the button marked “Tier 3”, they seem to imagine, and millions of us will change our behaviour, altering the rate of infection of the virus. How did we come to be governed by officials who imagine our country can be run this way?

    For years, political commentators have lamented the way in which politics has become increasingly dominated by a class of professional politicians, with little real world experience.

    After gaining a degree in the humanities or social science, political wannabes will often do a short stint as a special adviser, or swot up for the Civil Service Fast Stream exams.

    Then off they go, advancing their careers in Westminster and Whitehall by helping make public policy decisions on behalf of a public they simply do not understand.

    Each morning, while the political class wakes up listening to BBC Radio 4 calling for more clampdowns, millions of Britons have already left home to earn a living by hard graft.

    If the new restrictions do not explicitly prevent plasters, or painters and decorators, or cleaners and factory foremen, from working, there is likely to be less work around.

    Conservative politicians love to litter their speeches with the phrase “one nation”. From Disraeli to Churchill to Thatcher, the most successful Tory leaders have indeed been those who have governed for the whole, cultivating assiduously the support of what one might today call blue-collar Britain.

    The danger in handling Covid is that the Government runs the country in the interests not of blue-collar Britain, but “Zoom caller Britain” – those able to earn a living from their spare bedrooms.

    It might prove harder to overlook the smorgasbord of restrictive regulations if you are one of the millions of ordinary people whose life has been placed on hold and your living standards ruined.

    If the policymaking classes don’t understand this, nor do they appear to understand science. “Science” wrote one of the 20th century’s greatest physicists, Richard Feynman, “is the belief in the Ignorance of the Experts.”

    Yet too few politicians in Britain have science backgrounds, so they defer to the expert advice they receive uncritically.

    The tier approach sits on a simple metric of how many positive tests there are per hundred thousand of the local population. Yet it does not seem to have occurred to ministers that the increase in positive results might reflect an increase in the number of tests, rather than just an increase in infection.

    Prone to overestimate their grasp of the situation and ability to engineer good outcomes, our policymaking class overlook the reality – understood in Sweden – that it is often better to aim for the least worst outcomes instead.”

  17. Martin Bell, a refreshingly modest individual!

    From yesterday’s DT – apologies if already posted:

    Veteran broadcaster Martin Bell has claimed modern newsreaders are paid “far too much” for mostly reading “words off an autocue” as he revealed how he never asked for a pay rise in his 33 years at the BBC.

    The 82-year-old, who first started working for the BBC in 1962 before quitting in the mid-1990s to run for election as an ‘anti-sleaze’ MP, said he was “amazed” at how much BBC “news stars” were earning.

    Some of the top earners in news at the BBC are Huw Edwards (below), who is paid around £465,000-a-year, George Alagiah on around £325,000 and Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis, on around £370,000-a-year.

    Mr Bell, who was injured by shrapnel while reporting in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia in 1992 and was awarded the OBE the same year, said he was earning about £60k-a-year when he left the BBC after 33 years.

    Speaking to The Sunday Times, he said: “By the time I left the BBC I was earning about £60,000.

    “I’m amazed now by BBC news stars’ pay…when I read about today’s news stars I think ‘No one deserves that amount, however good they are’. A lot of it is just reading words off an autocue.

    “It’s not like they’re risking their lives. I’m not angry about it, but I just wonder how they can justify the salary to themselves.”

    Mr Bell said he had “no regrets” about never requesting a pay rise while he worked at the corporation despite “more savvy colleagues” pressing him to fight for a more lucrative contract.

    He told the newspaper how the only time in his life when he was “even mildly affluent” was when he was an MP “because I had a BBC pension and parliamentary salary”.

    “A lot of MPs complained that they were underpaid but I don’t think I was,” he added.

    Asked to reveal his ‘money weakness’, he revealed a fondness for a certain brand of whisky, adding: “I probably spend too much on whisky. Bells of course, although there’s no family link.”

    He also admitted he had “spent some money” on his trademark white suits, and packed about five when he was war reporting.

    “I was wearing a white suit when I covered a conflict in Croatia in June 1991 and there was an awful lot of lead flying through the air and none of it hit me, so I came to the conclusion that the white suit was lucky and I’ve worn them ever since,” he said.

    “When I was in the Commons I had them made for me in Savile Row for about £1,500 each but as soon I was out of parliament I went back to Marks & Spencer because I’ve never liked to live beyond my means.”

    Mr Bell joined BBC Norwich as a reporter in 1962 after two years of national service and covered conflicts in Ghana, Vietnam, Nigeria, Angola, Northern Ireland and Bosnia during his career at the corporation.

        1. At least she actually appeared in proper war zones rather than just studios.

          It is probably apocryphal, but soldiers said they knew it was serious when Adey appeared on the scene.

        2. At least she actually appeared in proper war zones rather than just studios.

          It is probably apocryphal, but soldiers said they knew it was serious when Adey appeared on the scene.

      3. Kate Adie. Or perhaps even what she is paid. She still presents 2 half-hour programmes on Radio 4.

        Her salary is not listed so it must be under the £150,000 published threshold.

    2. So (c) he was earning £60K pA thirty years ago. Not too shabby, I’d STFU if I were you, Marty.

      1. He left the Beeb in 1997… £60,000 in 1990 would be £125,000 today. £60,000 in 1995 would be £100,000 today. About £60,000 might be a lot nearer to £70,000.

        I think singing dumb would have been a good move.

    3. “…soon I was out of parliament I went back to Marks & Spencer because I’ve never liked to live beyond my means…”

      What about living beyond *our* means? You couldn’t afford it but you were happy to slap that cost on us!

  18. Good morning, all. Another grey looking day. Perhaps it will be brighter after porridge.

    2. Morning Bill,

      There is a nicly chilled Papaya in the fridge waiting to be eaten. Moh will have his half with a little sprinkling of salt, and I like a squeeze of lime on mine.

      We have found the ancient well used breadmaker in the spare bedroom, and have enjoyed some lovely freshly made loaves again.

      1. The big difference between the religions is that Christianity preaches peace while Islam claims to preach peace but actually preaches hatred.

        1. The Koran is very Old Testament.
          Mo-ism appeared 600 years after the message had moved on.

          1. They have the cheek to refer to Christianity as an “old pagan religion”. Poor deluded controlled fools know nothing.

  20. Good morning, everyone. Can’t log in with Chrome ‘cos captcha says it is not compatible (worked OK yesterday). Had to log in with Safari.

  21. Good morning all

    Dull day here, not even a rustle of leaves.
    We are still coughing and spluttering , but improving slowly.

    What a strange joyless dream world we are all inhabiting , I wish there was a reset button.

      1. When I was doing my foundation art course, we had to produce an advert for our video project. I invented “Kissitbetta”, a cough medicine, and the ad featured a poorly teddy bear who couldn’t join his friends on the picnic until he’d taken Kissitbetta 🙂

    4. Not for the first time in my existence I have the sensation that I would like like to rewind the video of life.

    5. It’s come out bright & sunny here in Derbyshire.
      So far I’ve done a bit of scrap timber sawing, until the battery ran out that is, and have been shifting some of the ballast left over from last weeks concreting to a bit closer to where it’ll be next used.
      Still got ½ a ton of the load I had delivered to shift, but need to go & see stepson in Derby this afternoon so will not get much of that done.

