Monday 20 April: Care homes should have held sufficient PPE for a possible pandemic

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/04/19/letterscare-homes-should-have-held-sufficient-ppe-possible-pandemic/

1,006 thoughts on “Monday 20 April: Care homes should have held sufficient PPE for a possible pandemic”

    1. Geoff suggested we all come forth to this site; I came fifth (or even 205th) and didn’t even win the booby prize.

      :-))

    2. Geoff suggested we all come forth to this site; I came fifth (or even 205th) and didn’t even win the booby prize.

      :-))

    1. Good Morning Hugh
      It’s very sunny in East Anglia but still really very chilly, birds are singing.

      1. ‘Morning, Ethel. Yes, quite cool here but the forecast is for full sun all week. Personally I would be happy to swap one or two of those days for some ‘organised’ rain, but beggars can’t be choosers…and currently the birds couldn’t care less, if their singing is any guide.

          1. …but not those on Westminster bridge when involved in a clap-along and a spot of extreme VS…

      2. ‘Morning, Ethel. Yes, quite cool here but the forecast is for full sun all week. Personally I would be happy to swap one or two of those days for some ‘organised’ rain, but beggars can’t be choosers…and currently the birds couldn’t care less, if their singing is any guide.

      3. ‘Morning, Ethel. Yes, quite cool here but the forecast is for full sun all week. Personally I would be happy to swap one or two of those days for some ‘organised’ rain, but beggars can’t be choosers…and currently the birds couldn’t care less, if their singing is any guide.

      4. Good morning Ethul. Are you suggesting that I should stop singing today?

        :-))

    2. ‘morning Hugh, the same in the West Sussex Area. The roads are quiet and the little birds, that like our garden, arrived on schedule for their morning peck at the feeders.

    1. ‘Morning, Rik. A WHO top bod was interviewed on Hardtalk this morning. I can’t post a link but it’s on Sounds – World Service – 2:06 am today. Have yet to listen to it properly now that I am fully conscious…but I recall that he is given a hard time.

      Edit: Oops, this was in response to a WHO meme, but either I’m losing the plot or it has since disappeared (probably the former).

  6. Good morning thinkers

    Sunny dry day here, no breeze. No rustlings in our chimney either , despite it being crammed with twigs. Perhaps Jilldaw is sitting on her eggs?

    1. Good morning
      It’s sunny here too but cold with a wind
      Birds are making a racket of a noise and taking no notice of lockdown laws 😉

    1. So those ‘papers’ will just go on making stuff up about these two…no change…yawn.

      ‘Morning, Belle.

    2. Ooh, who’s got the right hump ‘cos someone said nasty things about you – it’s probably called ‘The Truth’.

  8. Morning

    SIR – More than 85 per cent of Britain’s care homes are privately run for profit – it costs an average of £50,000 per year to live in one – apart from homes run by local authorities. The carers at these homes are paid low wages in order to maximise their owners’ profits.

    It is the duty of these homes to hold sufficient PPE to manage a contagious illness should it threaten the lives of their residents. Exercise Cygnus, a simulation carried out by the British government in October 2016 to estimate the impact of a flu pandemic on the country, gave adequate warning to those who were prepared to listen and act. To blame Boris Johnson’s Government for their own inadequacies is hypocritical.

    Martin Gomersall-Webb

    Benigembla, Alicante, Spain

    SIR – There is a crucial difference between a carer in a residential or nursing home and front-line NHS staff. All are simply amazing, but care- home workers will have looked after their residents for months, often years, and formed a real bond with them and their families. Seeing them become seriously ill and die is a real trauma. Though they get excellent care, Covid-19 patients admitted to hospitals are not known to the medical staff.

    Both sectors require the best protection and testing, but I feel that the pressures on care-home staff have been grossly underestimated.

    Estelle Townsend-Smith

    Coxhill, Pembrokeshire

    SIR – NHS staff rightly have priority for PPE and testing, and it has been recognised that care-home workers need the same support. However, the carers who visit private residences to help the most vulnerable seem to have been overlooked.

    My wife has Alzheimer’s and carers visit us four times a day. Other than aprons and gloves, they have been supplied with no special protection.

    Philip French

    Barnstaple, Devon

    SIR – In light of the desperate shortage of PPE, would it not be possible for hospital scrubs to be laundered by the companies who would normally be doing business with hotels and hospitality industry? They must be seeing a sharp downturn in their business and scrubs could fill the gap.

    Christine Hallewell

    Stanford Dingley, Berkshire

    SIR – We have been told that NHS staff and care workers need an enormous volume of masks and PPE in order to perform their duties safely.

    We have, however, heard nothing about how this equipment is to be disposed of. Surely it is potentially both a health hazard and an environmental risk.

    Michael Perkins

    Whitstable, Kent

    SIR – If Lord Deighton has been appointed Britain’s new PPE tsar (report, April 19), what are we paying Public Health England bosses for?

    Charles Penfold

    Ulverston, Cumbria

    1. Just proves yet again governments cannot run anything or control anything apart from walks in the park.

        1. If that circular thingy on a chain doesn’t come with an operating manual they’d be buggered, eh, HJ?
          Good morning to you..

      2. Yo Mr N

        cannot run anything or control anything apart from walks in the park.

        All walking, running etc in Parks banned..

      3. Johnny, there is the world of difference between our current government (majority of 80) and the previous one (“majority” of minus 12).