  22. OT – modern life. Last week, we “attended” the online funeral of a friend’s mother. She was 93. A good age by any standards. After the funeral, our friend had an e-mail (yes, an e-mail) from someone who had known her late mother “since she (the mother) was three”. So there is someone who is an honorary NoTTLer – e-mailing in her nineties!

    1. Been wearing a lanyard and label since 24th. July.
      It’s very satisfying; people leave you well alone in case you either have something embarrassing or they’re afraid you have ‘mental issues’ and might draw attention to them.

  26. Good morrow gentlefolk

    A Monday Morning Thought.

    This occurred to me, while being subjected to the banal, biased and inaccurate offerings on TV, that maybe there is more to life.

    I don’t know how many of us have had the privilege to be urged by our parents to write and keep a ‘Commonplace’ book.

    A book of writings, thoughts and ideas that have appealed to one over the brief years of one’s lifetime and maybe a legacy for one’s children.

    This is something I was introduced to by my Father (1895 – 1955) when I was about 7 or 8 years old. In those days, early 1950s, we lived in Bungay, Suffolk and my Father had contacts with Richard Clay (Printers) in the town and managed to get all three of we children a ‘Commonplace’ book printed with absolutely blank pages. My offerings at the time were mere scribbles.

    That (un)printed version has long gone by the wayside but the idea has stayed with me, evermore and, in this technological age, I have kept mine as a WORD document that grows year by year. Sometimes, and often, affected by that which I read on this site.

    For those who may be interested, I offer this link that will allow you to download (albeit slowly) MY Commonplace book. It may be worthwhile but it is by no means complete – I have much more work to do on it but, I must admit, I’m very tired!

    I hope you enjoy it and that it may prompt you to do something similar for those generations who follow you. It is in .PDF format because any changes to it should be mine alone but, feel free to ask for a WORD version of any parts of it.

    http://www.mediafire.com/file/o4ay5hbxib2bb0c/Tom%2527s_Commonplace_Book_A5_%2528Rev_10%2529.pdf/file

    Yes, it is in A5 format because that is roughly the size of a paperback book. You may need a few packs of A5 paper, if you wish to print all the current 200 pages.

    1. Morning, Tom.
      Interesting idea – I tried it once, more a travel diary I suppose, for my last trips to Sudan, but half-way through I looked at it again and came to the conclusion that it was drivel, so I stopped. Since, I collect writings on Evernote, so the pages are shared between PC & phone, and that works better. Mostly things I have read fom Nottl, plus some poetry that, now I am older, means something to me.
      EDIT: Downloaded, will take a look later today.

        1. I have big problems with organised relision – another form of control. I can easily believe in a God-figure, but what it might be called, and whetehr it’s just the power & beauty of nature, well…

    2. I kept a diary for some time but I would forgot a day or so, then a week and then forget what I’d done. Eventually there became month long gaps until I stopped bothering entirely.

      Not only was my hand writing appalling – the shakes got worse – but my school days were miserable and living at home little fun either as I had no privacy whatsoever. Once I left for university life became too rapid to remember.

      1. I sympathise, Wibbles and though a lot appears to have been the work of a benevolent Father, he had very strict Victorian values, particularly with sparing the rod.

        My Commonplace Book is by no means a diary and as the title page says, “A Commonplace Book

        Of writings that have moved, amused, inspired or otherwise had an impact on me” very few are my own work.

      2. I have kept a diary since I had to give up work. It was suggested as a form of therapy, so I could look back and see how not every day was full of doom and gloom, and to help my recall of events. I still keep it up as I enjoy writing, although I have not produced anything much since my muse (with whom I discussed everything) committed suicide nearly ten years ago.

    3. It’s a terrible thing to do to a self employed person.
      The BBC seem to enjoy trawling the depths of peoples despair.
      I expect if he reopens he’ll have to remove the word Gents from his shop front.

  31. Nicked,an excellent summary of the lunacy…………
    “Just listening to the good old BBC who are giving advice on the dos and
    donts of the various tiers invoked by the government. Apparently if I am
    in tier 2 and my girlfriend is in tier 3, we can’t meet for sex
    indoors, but provided she wears a mask when on top we can have sex in a
    pub carpark whilst eating a full meal before 10.00pm in England (6.00 pm
    in Scotland ) provided no more than 6 people are watching (unless in
    the same family bubble ) and the landlord isn’t Welsh. Simple really.”

    1. Dogging is legal in all three tiers, so fine to risk syphilis but woe betide anyone who catches a cold!

          1. I know that, Sue. I was only teasing.

            I’m also choosy and much prefer the comfort of a bed. 😉

  32. Morning al.
    Does Mayor Burnham actually realise that he has a problem with Corona-nation street, right plumb centre on his lap ?
    I just read that some people have been detained under suspicion of supplying rubber boats on the north coats of France.
    Surely this is a distinct and obvious form of treason.

    2. Nobody seems to get prosecuted for treason any more, only for breaking political correctness rules.
      Our country was stolen from us as clowns kept voting for Blair.

      1. At least my conscience is clear; I NEVER voted for Blair. I have never voted Labour, either, but alas, in the past I have voted Conservative. We wuz robbed.

      2. I must admit i did vote for Blair once, anything seemed better than the hapless and useless Major. I now think this was all part of the plan. And Blair lied about everything he did.

        1. I did too in 1997. The prospective Labour candidate was my boss at the time, and I liked her, so that swayed my judgement. By 2004, we had left Britain.

          1. Ah, a reformed Blair Babe are you, bb? Glad you saw the light. Did (Mr) blackbox1 concur?

          2. No, I was never a Blair supporter (except on one issue in Labour’s then manifesto). It was a personal vote for that local candidate.
            No idea what the ex thought!

        1. Obz……
          As discussed with one of our neighbours yesterday.
          IMHO the government have got it all wrong, whilst strongly recommending the public use hand sanitiser and then closing licenced premises at 10pm.
          As we know the sanitisers are made from and contain strong alcohol. Surely it’s would be better if people were allowed to spend their money ( keeping trading going) in pubs consuming alcohol, as it must have a sanitising effect on the system. And conversely there will be (never mentioned) a large amount of people in the UK who will for their own invented reasons, dare i say a form of contrivance, not go near a licenced premise, nor use hand sanitiser at all.
          And were are the most heavily infected areas of the UK ?

  35. I note that Monty Don (the clueless ecotwat) wants to introduce wolves back into the UK as (he says) they will keep the deer numbers down – yes Monty , you pillock, they’ll also keep the sheep numbers down too

    1. And what with the beavers blocking all the rivers – aren’t these chaps just brilliant?

      2. I reckon beavers are clever sods. We all think they build dams out of wood and leaves, but I’ve a theory.

        While we’re watching them, they’re all nattering about putting on a show for the tourists, waffling on about ecomentalim and what not. Once we all bug off they get the concrete out.

    2. Good morning, Spikey

      If they were halal wolves maybe they would only eat people who followed a halal diet?