    2. “Exercise Cygnus, a simulation carried out by the British government in October 2016 to estimate the impact of a flu pandemic on the country, gave adequate warning to those who were prepared to listen and act.”
      The CQC or whatever it is called now should have audited the care homes emergency preparedness plans, including provision of key equipment, personnel and medications, and issued improvement notices as necessary.

    3. The son of one of my neighbours is in charge of a care home. They have had four deaths. He says that the staff find it difficult to deal with death – it may be the firs time they have come directly into contact with it.

  9. Morning again

    SIR – I am amazed that peers have the temerity to ask for their daily allowance of £323 (report, April 18) for virtual attendance of the House of Lords, while the country is coping with this pandemic. Most are over retirement age and have a private income. At the best of times £323 per day, plus travelling expenses and the use of Westminster’s subsidised restaurant facilities, is excessive.

    They should consider the thousands of people who, because of coronavirus, do not even know whether they will receive next week’s money

    Shirley Campbell Brown

    Portishead, Somerset

    SIR – It has already been said that this crisis is bringing out the best and the worst in many people. At one end of the spectrum, £26 million (and counting) in sponsorship for the amazing Captain Tom; at the other, peers of the realm demanding £323 per day to log on to watch parliamentary proceedings on Zoom.

    Graham Creedy

    Uffington, Lincolnshire

    SIR – It is time that members of the House of Lords were properly taxed. A daily allowance of £323 amounts to a wage and, as such, peers should be taxed according to HMRC rules.

    Carole Deacon

    Nantwich, Cheshire

    1. Shirley Double-Barreled – you should not be “amazed” by Peers with their noses in the trough and inhaling deeply. Where have you been all these years?

      ‘Morning, Epi.

        1. I came to this view over years of careful observation and thought. A former anarchist, republican, socialist, and currently a distributist, I could not deny logic. Those people with estates whose history and wealth is the very ground must perforce decide for the betterment of the country and for the people (even if the the people are only collateral beneficiaries).

        2. As I commented on the letters page, an archaic anachronism the old Upper Chamber may have been, but the pre-Blair HoL actually worked a lot better than the current farce we have today and, by the Hereditary Peers’ willingness to take a long term view of matters, acted to correct that one basic flaw of elective democracy.

        3. I’d support that any day. They are a cross section of different people, not just gravy train passengers, and they have a vested interest in Britain because between them they own a large part of it. They made a pretty effective upper chamber.
          Now we’ve got envious little sneaks who have made entire careers out of criticising Britain.

  10. SIR – I live in Delhi, where my family owns 25 restaurants. While they are shut, we are helping the poor and needy.

    The draconian lockdown in India has been a catastrophe for the millions who depend upon a daily wage.

    I note the debate in Britain about mental health and lives versus the economy, but I wonder how people might feel if they were locked down with no money, no food and no hope of any subsidy. For many, this is the reality of coronavirus.

    Jasper Reid

    New Delhi, India

    1. Well, Mr Reid – persuade your government to stop making nuclear weapons and building space rockets and use the money to help the poor.

      1. We really are in no position to lecture to the Indians when HS2 is being pushed forward so that the ancient forests and other SSSIs and areas of outstanding natural beauty can be bulldozed at public expense before the environmentalists can be allowed to object.

        1. Totally irrelevant comment Jeremy- we do not have millions of our citizens living in real poverty.

        2. Jeremy, that is not logical reasoning. Just because our own country’s government has its faults (and I agree with you that pushing forward with HS2 is one of those) is no reason why Bill T should not criticise the government of India for its space programme. Are you suggesting that we should turn a blind eye to Muslim gang rapers of young girls because this country has its own paedophiles?

          1. Why not criticise both? The Indian space programme and HS2 are both expensive prestige white elephants during a time of emergency.

          2. So you’re saying (© Cathy Newman) that Bill Thomas should have posted:

            “I don’t think that India should invest in space travel when their poor are starving because of this pandemic. I also think that we as a country should not invest in HS2 when our own people are suffering because of this pandemic. I also think that our government should abolish all Quangos because they are useless, and the money spent on them could be better spent on our own people. I also think that the government should cancel all subsidies to wind turbines (offshore and onshore) as well as solar panels because I don’t believe that they can produce enough power to justify the subsidies, and any money saved could be used to help our own people in these difficult times. Furthermore I am not happy with…
            NHS management would couldn’t organise a p1ss-up in a brewery
            Salaries to “lefty” teachers who indoctrinate our children
            Allowances to peers in the House Of Lords
            Allowances to MPs to run their offices from home
            [etc, etc, etc, for 10,000 sheets of A4 paper]
            because I think that the money saved could be better spent on British people who….. etc. etc. etc.

            By the time anyone had read Bill’s post (if indeed they could have been bothered to) without falling asleep halfway through the post, then they would have forgotten what he initially was complaining about.

          3. The issue of Muslim gang rapers of young girls demands a separate debate. Unfortunately our own cultural taboos make such a debate impossible. I could try, but might arouse the interest of Plod, which must enforce the policing of crimethink and keep radical thinking down to platitudes.

            I would suggest part of the problem is the hypocrisy of Islam that suggests on hand on one hand that we are all equal creatures of God, and then discriminates between the fidel and the infidel, the latter being fair game for abuse, which can then be denied under Taqiyya. In particular the strong and unhealthy repression of natural sexuality that Muslims share with feminists does not apply when organising oneselves into gangs licensed to rape the infidel untermensch, such as teenage girls barely through puberty spilling out of clubs intoxicated and seemingly up for it with little persuasion.