    3. I had a pop (by email) at Country File last year when it’s reporter Tom Heap blamed domestic dogs for savaging sheep
      in Gloucestershire, near the Forest of Dean. A well known habitat for wild boar.
      No reply !

      1. Vince Cable has so many diametrically opposed ideas and opinions, that it’s almost impossible not to find yourself occasionally in agreement with one of his utterings.

        1. I saw Tom Petty play live at Wembley Arena. Distant memories of another lifetime. So glad I’m not young now.

    1. We managed last week with online booking they had over 400 spaces for appointments. An easy drive in. Results were negative, but both tested at the same time last Thursday morning. MOH had her result at 8 am Saturday, mine came 6 hours later. After i phoned the number supplied on the registration card and chased it up. It could have ruined our week end if as they said, i might have to wait 5 days !!!

        1. Whispered………….we put in a more convenient post code to the testing centre that happened to be the closest to where we live.

    2. I still don’t get this. If I was tested today – I might still contract the plague in a few days time. Does this mean that I should be tested every five days?
      Not that I am bovvered, anyway. I have been tested twice in hospital and – as they never told me – assumed it was negative.

          2. Those loos with a high cistern and a chain have no equal today for sheer drama. Wonder if I could install one in my house, to impress grandchildren?

          4. My aunt and uncle lived for some years in a flat in rather a grand old house – their loo had a ceramic handle on the end of the chain – it actually said “pull”.

          2. I knew a bloke who was bitten by a Redback.
            I still have the habit of lifting the seat of a public loo with my footwear.

    2. I would have thought that they would charge more – after all most artisans in France now charge 50€ an hour.

    1. Will all those who grovelled (and are still grovelling) in memory of George Floyd consider some sort of action in regards of Samuel Paty and all the other innocents murdered since, or is it only the life of a drug-fuelled career criminal that matters?

    2. Will all those who grovelled (and are still grovelling) in memory of George Floyd consider some sort of action in regards of Samuel Paty and all the other innocents murdered since, or is it only the life of a drug-fuelled career criminal that matters?

      2. Perhaps, instead of kneeling before his next race, Looiss Aitch could hold a knife to his own throat.

  41. Apropos the covid “test” – I noticed some weeks ago a testing unit in a car park in Fakenham. After a great deal of trawling through the internet, I have found that the NHS in East Anglia HAVE a website that tells you where the mobile units are (get this) LAST WEEK.

    Clearly the “jam yesterday, jam tomorrow” principle rules…

    1. There was a notice in our local paper last week saying the testing centre at the Leisure Centre would be in operation on Saturday. When I arrived for table tennis I found half the carpark roped off and all the people using the sports centre crammed into the bottom half, while the upper half was empty, apart from the bored-looking marshals.

        1. Would you want to? A 3 foot long q-tip rammed all the way into your head, to sample the inside of the back of your skull? Not for me!

          1. No! The two I have already had were unpleasant enough. It is the principle of the thing that I was referring to…

  43. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/18/protect-nhs-message-led-90-per-cent-drop-admissions/

    ‘Protect the NHS’ message led to 90 per cent drop in hospital admissions

    Effects of Covid advice laid bare as admissions for serious illnesses plummeted, according to a major report

    18 October 2020 • 9:30pm

    The devastating cost of efforts to “protect the NHS” in the pandemic has been exposed by a new analysis of 200 health conditions which reveals hospital admissions plummeted by up to 90 per cent.

    The major report shows that consultations for the most common cancers fell by up to two thirds during lockdown, while heart-attack checks reduced by almost half.

    Experts said the findings were “staggering” and could mean thousands of extra deaths. They warned that the situation must not be repeated during the second wave of the pandemic, as hospitals come under growing pressure, with operations being cancelled.

    During lockdown, the Government urged the public to “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives.” This message was intended to ensure people followed the lockdown advice, but saw people with urgent needs deterred from attending hospital, for fear of catching coronavirus or being a burden on the health service, while planned treatments were routinely put on hold.

    There are fears the same could happen again, as ministers have echoed that message in reference to the second wave.

    Earlier this month, Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned the pandemic was at a “perilous” moment that could cause the “implosion” of the NHS this winter unless levels were suppressed.

    He said: “We know from bitter experience that the more coronavirus spreads, the harder it is to do all the other vital work of the NHS.

    “The message to the public must be that we all have a part to play to control this virus.”

    Hospitals in Nottingham, Birmingham, Liverpool, Swansea and Plymouth are among those who have begun cancelling planned surgery. And University Hospital Birmingham has warned that it will turn away A&E arrivals who do not need urgent help.

    On Sunday, there were a further 16,982 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK.

    Separate figures show there were 4,974 Covid-19 patients in hospital in England on Sunday, up from 3,451 a week ago. A total of 632 patients with confirmed Covid-19 were admitted to hospitals in England on Friday, compared with 544 a week earlier.

    The research by healthcare analyst Dr Foster shows in April and May this year, admissions relating to a host of diseases saw a sharp drop. Those for prostate cancer – the most common form of cancer in men, which is normally diagnosed in around 50,000 men a year, fell by 64 per cent.

    There were just 4,640 admissions to hospital in April and May, compared with a five-year average of 12,589, NHS Digital figures show.

    Bowel cancer – the second biggest cancer killer in the UK – saw a 39 per cent drop in admissions, with just 8,184 cases seen, when around 13,488 would have been expected.

    And the number involving breast cancer – the most common form of cancer for women – slumped by 30 per cent, with 25,711 rather than the 36,848 average.

    Admissions for patients with “nonspecific cardiac chest pain” – a red flag condition which can indicate a heart attack – fell by 41 per cent, while those for patients with a specific heart attack diagnosis dropped by 27 per cent.

    Meanwhile, those to diagnose or treat gastrointestinal disorders were down by 90 per cent.

    Earlier this month NHS chiefs launched a campaign – Help Us to Help You – assuring patients that they will not be viewed as a burden if they seek help for non-Covid ailments following concerns about the effects of the the Government’s advice to “Protect the NHS”.

    Experts have said poor access for diagnosis and care during the pandemic could see an extra 35,000 deaths from cancer this year.

    Last week, the Care Quality Commission said millions of patients had missed out on GP appointments since lockdown, meaning fewer referrals to hospital for vital checks.

    In total there were almost 27 million fewer GP appointments carried out between March and August this year, compared with the same period last year.

    Kruti Shrotri, Cancer Research UK policy manager, said: “These figures provide further evidence of the devastating impact that Covid-19 has had on diagnosing and treating patients.

    “As health services are now having to manage a resurgence of Covid-19 on top of usual winter pressures, it’s critical that we take forward the lessons learnt so far to ensure cancer patients get the care they need through a second wave of the virus.”

    The number of patients starting cancer treatment such as chemotherapy and radiology between April and July is 26 per cent lower than the same period last year, with around 31,000 patients missing out, the charity said.

    Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation and a consultant cardiologist, said: “We are sadly seeing the fallout of people not getting cardiovascular care during this pandemic – with thousands of excess deaths caused by these conditions.

    “It’s vital that people can access healthcare as they usually would.”