            We have lost however, with the mania for gender correctness, a code and framework for natural and healthy human courtship rituals within our own culture, and it’s long time we got them back.

          4. I am not interested (at this moment) in a separate debate on Muslims and their cultural taboos. I simply used it as an example of the lunacy of proscribing criticism of another country’s financial priorities just because our own country doesn’t have a pure white record on the topic of finances.

      2. Maybe his parents were fond of Dickens’ last (unfinished) novel, The Mystery Of Edwin Drood?

  11. SIR – I run a small family portfolio of commercial properties that are rented out. Our tenants include several high-profile companies as well as small businesses.

    It did not surprise me that, within hours of the Government announcing unprecedented help with rent and rates for businesses, we had requests (really demands) for at least three months’ rent holiday from our high-profile clients and the March quarter’s rent was withheld. They also made it clear that they would consider further payments nearer the time.

    These companies were trading up until the final lockdown, so would have had rent set aside for the March quarter. I consider this refusal to pay to be both shocking and underhand.

    While the “big boys” are already milking the system for everything they can get, our small-business clients, who are still reeling from the shock of lockdown, are applying for help, but have no idea if or when they will get it

    It will be to the detriment of the country if many small businesses are forced to close. We are already hearing about unpaid invoices for services rendered and for goods delivered before the coronavirus lockdown began.

    We really are seeing the best and the worst in every aspect of life.

    Gillian Brookes

    Poole, Dorset

    1. Don’t get into bed with the big boys. You’ll get shafted. Did you not know that?

  12. The Chinese dragon

    SIR – Charles Moore (Comment, April 17) raises some interesting points about China. I am 39 and expect it to become the dominant economic and military superpower in my lifetime.

    China waited 100 years to reclaim Hong Kong. We should be under no illusion: it is waiting for its moment to seize Taiwan, which it can, in reality, take whenever it wants. Were it to invade tomorrow, what would the West do? We would not go to war in Taiwan’s defence and economic sanctions would be futile. As we have already seen with PPE and testing, we are so reliant on China that any harm to its economy would be detrimental to our own technological and healthcare supply chains.

    So let’s not be surprised when China flexes its muscles. The day it invades Taiwan will be the defining moment that the Chinese era has begun.

    Stephen Fawbert

    London WC1

    SIR – It is fashionable to sit in comfortable Western suburbia and decry wet markets (William Hague, April 14), while supermarkets deliver food to your door.

    However, in hot countries, for people living in remote rural locations, it make no sense to buy butchered meat to take back to a shack with no electricity or refrigeration. It is far better to buy live and kill at home.

    While the wildlife medical trade should certainly be outlawed, wet markets are an important source of protein for millions of people. Lifting them out of poverty through trade will do far more for global health than closing these markets.

    Paul Shone

    Penruddock, Cumbria

    1. Mr. Shone seems to believe that the blessings of China’s murderous political convulsions haven’t delivered the basics of modern civilisation to all corners of the Middle Kingdom.
      Did 50?60? +++++ million die in vain?

    2. China has already taken every thing it required from Zimbabwe.
      Mining as much as was available.
      It’s now happening in northern Australia.
      Most of the beef farmed where the rain forests have been destroyed in Brazil is shipped to China.
      And I expect much of the palm oil where the forests have been decimated in the far East is shipped to China..
      The huge profits of Coporate greed is rapidly wrecking our entire planet.

      1. We happily and gladly join in. How much palm oil did we import 50 years ago? Now, at a rough guess, around 90% of everything in biscuits and confectionery contains palm oil. So does lots of other stuff. Why do we need it now? Because it is cheap. Unless you count the cost of devastated rain forests.
        Bah! This dam Government connives at all of these terrible goings-on.

        1. We don’t buy it gladly – but it is in practically everything, and in the ingredients list it is disguised.

          1. It is. We don’t buy much that is processed. However, I suspect that some of the cooking oil sold as “sunflower oil” is actually “palm oil”. I sent a bottle to our council Environmental Health department to test, but they refused. They say it would cost too much. They ignored my suggestion to look at the online footprint of the producer, a business based in S. Midlands with a turnover of £250m. There are lots of references to their palm oil business.
            I used to use Echo margarine for cooking, then Trex when Echo was discontinued, then I discovered Trex was palm oil. I now use butter only.

        3. I believe Iceland the UK food store chain, will not use anything that contains palm oil.

          1. It has pledged not have any in own-brand products, but has recently said it won’t meet its self-imposed target date.

          2. They said they would not use it in their own label products. Extending that ban has proved very difficult.

  13. “For example, these 12 extremely well qualified scientists do not agree with “the science” being followed by the likes of the British Government. Nor do these 10 extremely well qualified scientists. Oh and these 8 extremely well qualified scientists don’t either.”

    https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/24/12-experts-questioning-the-coronavirus-panic/

    https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/28/10-more-experts-criticising-the-coronavirus-panic/

    https://off-guardian.org/2020/04/17/8-more-experts-questioning-the-coronavirus-panic/

    1. Good morning on this sunny, nippy day.
      These are most interesting views which are unlikely to ever see the light of day in the msm. In China, these scientists would soon disappear.

    2. Reminds me of the days when I was litigating. Whatever the technical situation one could always find “experts” who were prepared to argue for or against…..

      Good day, bargemaster. What do you do with Dobbin when your barge is confined?

      1. Good Morning Mr. Thomas.

        Indeed – “Who shall decide when Doctors disagree”. The Imperial College forecaster has not covered himself in glory with previous forecasts. The 30 scientist listed appear to have have impressive qualifications and experience. One would hope the Dept of Health CMO is cognisant of their opinions and perhaps just as important is in touch with physicians and anaesthetists in charge of ICUs throughout the country and not just the London Teaching hospitals to get a sense of conditions on the ground..

        I’m just about to venture out to check up on Dobbin – it needs to be exercised periodically. I also need to check the mooring lines and to ensure there’s sufficient grease in the stern gland to prevent the boat from flooding.

        Whilst out and about I also need to deliver a cash float to the carer of an 85 year old bed bound friend so she can purchase ‘essentials’.

      2. When I was at school, we were taught the expression
        “When doctors disagree, what is the layman to do?”
        I may have it slightly wrong, but our English teacher made us think, rather than take the quote literally.
        Ooops …. morning, Willum.

        1. ‘Morning, Anne, I heard it slightly different from my Mama, whose Father was a doctor.

          Doctors disagree differ – patients die.

          1. We were taught that ‘doctors’ was a generic term for experts, not just medical men. That was the beauty of Mrs. Lock (can you hear me, Ma’am?); she took us beyond the literal. Not that we oiks appreciated it at the time.

  14. SIR – In this time of lockdown gardening, please remember our precious wildlife, particularly the insects and pollinators.

    Try not to be too tidy, think about nesting and food, let your grass grow a bit longer to let the daisies flower and leave your garden waste to rot. Also, try to let your hedges grow a bit higher so that birds can nest away from the dangers of cats and other predators.

    Jules Macauley

    Whichford, Warwickshire

    1. That’s normal advice, nothing to do with lock down. I hate to hear hedge trimming at this time of year.

    2. Try telling that to the farmers and councils around here in South Norfolk. The hedgerows are trimmed to within an inch of their lives, where they exist. There’s no shelter for small birds at all.

      2. Our neighbour usually cut his hedges at the end of February. Last year, he left them and we had wonderful displays of blossom, followed by berries. This year, they are a bit straggly now, but green and full of nesting birds. I’m looking forward to seeing the blossom.

  15. Our embrace of China was naive and cynical – now is the time to hold Beijing to account. 19 APRIL 2020.

    Back in the days of the David Cameron government, senior Cabinet ministers were presented with the concerns of the intelligence agencies about China. Beijing would spy on Britain, they warned, and steal our military and commercial secrets. And the Chinese would use their economic power to exert geopolitical pressure on us.

    Morning everyone. It wasn’t mean and generous or kind and cruel as well was it? Leaving aside this problem with Antonyms what I really object to here is the collective plural. I wasn’t consulted about stripping the UK of its industry and shipping it to China nor did anyone ask me what I thought we should do about Mass Immigration or the Dissolution of the Armed Forces or the Idiotic Adventures in the Middle East nor what I think is almost certainly going to prove the Great Coronavirus Catastrophe. .

    I and I’m pretty sure it hasn’t escaped others, have noted that the MSM and the PTB only becomes collective when there’s a screw up, or even more often when someone is required to pay the bill either in money or blood. There seems little doubt that in the last twenty years the UK has suffered the worst Governance in its history. It makes King Stephen’s years where “God and his Saints slept” look like a minor glitch in the historic record. The country that survived him has been reduced to a toothless multicultural multi-racial Third World Police State. Now I can’t stop the Government cutting my pension and introducing a savings tax to pay for the fiasco that is presently running but I’m not going to accept responsibility for it or support it either. F*ck ‘em all!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/19/embrace-china-naive-cynical-now-time-hold-beijing-account/

    1. Yo Minty

      Wherever there is a Military base in UK, a Chinese Spy Shop…. ooops takeaway will be close

      1. No need, Tryers; Huawei is the snooper of choice now, and they even get western governments to pay for it. You’ve got to hand it to them…

      2. I don’t think Chinese takeaways will be very popular in the future.
        After seeing what they do to and with dogs. I’ll never buy a take away again.

        1. I have to admit I never choose meat dishes from any take-away or chain restaurant, since they buy halal because it’s cheaper and saves hassle.
          Everything comes with a price tag.

        1. Nah, Turkish Barbers are for Money Laundering and similar nefarious activities.

    2. F*ck ‘em all! F*ck ‘em all!
      The Long the short and the tall….
      Curse all Civil Servants and politico ones,
      Curse all little ‘corp’rals’ and their blinkin mums,
      ‘Cause we’re saying goodbye to them all, as they all make our skins crawl
      You’ll not get a notion from the MSM ocean,
      So cheer up my lads, F*ck ’em all!

      Is that what you had in mind Minty?

      1. Steel is a core industry; it should not be allowed to fall into the hands of a foreign power.
        However, in exchange for government support, the quid pro quo should be control, if not outright banning, of unions.
        The behaviour of the unions after 1945 played a huge role in the outsourcing of vital industries to other countries beyond their greedy and bloody minded grasp.
        By the 1980s, everyone had had enough, and confidence in British industry to control the Red Robbos was non-existent. There was absolutely no faith that a Labour government wouldn’t reverse MT’s reforms.