    Data shows more than 4,400 extra deaths from heart disease and stroke in Britain during the first four months of the pandemic.

    Karen Stalbow, from Prostate Cancer UK said that while most localised prostate cancer grows slowly, it was critical that the most urgent cases were not forced to endure further waits.

    She said: “Some men simply cannot afford to wait, and as we enter the second wave of the pandemic, it is vital that hospitals can continue to provide treatments for those most at risk of their cancer progressing.”

    Tom Binstead, director of strategy and analytics, at Dr Foster, said some of the figures were “staggering” with falls seen “across the board” including in almost all emergency activity, other than childbirth.

    He said: “Overall, the analysis suggests that the long-term effects of the pandemic are likely to be far reaching, with a future spike in demand possible due to missed diagnoses and postponed procedures.

    “Cancers may now require a greater level of treatment, or even be untreatable, if they have been left undetected or untreated as a result of the crisis.”

    An NHS spokesman said: “At the height of the first coronavirus peak and lockdown, some people chose to postpone care, but since then hospital admissions have now rebounded, routine operations have more than doubled and cancer treatments are now taking place at well above usual levels. The NHS message to the public has been quite clear – do not delay, help us help you by coming forward so you can get the care you need.”

    1. p.s. There is also an interesting list/graph with this article, but my best efforts cannot reproduce it.

    1. There should be only one punishment for the rape of a five-year old child, and that punishment is crucifixion.

      The naked offender should be nailed to a large cross, naked, with his body smeared with lard and left for the crows to peck.

      I’m a bit old-school, me.

      4. 325764+ up ticks,
        G,
        I would like to see American style incarceration life sentence with an added life sentence.
        Timothy Evens verdict put paid to Capital punishment in my book.
        Expense cannot enter the equation all the while we are condoning overseas aid & HS2.

          2. The point is that we NOW have DNA tracing which we didn’t have then, so there is less (or even NO) likelihood of a miscarriage of justice.

          3. Agreed, I thought your DNA was with regard to Evans.

            Sadly, even DNA can be manipulated if someone is so inclined.

          4. 325754+ up ticks,
            Afternoon NtN,
            There ain’t nothing on this planet that in time cannot be manipulated & mastered to deceive.

            Life means life no martyr making & no
            life taking mistakes., my personal view.

      7. I’ll go along with most of that, George but in my book Capital Punishment should be re-introduced and include rapists as well as murderers. I would also advocate public birching across the bare buttocks, of miscreants aged 25 or under. The humiliation should be sufficient to quieten down the current crop of yobs.

        1. I’ll go along with that, Tom, but with a caveat. If rapists are to be hanged, then so should those who make false and malicious complaints of rape.

          After all, what’s sauce for the gander …

          1. That is a point well worth remembering. I gather that many accusations of rape turn out to be false and that women are not noticeably more truthful than men. A man’s life can be ruined by a false accusation of rape while a false accuser can have her name withheld from publication.

            Does your experience of police work lead you to think that one sex is more credible than the other?

          3. Not at all, Rastus. In my experience both sexes are as intelligent (and devious) as one another.

            Genuine rape is horrific; however, many innocent men’s lives have been destroyed by false and malicious allegations of rape; This has led to the suicide of many innocuous victims who feel thy cannot carry on after such victimisation.

    2. Good afternoon, Ogga.

      The more I hear the more I think
      ‘QAnon’
      is not just a conspiracy theory!!

  47. Julie Burchill on the BBC:

    Cheer us all up Boris, and stick the boot into our woke BBC this winter
    Defunding the Beeb can only boost Britain’s morale in the midst of this grim pandemic

    JULIE BURCHILL
    18 October 2020 • 10:00am
    Julie Burchill
    So here we are, back where we started. Playing the Hokey Cokey – putting this bit in, putting that bit out – but this time not in the springtime of our hope but in the winter of our discontent. For someone who wanted to be king of the world when he grew up, Boris Johnson is doing a really good impression of Greta Garbo these days. Sometimes it feels like he’s ‘ghosting’ – the word the youngsters have for ‘the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication’ – the whole nation.

    It’s understandable that one man can’t hold back the coronavirus, but in hard times such as these, we all need a circuit-break to the gloom and doom ahead, something which vivifies us and makes us realise that we can be the masters of our fate in other ways. In lieu of Bonfire Night and Halloween, how about a brisk defunding of the BBC?

    I’m sure that most of us could get behind putting a rocket under all those self-righteous metropolitans who work for it and treating them to a trick they’ll never forget. How odd to think that the BBC was once one of the main things that kept the nation’s morale up – during the Second World War, especially. I dread to think how they’d react these days; no doubt we’d be instructed not to mindlessly rally round the flag against Germany in a jingoistic way – especially considering the racism of Churchill, in contrast with Hitler’s vegetarianism.

    Only last month, the Tory MP Andrew Lewer asked the Prime Minister a question about the fairness of having to pay a BBC licence in order to watch other TV channels in the UK: ‘When I buy a copy of the Mirror, the Mail or The Telegraph, I’m not obliged to buy a copy of the Guardian. And yet when I want to watch live television on Sky or Amazon Prime or ITV, I am forced to pay for the BBC.’ To which the PM encouragingly replied: ‘We will be setting out a roadmap shortly for reform of the BBC and addressing the very issue that he mentions.’

    When Lord Charles Moore was mooted as the new chairman, in the wake of the ‘Rule, Britannia’ row, you could smell the fear and fury of the Woke all across the capital. The BBC backed down in this instance, and we should keep them on the run. They’ll never reform themselves and to believe they will would be as foolish as expecting the best from the EU, another corrupted monolith with which they have so much in common; the endless entitlement, the fake enlightenment, the ceaseless spending of other people’s money.

    Now more than ever elderly people should not have to pay for their television licence, when the television may well be all the company they have for the next six months. Now more than ever with the economy in freefall and millions of lives wrecked by Covid-related unemployment, it’s obscene that we are paying talking heads six-figure salaries.

    And now more than ever, as our country stands on the brink of a social sundering far greater than anything we have experienced since the civil war – north against south, pro-lockdown against anti-lockdown, British country against British country in a crumbling union – we don’t need yet another state-sponsored snowflake telling us how racist we are. Step forward Countryfile presenter Ellie Harrison, who has announced that the countryside itself is racist: ‘In asking whether the countryside is racist, then yes it is; but asking if it’s more racist than anywhere else – maybe, maybe not.’

    Institutions outlive their usefulness and at that point they change or they perish. ‘Nation shall speak peace to nation’ (the BBC motto) and ‘United in diversity’ (the EU motto) are amusingly interchangeable – and they are wearing thin, despite the oceans of money employed to paper over the cracks.

    We don’t know where we’ll be this time next year, so do put the boot in, Boris – give us some savage amusement till this nightmare before Christmas is over.

    Leading BTL:

    Wendy McNally
    18 Oct 2020 10:43AM
    Absolutely spot on Julie. The massive majority that voted Boris in, need to be shown that he actually is going to Inact (sic) some of the things he promised.

    The BBC is top of that tree, because it’s the enemy within, which will undermine everything this Conservative goverment will try to do. It should have been the FIRST thing he dealt with. If he had, he might not even have been pushed into the lockdown in the first place. It was the raging of the media, led by the BBC, that panicked him into these extreme measures.

    The BBC acts like judge, jury and executioner. What right do they have to diss everything the elected government do and say? We voted the government into office. They think they are all the opposition parties rolled into one.

    Don’t even get me started on the overpaid presenters, being paid for by old aged pensioners. What an absolute disgrace this once proud, state broadcaster, now is.

    DEFUND It.

  48. Senior moments are in the past!

    Discussing Senior Moments, yesterday with my brother, he told me that he no longer suffers from them. He explained that he now gets Craft Moments, which are far worse!

    He walks into a room and Can’t Remember A Fucking Thing!

    1. Good afternoon, Grizzly

      That takes the biscuit!

      And Craft’s biscuits have not been the same since they became an American company.

      1. Good evening, Rastus.

        I’ve never enjoyed Craft’s products (before or after they went Americano).

        Kraft, however, is another story. Kraft rubber slices are what the Yanks think cheese tastes like.

    2. According to WebMD and also Ayervedic medicine, saffron is used for treating Alzheimers and depression among other things.

        1. University of Tehran say it acts as a stimulant and is proven to be more effective than Prozac in treating depression. It contains vitamin A and C, zinc and selenium. It can give you a stiffy too.

          3. A “Bristol” is a posh name for an invitation card. Also known as a “stiffy”. Do keep up.
            Are you suggesting there is some other meaning?? …{:¬))

          4. Me? no……(innocent face).

            I have a gold edged stiffy invitation in a drawer somewhere. I was invited to the Lord Mayor’s Banquet. I was a friend of his wife and she got me in because she knows what a terrible gossip I am.

          5. Somewhere I have an invitation to some junket organised by Queen Victoria’s household. That would have been quite stiff, I imagine.

      2. My only use for saffron is to infuse some stamens in a little hot milk before drizzling it over steamed basmati rice mixed with dried fruit and slivered almonds, then baking in a moderate oven. I serve this saffron rice with a lamb dhansak and tarka dal.

        It keeps the demons at bay and stops me dribbling.

    2. Typically the English didn’t even question whet he was attempting to do.
      Oh and i don’t remember seeing that being shown on our usually more than investigative MSN.
      It must have happened at night time.

        2. He spoke a lot of sense at a UKIP conference. We need more like him (and fewer muslim gimmigrants).

      1. Sir William de Tastey would have been your man for the job in 1170 but his descendants lack his ambitious zeal and would probably bungle the job.

          1. I pass the baton on to my elder son, Christo, who, unlike me but like his mother, is a Roman Catholic

    3. Should have been the archbish of Canterbury, Dr John.
      One in the eye for the BLM wankers. A black guy who doesb’t agree with their whinges.

      1. The C of E are all strong on “Mea Culpa, oh dear we have been so racist in the past” but they never acknowledge that the real reason blacks never got anywhere in their organisation is that they couldn’t find any black liberals masquerading as Christians, and they wanted nothing to do with real Christian blacks!

  52. 325757+ up ticks,
    Bit rich coming from one who helped johnson into number ten on the way to getting his life back when leaving the UKIP party, the only party by the by that wanted total severance.

    Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson should lead a “clean break Brexit” from the EU rather than try to salvage negotiations with the bloc, warning that any new treaty with Brussels “will come back to haunt us in the years ahead”.

    1. Good afternoon again ogga

      Leaving personalities and your dislike of Nigel Farage aside do you not think that Boris Johnson should lead a “clean break Brexit” from the EU rather than try to salvage negotiations with the bloc, warning that any new treaty with Brussels “will come back to haunt us in the years ahead”.

      If not what do you think Boris Johnson should now do?

      It is quite possible to like people with whom one disagrees just as it is quite possible to dislike people with whom one agrees, My father used to say that he abominated the Irish but his two best friends were Irish. As he loved discussion he was glad when he had friends whose views were different from his own.

      1. 325754+ up ticks,
        R,
        It is a dislike of his manipulative politics that are doing more damage than good.
        Mr Batten via book & rhetoric gave us the route to take but on winning the referendum we promptly returned to supporting the same party’s / politico’s that the day before a successful referendum result were in the main pro eu.

        It is not a case of liking / disliking it is a case of trusting, the “nige” lost that.

        Up until & inclusive of Batten leadership, him being a founder member UKIP always called for total severance, cannot vouch for the current party.

        These new type tory’s have never been shy of using UKIP ideas plus in the past, tell him to follow the Batten route laid out in
        2014, then retire.

  54. Yesterday’s DT Story for yesterday’s man:

    Exclusive: Tony Blair accused of breaking quarantine rules with US trip

    It would be appropriate if Blair were finally nabbed and imprisoned for breaking quarantine. Al Capone, a relatively trivial murderer and gangster by comparison, finally got nailed for income tax evasion!

    1. He’s one of the chosen and has immunity.
      I expect he was summoned by his big boss Mr Sorros.

  56. Two new “phishing” attempts today, one from fake Paypal and one from fake Apple. Not oversophisticated but could trap you if you had actually purchased an app from the Apple store, for example. Duly reported to the companies. I don’t suppose they will comply with my request to find and kill the senders.

  57. Professor Karol Sikora
    Covid-19 kills – but so does lockdown
    19 October 2020, 1:17pm

    Just over six months ago Boris Johnson gave the British people one very clear instruction: ‘you must stay at home.’ It was impossible for anybody to anticipate the unintended consequences of those five words and quite how much pain and anguish they would unleash.

    Through a mixture of emotional coercion and relentless scaremongering millions of people in need of medical help followed the PM’s order to the letter. They stayed, many in intense pain, at home and didn’t seek the care they needed.

    Every Tuesday morning the Office for National Statistics release their weekly information on deaths. For months it has told the same story. Significant, sustained levels of excess deaths are happening in the home every week.

    There are repetitive and draining discussions about grand strategies wherever you look. But thousands more than usual are dying in their own homes and nobody raises an eyebrow. To avoid any more unnecessary deaths, we must start asking difficult questions. We can’t be afraid of the answer. Covid-19 kills, but so does lockdown.

    Politicians have been playing with forces that none of us fully understand. They claim to always be following ‘the science’, but let me assure you, there is no science behind effectively closing down cancer diagnostic pathways for 3 million people or delaying treatment for so many.

    Heart attacks and strokes have dramatically reduced in number over the last six months. The only way this could have happened is that people have chosen to stay at home rather than seek medical care. Mental health has been relentlessly ignored along with other serious illnesses. Deprivation, depression, loneliness, and suicidal ideation continues to spread like wildfire. Dr David Nabarro, WHO special envoy, puts it eloquently: ‘lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never, ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer.’

    No computer model nor brilliant epidemiologist can fully estimate the sheer long-term destruction lockdowns have caused. I don’t think many have even bothered. Fear is a very difficult metric but if we could measure it with any precision, I’m sure all records would have been smashed this year.

    Other countries have struck a far better balance than we have. Death has always been a taboo subject here and evidently our collective ability to balance risk has been severely inhibited.