        1. Like I have said many times before Anne, our political classes eff up everything they come into contact with.
          I remember ‘granchester meadows’
          Stating that British catering and the NHS never buy anything in stainless steel that comes from China.
          Basically it’s not stainless steel, it is of very poor quality.
          I’m sure many of us have examples of this in our own homes.

          1. As I have said before, the Thursday Night Grand Virtue Signalling Exercise consists of banging together pots and pans made in China.

          2. I found an air freshener on our cloakroom. Made in China.
            Tesco…….not that we need it 😉

          4. Do you know who or what he actually was ? He moved to the US. Sadly I believe he died around 2 years ago.
            I had the impression he was a ‘red brick’ academic. He certainly knew his stuff.

          5. I remember his death shortly after his move. Hi comments were always erudite and well thought-through. As I say, he’s sorely missed.

        2. Much of the union disruption was down to poor management. By giving everything up to avoid a dispute, the unions soon learned that they only had to rattle a sabre or two to get what they wanted. Management was a push-over. They also never engaged the workforce in building a stake in their business, so the workforce could see the point in productivity and work – that meant they kept their jobs and got paid. Likewise, management didn’t restrain themselves when it came to pay (and still don’t) – why should the workforce settle for 2% when management, paid already many multiples of shopfloor wage, get 10% or more?
          These issues still exist in the UK. As a general rule, British managers are terrible, with a few notable exceptions.

          1. I agree. But I still say that union involvement in industries that impinge on Britain’s security or economic survival should either be banned or be confined to a very limited range of powers.

      2. Yes. But not the bit of the company in France. The French blocked that because it is a “strategic” industry.

      3. ‘cos British Steel couldn’t make money at steel. A result of Chinese overcapacity driving down prices of commodity steel. Specialist steels are fine – and I guess the Chinese also got the BS speciality steels division too.

        1. The driving down of prices is also a commercial tactic/strategy to gain market share and/or drive competitors out of business.
          The Japanese did this with big diggers. They offered mechanical diggers on the UK market at less than cost, and very much less than the selling price of UK made machines. Lacking any UK Government intervention, the result was inevitable. Only UK name left is JCB.

        2. I would view steel making and power supplies as national interests and should not be handed to foreign companies. Just as the Danes ban foreign ownership of residential property, it requires willpower and I sincerely hope that enough people with that will power have learnt the lesson from the current debacle.
          But – and I am adamant on this – given the damage the unions did to our industries for thirty plus years, they should either be banned or given a very limited and well-defined role in any industrial renaissance in this country.

          1. There are a number of countries where it is accepted that the workers have a stake in the business for which they work. Germany, I think, has worker committees that are represented on the Board. I think that back in the 70s it was nigh impossible for shop floor workers to work their way up to Board level. Problems arise when shareholders/directors and work forget that they need each other and, importantly, the very nature of business will need to continually change to keep aligned with the market.

    4. Me neither. But as Ogga keeps pointing out, people keep voting for the same.
      I last voted for a mainstream political party in 2002, which is awful when you think about it. But I just can’t bring myself to support the stupidity, greed and skulduggery which is all that I see from them

  16. Especially for Minty (but also for all questioning NoTTLers….)

    “On just the same ground I dread government in the name of science. That is how tyrannies come in. In every age the men who want us under their thumb, if they have any sense, will put forward the particular pretension which the hopes and fears of that age render most potent. They ‘cash in’. It has been magic, it has been Christianity. Now it will certainly be science. Perhaps the real scientists may not think much of the tyrants’ ‘science’– they didn’t think much of Hitler’s racial theories or Stalin’s biology. But they can be muzzled.”

    CS Lewis writing in The Observer in 1958. ‘Willing Slaves of the Welfare State’

    We’ve sen a lot of willingness lately ……

    Full piece here: http://liberty-tree.ca/research/willing_slaves_of_the_welfare_state

    [Source – http://www.theblogmire.com/led-by-the-science-towards-a-medical-despotism/ via ZH]

    1. Clever chap Lewis…………………

      “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised
      for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be
      better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral
      busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity
      may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own
      good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of
      their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the
      same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings
      with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of
      states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of
      those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never
      will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

  17. A man and a woman are in a lift.

    The man asks the woman, “Excuse me, can I smell your pussy?”

    The woman was startled. “What did you just ask me?”

    “I said,” replies the man, “can I smell your pussy?”

    Extremely upset, the woman spits out her response, “No you most certainly cannot!”

    “Oh,” the man says. “Then it must be your feet!”

      2. Yo Bill

        An update on Kaiser, the ‘king cockroach’ on the Amethyst

        His latest draft was to HMS Queen Elizabeth II. taking his extended family with him.

    1. Yup. A bit later I plan to load garden rubbish & the remains of the concrete path into my trailer & drive it to the dump – together with bits of scrap iron. That’ll make happy the neighbours, we’ll look less like Steptoe’s yard…

      2. Good morning OB

        Our tips are closed ..We were in the middle of having a spring clean when this disaster hit everyone for six. The waste site closed , people are wondering what to do with garden waste that won’t compost down .

        1. Our son has introduced us to Hippo bags. They are like ginormous garden waste bags. Apparently the largest is the size of a skip.
          The down side is that you have to pay to have them emptied/taken away. Fair do’s to the company; they are filling a lazy council sized hole. Sonny Boy gave us a bag, but we are debating whether we should be paying for a service that the council has stopped but for which it is still continues to take money from us.
          We could start a trend; keep the receipt (and several copies) and knock £150 off next month’s council tax.