    Oncologists across the country, myself included, are seeing more and more patients come forward with symptoms which if dealt with earlier, could have been more effectively treated. After seeing terrifying graphs predicting 50,000 cases a day in weeks, would a young mother who found an unusual lump in her breast want to burden her GP or go to a perceived Covid-infested clinic? Would an elderly lady want to risk having a scan in hospital? If you demand people stay at home, don’t be surprised when they do exactly that. Meek attempts have been made to solve this by our politicians, but fear is just as contagious as the virus.

    There are some very clever people in Downing Street, but they’re blind to what’s really going on. Well-heeled professionals with juicy public pay packets and pensions will never have to face the consequences of the policies they are imposing. They can survive another lockdown, but millions of people are now struggling just to keep their heads above the water.

    I won’t have to face the brunt of it, but I refuse to condemn countless people who have no voice to years of economic misery. Excess deaths in the homes will continue, and ignorance will not be an excuse for the politicians who refused to act.

    We know that many people have been genuinely too scared to seek help, but what about those who have? They’ve been met with obstacles every step of the way. I don’t lay the blame at the feet of the medical teams and their dedicated support staff. What they have done this year has been astounding, and I know many of them are as frustrated as I am.

    Billions and billions of taxpayer money has been wasted on dodgy PPE, a failing Test and Trace system and other hare-brained Covid projects dreamt up in the No. 10 bunker. How much money has been siphoned into the coffers of the big consultancy groups?

    Let’s not pretend there’s any semblance of sound financial control when it comes to the virus. So why isn’t usual healthcare given everything they need to get all care services moving?

    Too often the debate is framed as either Covid or cancer. If it chose to, government has the resources and the funding to deal with not only protecting those at risk from the virus, but also tackling every other disease which have killed far more than the virus ever will.

    We’ve proven that this country is capable of extraordinary feats. Let’s build the facilities, hire the staff, test the workers. The solutions are there if we look for them, I find the defeatism from government so depressing. We turned the country upside down for the virus, let’s attack other health problems with the same ferocity.

    These aren’t hypothetical models we’re dealing with – people are dying every day. More and more stories are emerging in the media of patients who have had vital cancer treatments delayed and their prognosis is now terminal.

    Efforts are constantly made to downplay the problem by those who want further restrictions. Not once have I questioned the credentials or motives of those who believe lockdowns are the answer. But it’s a tactic many academics I once respected are far too happy to employ against those who believe a better balance is required.

    I’m constantly told as an oncologist I should get back in my box and leave the number crunching to doom-laden epidemiologists. But you don’t need to have great statistical knowledge to see the damage lockdowns are causing. This is not just an epidemiological crisis – no corner of our lives has gone untouched.

    The full consequences of lockdowns haven’t been properly considered by those who claim to have the answers. If a wider range of voices had been considered from the start, perhaps we wouldn’t be in the utter mess we’re in.

    This is not an argument for a fundamental shift in strategy, those debates have been had. This is a plea for more balance.

    Many seriously ill people stayed at home, they protected the NHS, but it didn’t save their lives.

    1. What a corker of an article. Where did you find it?
      As I walked Spartie this afternoon, I passed our dentist.
      Fortunately – fingers crossed – I’ve been all right, but MB is waiting for a replacement to a crown that broke off. The dentist did make a temporary falsie, but it broke twice so, metaphorically speaking, MB is gritting his teeth and waiting.
      But many people have tooth and gum problems that can impact on the rest of the body. Maybe some of those people quietly dying at home from heart attacks could not get a dental appointment.

      1. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-19-kills-but-so-does-lockdown

        Some stirring comments BTL

        Fudsdad • 4 hours ago
        My utter admiration goes out to Professor Sikora and the evidence-based guys and girls from Oxford who have been repeating their balanced message over the months. Unfortunately those in charge prefer to side with the catastrophists and have lost all sense of proportion with their lockdown mania.

        Fraser Nelson’s Underpants • 4 hours ago
        A friend of mine coughed up blood a few weeks ago and is in a high risk category for blood clots. This is potentially fatal. They dialled 111 and were told to go to A&E, where they would be fast-tracked. So they turned up at A&E and were told they needed an appointment (for A&E!).

        They told the person on the door that they had a suspected blood clot and needed to see a doctor. It didn’t matter, they were told, they needed an appointment. So they rang up 111 again and told them they weren’t being let in. The person on the phone told them that they would try and contact reception and hung up. After ten minutes they rang back and said nobody was at reception but that they would keep trying and ring them back once they had reached them.

        After forty minutes of waiting my friend went home and went to bed.

        Fortunately (very fortunately) it was not a blood clot. And thank God it wasn’t. This is just one story. At this point, almost everyone who has tried to use the NHS in the past few months has one. It is an absolute, criminal disgrace and words can not convey how desperately angry I feel about it.

        1. A nationalised industry has been handed a golden excuse not to deliver the promised service without being blamed for it.

          1. It’s why I won’t join in the crap spouted about our saintly NHS. They have (or not, as the case may be) been doing the job they are paid for.

      1. I met a friend in a shop in town. I was wearing my bandana and she had to check it was actually me before she struck up a conversation. I said if I’d had my dog with me she would have been sure. She said she recognised my hat 🙂

  60. The goats are back! Another five mile bike trip and don’t let ANYONE tell you that Norfolk is flat…{:¬))

    1. Did the goats remember you?

      Good cardio. You’re doing really well on that bike. Does the MR cycle too?

        1. Interestingly, the new Billy was there, studiously ignoring the fillies. I assume he had ” done his bit” and was having a breather!

          1. Of course he was studiously ignoring them he was keeping an eye on you both, as a potential threat.

      2. One certainly did. She immediately to me and wanted her head scratched.

        Yes – the MR insists on accompanying me “just in case”. We have Dutch bikes that she bought when she lived and worked in Holland.

        Not only good for heart – but for lungs – the source of my medical scare. The exercise pumps blood to the lungs and enables better breathing and a stronger “puff”.

        2. I read ‘butch dikes’ rather than the velocipedes you describe. Should I seek treatment?

        3. I need to get new tyres on my (actually MOH’s) bike. It’s yet another thing on my list to do. It would be handy to pop into town and be able to do a decent shop (there are panniers on the bike) without having to get the car out. Trouble is, going into town is fine as it’s all down hill. Getting back with a load of shopping will be the difficult bit!

    2. Took a circular ride from a hotel a few km outside Delft some years ago, about 5 km. It was like that drawing of stairs that go downhill until they meet up again… downhill away from the hotel, downhill parallele to the coast, downhill back to the hotel! How does that work (and this is before the days of electric bikes, too).

      1. Norfolk us up all the way, Suffolk is down all the way?

        Either that or you were pissed as usual.

        1. Ah, but they use grappling hooks to get there – or anti grav boots.

          Goats: terrifically clever beasties.