        3. Our son has introduced us to Hippo bags. They are like ginormous garden waste bags. Apparently the largest is the size of a skip.
          The down side is that you have to pay to have them emptied/taken away. Fair do’s to the company; they are filling a lazy council sized hole. Sonny Boy gave us a bag, but we are debating whether we should be paying for a service that the council has stopped but for which it is still continues to take money from us.
          We could start a trend; keep the receipt (and several copies) and knock £150 off next month’s council tax.

        4. Makes you wonder what we get for our Council Tax now? Tips – closed. Leisure centres – closed. Schools – closed. Well we still get the rubbish collections I suppose. For how much longer, I wonder. They have stopped the large waste collections so there is more fly tipping.

      3. The good old folks who live in the UK have been filling up the laybys and country lanes with their garbage.
        It’s not unusual.

    2. It is such a lovely day I thought it was a pity to get up.
      .
      William Somerset Maugham

  21. SIR – While William Shakespeare was quarantined during the plagues that regularly ravaged the country during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, he is believed to have penned (or perhaps “quilled”?) Anthony and Cleopatra, Macbeth and King Lear. Perhaps great art will come from this present period of lockdown.

    Robert Readman
    Bournemouth, Dorset

    BTL:

    Donnchadh a’ Ghlinne
    20 Apr 2020 7:18AM

    Robert Readman writes, observing that Shakespeare wrote three of his plays while under quarantine at the time of outbreaks of the plague and optimistically suggesting that perhaps “great art” may come of the present Covid-19 lockdown.

    Given the execrable standard of modern works, in both literature and the fine arts, I confess that I am not quite so sanguine.

    ********************************************************************

    Beware an imminent tsunami of outpourings from Professor Stanley McUnwin of that Ilk

    1. I have no doubt that “Professor” Tracey Emin is working on a masterpiece……

      3. ,Morning, Bob, our beech hedge is still flaunting its brown winter leaves – nary a sign of a green one yet, though the sparrows love it as their daily chat room.

        1. Got a few green patches in mine, should be in full leaf in a week I would have thought.

    3. I started to watch “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on the BBC last night. There were a couple of token white folk in the cast. The play was set in some kind of police state casbah. I watched for around 7.5 minutes.

    4. ‘Morning, Citroen!

      Many thanks for pointing us towards yet another gem from that chap, Donnchadh a’ Ghlinne. I’m looking forward to the day when the DT will publish a volume of his collected comments.

      At the very least, I feel he is deserving of a Pulitzer Prize.

  22. 318365+ up ticks,
    If the airports are still operating surely that means in theory that lock down
    cannot become let loose until the rest of the world has been deemed to be safe.
    Otherwise It could also be seen as once triggered ( first one enters unchecked) as a form of perpetual motion, ongoing.

    In my mind there is a scarcity of political trust among the peoples and some scams are under pressure ie the eu, global heating etc, and must be replaced for the benefit & upkeep of many a lifestyle.

  23. Excellent piece about gormless Williamson by Quentin Letts in The Grimes – I can’t cut and paste but will try to attach a word document.

    And it won’t let me. Bugger. I’ll see whether I can get it some other way.

        1. Me neither. I have seen still photographs of the morons standing with their mouths open looking like rabbits caught in the headlights.

          Time to call these farces off, I’d say.

      2. Goodness knows what Letts would have had to say about Culture Secretary Dowden’s effort on the steam radio this morning.

      4. As your MR will doubtless confirm King Lear dwells much on the theme of the Wheel of Fortune’s inexorable turn. Edgar’s statement rings true that if we are capable of thinking we have already reached the nadir even worse could well follow:

        And worse I may be yet. The worst is not
        So long as we can say “This is the worst.”

  24. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce they will refuse to talk to four UK newspaper groups – but claim the unprecedented move is ‘not about avoiding criticism’. 20 April 2020.

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have said they will no longer respond to enquiries from journalists at four British newspaper groups.

    The couple are adopting a ‘zero engagement’ policy with the organisations but insist it is not a move aimed at ‘avoiding criticism’.

    Los Angeles-based Prince Harry and Meghan say they will never again speak to publications including the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, the Sun and the Daily Express.

    What possible difference will this make? They get it all from Press Releases anyway and the pictures are purchased from Agencies!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8235215/Harry-Meghan-announce-refuse-talk-four-UK-newspapers-groups.html

    3. I spoke to Trash last night

      She said she will still post on Nottlers, under her normal name Pretty Polly

      2. I remember this happening to a friend with whom I trained and whose ex-wife is still a friend.
        His second wife was older and very manipulative and gradually you realised that you hadn’t seen him for ages, and when you met him by chance, you were talking to a very odd and broken man.
        Sadly, he died of kidney cancer at the age of 38 (the additional irony being that wife no. 2 always claimed to be riddled with cancer and played upon his sympathies). She then nipped off to the US and found herself a wealthy third husband.

        1. What enabled her to attract men? Mere physical attraction is never enough to compensate for a foul personality. I am sure that the sad little prince was lured by Migraine’s ‘sexiness’ and failed to notice that this was merely the gold plating on top of the proverbial stool..