        2. I thought MR had banned our Bill from going up trees these days?

          Oh, I geddit. You mean the goats {:^))

  61. 325754+ up ticks,
    This is very much on par with asking the kids to get their fingers out of the Nastles condensed milk tin,

    UK Govt to Target Illegal Migrants’ Smartphones with Ads Asking Them Not to Come

  62. We have not watched a BBC drama since series 2 of “Killing Eve”, and that was going West at the end.
    We watched “Roadkill” Episode 1 last night. The star is Hugh Laurie. Quite old for a Cabinet Minister. The entire “plot” was constructed on a framework of links, each of which was more improbable than the one previously revealed. I could forensically destroy every single plot device, but cannot be bothered.
    Suffice it to say that the combination of improbabilities was more than sufficient to drive the Heart of Gold clear across the Universe.

      1. There are, as I type, 47 comments BTL, one of which is in favour. Almost all dislike the poltical pro-Left multi culti LBVGTI bias. I disliked it because it is badly written meretricious trash.

  65. I’m skinnier than Grizzly ! Just weighed myself and i have reached my optimum weight of nine and a half stone. Ta Dah.

    Not only have i a flat stomach i am now moobless.

    For anyone struggling with weight issues…………..stop eating !

        1. The pictures of Nottlers are likely to be unrepresenative, but Grizzly is the biggest of those I’ve seen.

          4. I stopped sewing my name into my pants when I was out of short trousers. Why do people do it now?

          6. Not rubbishing Grizz’s achievement. The man has done well. On any dieting regimen more weight is lost in the first month than in following months. One of the reasons why people revert to their old eating habits. They give up.

            We have two brains. One in our skulls and one behind our stomachs. The one in our skull decides to lose weight and the other one tries to undermine it. It’s why so many diets fail.

            There are so many nerve connections in the second one that it has an impact on the first.

            Grizz has a plan which he has been following. Sticking to it is the most important thing.

          8. The good thing is it hasn’t increased. He can use that as a plateau to then do the ‘plan’ again. It takes discipline to achieve a goal. He will get there if he wants to.

          11. Depends how much you overwork it! And it doesn’t seem to suffer from memory loss! ;@)

          15. Why do you need to ‘hope’? Why are you so obsessed with my weight? I’m not obsessed with your lack of brains, common sense or manners.

          16. Look in a mirror.

            You’ll see a sad reflection of yourself, you humourless ,overweight slob.

          18. Quite happy to dish it out, not so happy getting it back are you?

            Grizzly, a silly little whining child.

          19. Could you stop being a vicious, nasty thug?

            What matters what grizzly looks/looked like. It’s his life, not yours.

          20. Hold on, read the thread in the order it was posted.

            And anyone who constantly posts pictures of themselves, is fair game in my view.

  66. ….. UK–EU trade talks set to resume

    Louis Ashworth: Today’s DT

    Who believes that Britain will cave in?

    Who believes the EU will cave in?

    I do not have much faith in Boris Johnson – but I hope he is aware of the fact that both the Conservative Party and himself will be finished for ever if he climbs down now.

    And I suspect that Carrie will leave – after all the only reason she was prepared to subject herself to Boris’s foul embraces was that she was seduced by the aphrodisiac illusion of ‘power’. Without that power he is just a boring and flabby slob who seems to find it difficult even to string a sentence together coherently.

    1. A bit OTT there Rastus! I know you don’t like Boris very much but your imagination seems to be running riot re his romantic technique!

      1. Good afternoon, Sue

        Do you seriously believe that Carrie was won by Boris Johnson’s, charm, personality and good looks and had nothing to do with his potential political power? And would you also believe that the Duchess of Sussex was attracted to her husband because of his boyish charm and not the fact that he was a prince?

        If you were a betting woman whom would you back to walk out first: Migraine Markel or Carrie Simmonds?

        (I wonder if Ladbrokes are quoting odds yet?)

          5. Still not fair to give her the undeserved gold-digger label in front of the nation though.

          6. Probably, but she was already reasonably successful in her own right.

            Either way, they stayed together until he died.
            That makes her top notch in my view.

        2. Harry is well and truly brain washed and under the thumb. She has managed to separate him from his family and friends. The modus operandi of a ‘Gaslighter’. Ghastly woman.

          Boris has form as a serial womaniser and adulterer. He will dump her when the next bit of totty flashes a smile.

          3. Hope Cove was glorious in 1944, the last time I was there. Prolly full of grockles, now.

        3. Definitely Sparkles! She’s a very unpleasant woman. Carrie seems typically green, wet and pathetic.

    2. 325754+up ticks,
      Afternoon R,
      What surprises me is you still seem to have faith, for many that went out the window with the 9 month delay.

      This latest was a once more being taken to the wire
      once more as if positive action was being taken.

      I will try ONCE more, until you hear the rhetorical door SLAM shut, and SEE a ring of fire upon the waters surrounding these Isles repelling boarders / troops
      …………………..TRUST NONE.

  71. That’s me for this historic day (for making silly remarks on Discurse, that is!)

    I hope you all have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    2. Although similar has happened many times, eg 19:19:19 1919 and will happen again 21:21:21 2121. I didn’t see the first and won’t see the second, so I’ll raise a glass tomorrow.

    3. Am I missing something here? 20:20:20 occurs every day of 2020. There doesn’t seem to be any reference to a day or month in the above numbers.

          1. “According to tradition, on April 21, 753 B.C., Romulus and his twin brother, Remus, found Rome on the site where they were suckled by a she-wolf as orphaned infants.”

          2. Indeed, which is why there were frequent representations of twins suckling from a wolf in Roman Rome.

    5. You have the hour, minute and seconds; plus the year. What happened to the day and the month? 20:20:20 2020 also happened in January this year, and in February, March, April, May, June, July, August and September; and it will repeat again in November and December.

      If you add the day and month to your equation for tomorrow, you will get: 20:20:20 20.10.2020, which rather spoils the sequence.

      [I remember sitting in a bar, in Sydney, at 20:02 hrs on Wednesday, 20th February, 2002. Otherwise: 20:02 20.02.2002. That was unique!]

    8. Er, no, it will happen again tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that….

  77. The Cabinet Office is searching for a £60,000-a-year photographer to help boost the Government’s image. A job advertisement posted this week looks to hire a ‘confident and determined’ photographer who will ‘promote the work of ministers and the wider government visually’. It states that ‘no two days will ever be the same’ for the ‘highly motivated’ Whitehall-based employee who will earn between £54,700 and £60,635 annually. It comes as Boris Johnson’s Cabinet is criticised for making a number of controversial U-turns during the coronavirus crisis.

    Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/18/cabinet-office-hiring-60000-photographer-to-help-boost-image-13441541/?ito=cbshare

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

    2. Poppiesdad, who in a former incarnation was a photographer in many different parts of the globe, said he was a photographer, not a magician.

      1. Some might point out that magicians use wands for cunning stunts and the cabinet on the other hand are a bunch of stunning…..

    3. Nothing unusual about that – their heads are more exposed to the sun than their bodies. Have you never seen a Black with a t-shirt tan?

          1. You’ll be given a treat at the end of the appointment. Might taste a bit odd, but it’s the thought that counts.

        3. When (if) he does – ask him WTF the three minute BP test could not have been done. Go on, I dare you.

          2. Just as well; it would have been sky high and given him the excuse to whack you on to all sorts of nasties.

    2. I’ve just turned myself into a private dental patient, Plum, this afternoon. It turned out to be goodness knows when I would be seen as an nhs patient….
      but as a private patient I can be seen on Thursday afternoon.

      Edit: typo

    3. You should not have to but I bought my own blood pressure tester for Mrs VVOF. Perhaps you could borrow one and post the results with your contact details attached.

    6. Maggie’s only just up the road (sort of). It wouldn’t take her 3 weeks to pop down to Penzance and back to blow up your arm.

    7. I’ve just turned myself into a private dental patient, Plum, this afternoon. It turned out to be goodness knows when I would be seen as an nhs patient….
      but as a private patient I can be seen on Thursday afternoon.

      Edit: typo

      2. I pay Denplan £30 a month. (price per month depends on the condition of your teeth.)

        The only time i have to pay the dentist is for Lab work.

    8. A HAPPY PIC for yer blood pressure, sweetie ! … xhttps://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b7a0bebe157793414f1690629d0f640e1ecdaf3b5138f8642cf1bb81a80f042.jpg
      Its Setting sail on a golden sea: Mousehole, Cornwall (1928), by Christopher Wood – I love it !

  81. Aagghh! I have just gone downstairs to make a coffee and when I came back, the computer had shut itself down via the blue screen of death. Needless to say, after that, Disqus was being more disqusting than usual and it took me ages to sign back in 🙁

    1. Invest in an iPad. It works well for about 95% of my IT work. I have an Imac desktop but use it very rarely and only for the few things that I can’t do on the iPad.

      1. The only downside I have found with disqus on an iPad is that I can’t see who has up/down voted me. On reflection, maybe that’s a good thing!

        1. I find that, if I upvote anyone’s post, it shows me all the other upvoters. I think that it does the same for downvoting but I never intentionally downvote anyone.

        1. So do I but you can have any bluetooth keyboard with an iPad. You can even have a mouse but it is awful to use.

  82. Found out this evening that a friend I usually see at the Proms has just had a hip replacement. I was amazed that he was able to have the op at all but it turns out it didn’t go very well and he’s in a lot pain, poor love. It was to replace a replacement and apparently there was difficulty removing the old one.

    2. It took me some time to get fully mobile after my replacement hip operation five years ago.

      I am now fine apart from the fact that I get horrible cramps in my legs in bed at night. These are not regular or predictable. Sometimes I go for a week with no cramp and then have two or three horrible nights. I try to spend 2 to 3 hours a day working in the garden, I have a weekly physio session with an excellent therapist and I use an exercise bicycle for about 20 minutes each morning when I get up.

  83. SIR – I cannot understand how my neighbour, who lives in the same street, can be in a different COVID Tier.

    Ann O’Mally
    Essex

  86. Goodnight, all. I am giving up the unequal struggle with Disqus – the page keeps freezing, and Mozilla stops responding. Tomorrow is another day; let’s hope it’s more user friendly!

    1. Join the club. My ancient Mac Pro is refusing me the ability to drop and drag files.

      A bloody nightmare but then I am now obliged to upgrade to install the latest Vectorworks v. 2021, to which I subscribe at some cost, and for which my present principal computer is outdated.

  87. Evening, all. Have managed, despite interruptions (again) to finish what I started yesterday, clearing out the dead wood, removing the honeysuckle and cutting back the prunus laurel. Meanwhile, the tier lunacy continues (https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/6174487/fishing-villagesplit-coronavirus-tiers/?utm_campaign=1577119_19%2F10%2F2020&utm_medium=dotmailer&utm_source=Countryside%20Alliance ), churches are increasingly under threat (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8851741/Churches-risk-engulfed-crimewave-campaigners-warn.html?utm_campaign=1577119_19%2F10%2F2020&utm_medium=dotmailer&utm_source=Countryside%20Alliance&dm_i=44G9,XSWV,1MJH5T,47BY7,1 ), there are signs of rebellion – aka thinking for oneself (https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/business/2020/10/19/shropshire-chamber-calls-on-boris-to-apply-five-key-tests/ ) and finally, one for stephenroi:https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/10/18/major-mick-80-bids-to-row-homemade-tintanic-boat-100-miles-for-charity/?utm_campaign=1577119_19%2F10%2F2020&utm_medium=dotmailer&utm_source=Countryside%20Alliance&dm_i=44G9,XSWV,1MJH5T,47C4D,1

    1. Edited to put a space before the final close brackets. It annoyed me, pedantic Virgo that I am, that they appeared to be missing!

  88. Not sure this will work…

    Preview attachment VID-20201019-WA0000.mp4VID-20201019-WA0000.mp45.5 MB

    Apparently it doesn’t so Try “Skullmapping”…

  89. Reports suggest a beneficial effect of the use of heparin/low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) on mortality in COVID-19. In part, this beneficial effect could be explained by the anticoagulant properties of heparin/LMWH.

    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(20)30345-5/fulltext#:~:text=Heparin%2FLMWH%20has%20been%20shown,storm'%20in%20COVID-19.

    This current document, published August 25 2020, suggests that heparin could be used to allay the coagulant effects of COVID-19 and thus constrain the number of patients being referred to hospital and i.c.u.

    On 25th September 2020 I had a routine NHS annual checkup with my local hospital’s cardiac registrar to review my ongoing medication following my hospital admission for a potentially fatal form of supraventricular atrial tachycardia (SVT).

    Having been on subcutaneous injections during hospitalisation to reduce the coagulation effects of SVT, I asked the registrar what treatment the hospital was specifically using for COVID-19 patients and if this was relevant to my medication.

    He said they were using heparin.

    I reckon that the systemic consequences of coagulation through reduced heart ejection fraction as a result of ageing beyond the age of 50 are accelerated by COVID-19 infection. Does this mean that medical professionals are already aware of how the NHS may significantly reduce the need for hospital treatment and the use of ventilators?

  90. I read that celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Taylor Swift and other non-entities are supporting Joe Biden.

    My advice to anyone voting would be to vote the alternative to celebrity trends. These celebrities are morons with some financial interest in the game.

  91. Can’t wait for Minty’s take on this one….

    “The Russian military intelligence unit behind the Novichok attack in Salisbury targeted the summer Olympics before they were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, British spy chiefs have disclosed….”

    By Robert Mendick, CHIEF REPORTER and James Cook

  93. Britain has today recorded another 18,804 coronavirus cases and 80 deaths

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8856233/Sir-Patrick-Vallance-warns-Covid-19-never-away.html

    80 deaths in one day equates to (80 x 14) in 14 days = 1120 deaths per fortnight.

    For a UK population of 70 million that makes 1120 x 100,000/70,000,000 deaths per fortnight per 10,000 population

    = 1.6 14-day deaths per 100,000 of population.

    In 2018 UK 14-day deaths per 100,000 UK of the over 50s population was 4.5

    i.e. 36% of the death rate of a comparable group in 2018.

    1. How many non-COVID deaths have there been? That should include deaths due to the NHS FOAD policy, obviously.

      1. Total deaths for the last few weeks will not yet be published.

        UK average is ~1,680 deaths per day – but there are seasonal variations.

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