          2. She was quite witty and could be good company.
            However, her ace was her ‘cancer’. She was a ward sister and would always home in on young male student nurses and appeal to their chivalrous instincts. For variety, she would imply her first husband was a shiite (he wasn’t).
            She tried her wiles on MB when he did his 3 months on her ward. Sadly for her, MB having had a mother who had used ‘illness’ as a weapon, he was au fait with those tactics.
            The line in mental health between staff and patients is wafer thin: and, in some cases, non-existent.

          4. Lundy Bancroft wrote several good books about controlling men, but the same principles apply with controlling women. The classic pattern is that they pick on vulnerable people, and “help” them to escape from the situation that is making them unhappy, but the price to pay is total obedience to the controller – until they have picked the victim clean and move on to the next one.

        2. I’m convinced my brother-in-law is the same – a controller. The last we heard from my sister was when her husband declined a invitation to our son’s wedding two days before the event three years ago. Prior to that, they shared an email address (now changed), he always answered her mobile (number since changed), family access to Facebook blocked. She bumped into my nephew at the airport some months ago but was hurried away by him before they could talk. Christmas and birthday cards are ignored. This is a man who expected to be waited on hand and foot by her, when she was recovering from spinal surgery. In short, a turd of the first water.
          .

          1. Our ex-brother in law had a lucky escape – my husband’s sister decided he was a controller and left him. He is now married to a very nice woman and we had a long chat on the phone yesterday. Husband’s sister allowed us to attend his nephew’s wedding 12 years ago but we have had no communication from her since then.

          2. It does sound like it. Please do try to keep the communictation channel to your sister open, as the usual pattern is that the controller tells the victim that nobody in their family cares about them, as part of the isolation process.

          3. It’s very difficult when the only channels of communication are controlled by her husband. Sadly, I can’t see her fighting back as she is a very dependent type of person and I almost think she’d trade freedom for unquestioning servitude. Matters weren’t helped when her daughter kicked up a stink when my BiL groped her mother-in-law. He was then banned from their house and, as my sister cannot drive (and lives a way away from her daughter), access to her daughter and grand-daughter is also controlled by my BiL. He holds all the cards unfortunately.

        1. I think the cartoon needs reversing these days. After the brief trip to Canada, she quickly moved on to the USA just before both countries went into lockdown. Perhaps because there is more chance of a film career in Hollywood than in Canada?

    5. There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about.

      [Oscar Wilde]

    6. Meghan just doing what she does. When someone or something upsets her she excises them from her life. Her father, her family, old friends, The Crown.

      She is a petulant spoiled little girl who has never grown up.

      Morning, Minty.

        1. At which point he will no doubt regret not arranging a watertight prenuptial agreement.

          1. As he watches Windsor Castle being dismantled and moved across the Atlantic as part of the “settlement”…..

      2. Good morning Phizzee

        Very well put.

        Unfortunately we all know people like her who are entirely self-centred, who have remained permanent adolescents and seem to enjoy the misery and chaos they cause as they think it ’empowers’ them.

        Harry has made the worst mistake of his life through his own sheer stupidity and he will probably never again be happy and able to hold his head up high.

        2. I am sure he realises it now, but he is trapped because of Archie, and saving face.

  25. Tony Blair on BBC news now ..

    BBC asking him about lockdown easing .. The disease has to be surpressed .. and measures of preparedness by mass testing ..Talking about huge logisitical challenges .

    Actually, he is talking some sense. Our economic consequences could be difficult and severe.

    1. Good morning, Belle.

      ‘….he is talking some sense.’

      My dear girl, are you feeling okay? :-))

        1. And entirely in his own interests just happily, for once, co-inciding with ours.

          1. The last news I heard on Radio 2 had the twin horrors of mentions of two people I loathe – Blair and Branson, and shortly afterwards that sanctimonious prat Jeremy Whine came on wittering about his show at 1200 – our daily signal to switch off or retune!

    4. More chance of eliminating the virus than keeping TB out of our lives. How many waves of this plague can we take.

      1. 318365+ up ticks,
        Morning Kp,
        TB was nigh on eradicated within these Isles until re-introduced via the mass uncontrolled immigration policy parties.
        As long as unchecked incomers ( beaches & airports) are given carte blanche then we are still open to receive the virus, ongoing.

    5. Since he is clearly the decision-maker here, I’m surprised he wasn’t interviewed before.

    6. I don’t like Blair at all, but he’s no fool and his analysis of things is usually accurate.

    1. Refreshed page, or refreshed self?
      :-))
      Morning, Peddy. Hope it’s cheerfully sunny where you are.

    2. Good morning Peddy, mein Freund. As posted last night, may I now wish you a “Good night, sleep well” for when you next retire to the arms of Morpheus. Normally, when I try to do this, you have gone to bed hours earlier. In the meantime enjoy today. It’s sunny and warm and you and Missy can enjoy sitting out in the garden together.

    1. The answer is clear: Mr Khan should work on finding drugs which will turn BAME people into white caucasians. In addition to this they should be given psychological counselling and psychiatric treatment in order to heal their feelings of victimhood.

    3. 318365+ up ticks,
      TB,
      Be better finding out why he was given the position he is in and how he obtained it, and are these positions of power being allotted countrywide.
      If so , and we joined the dots what picture
      would emerge ?

      1. Voter apathy, Ogga. I calculated that fewer than 25% of London voters elected Khan but how to motivate the other 75%?

        1. 318365+ up ticks,
          Morning Se,
          Time will do that, but the 75% plus must suffer first, methinks that common sense is reluctant to return after being much abused.

    4. Mr Mayor: More men than women are dying from coronavirus. The government must collect the data and publish it, so that this injustice can be addressed. And more black athletes can run faster than white ones, just as taller basketball players (whatever their colour) score more goals than short players. The government must collect the data and publish it so that… etc. etc. etc.

    8. Is he trying to B(l)AME us White Folk, far better if he attacked the little yellow people, but that is not on the Isllamification agenda

    9. We know why, Sad Dick – defective genes due to years of inbreeding and poor diet.

      I’m sure that bums-up in the air 5 times a day, doesn’t do much for the constitution either

    10. You’re the Mayor of a big, world class city.
      Just sit the virus in an uncomfortable chair the other side of your executive desk, and Give It A Good Telling Off.
      Oh, and threaten to set the Met on it if it dares to post a hurty tweet.

  28. A random legal opinion I came cross while looking for something else..
    “A sentence of home detention is only available if a convicted person’s offending was so serious that they would have been sentenced to imprisonment: if the sentence is short enough, and the aims of sentencing can still be met by home detention, it can be imposed.”
    So what’s the difference for us?

  29. Apropos of nothing can anyone remember some years ago a TV series about art where they talked about a painting and reproduced part of it showing the way paints/pigments were made at that particular time in history?

      1. Unfortunately not, it was some years ago and I can’t remember whether it was on the BBC or Channel 4. I seem to remember the Arnolfini Portrait was one of the paintings. But I could be wrong – it’s driving me crazy. I did at one time have a programme catalogue about it but we’ve moved more than once since then and it seems to have disappeared.

          1. Morning Sos,

            I could try looking it up in the Beeb database if we had any idea of the title. The one I remember is Tom Keating on Painters, which Anne mentions and that was Channel 4. It was fascinating. Apparently Constable began every landscape by covering the canvas with red iron oxide paint so that the warmth of that hue came through whatever he painted over it. That principle was something I was never taught in art school! The series was packed with gems of that kind.

          2. Good morning, Our Susan – sounds a bit like the effect your new hair tint would give…{¬))

          3. That’s what I’m hoping Bill! Haven’t had the courage to try it yet. Hanging on as long as I can. Will just wear a hat to go out.

          5. Afternoon, Sue.

            That’s very true. Another thing most people do not realise about John Constable was that he never used any blue pigments to make the greens in his landscapes. He primarily used a mix of lamp black and lemon yellow. The resultant mix gives all the wonderful natural shades of foliage on his trees; something that using blue would never achieve.

          1. I used to watch this with the children – a really interesting programme. They could rebroadcast it now – it would be just as good and far more worth watching than the rubbish they usually put out.

          2. I hope you saw Waldemar’s three “Art Mysteries” shown in the last 3 weeks on BBC4 .

          1. We have watched him and Andrew Graham-Dixon’s programmes. The programme I’m thinking of must be something like 15-20 years ago??

          3. We saw that series. I do like him and Graham-Dixon because they just get on with it. What I find really annoying about TV history series is there are always endless long shots of the presenter walking apparently nowhere in particular.

    3. I remember Tom Keating had a very interesting series of programmes on how Old Masters were created.
      As a very successful art forger, he knew what he was talking about.

    4. I’m not aware of that series but here are a few videos from YouTube on that topic that might be interesting.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJVBaCWj-1Y&list=WL&index=51

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIemiM4-5Pw&list=WL&index=49&t=0s

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvlVYWa5i5o&list=WL&index=46

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBzEAt_ynvc&list=WL&index=49

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cahwbEHrZ3c&list=WL&index=50

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cUDDQt7xfs&list=WL&index=47

        1. Iceland wins……….. Six bottles of their finest Oloroso delivered! Sorted…..!

    4. Go to Iceland, Plum. They say the weather in Reykjavik is most refreshing in the spring.

      1. Sorted see below…

        I shall simply go for a walk and return via a different route….

  32. A chum lives in the centre of a small town in Italy. About a mile from her flat is a supermarket.

    Yer Carabinieri won’t allow her to go there to buy food – because there are food shops NEARER to her flat.

    Almost makes one glad to live in freedom loving Engerland….

    2. And even gladder to live in Caledonia, stern and wild, Bill.

      However, I have little sympathy for anybody foolish enough to dwell voluntarily amongst the wops.

      2. “And even gladder to live in Caledonia, stern and wild…”

        Yup, Duncan. As Mrs McBeeton advises: “First, stalk your stag.” :•)

  33. 318365+ up ticks,
    It grieves me greatly to say it regarding these Isles, decency along with common sense left long ago.
    In a decent Country arseh0les of the b liar / clarke calibre would find the only platform they would get would have a noose additive.
    These twisted tw@ts are given a nationwide voice whilst truthsayers are
    suppressed.

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1252165295122374657

    1. 318365+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Why not pay the rate on top of the weekly dole money
      for the indigenous ? In the long run it will work out cheaper for when the picking season ends how many
      foreign pickers will return to their homelands when being on GB welfare is a far better option.

          1. 318365+ up ticks,
            Afternoon GG,
            If Gerard Batten is judged to be in error which is after all a human failing how in all the heavens would / should the treacherous, deceitful , actions of the governance politico’s in comparison be judged ?
            I heard b liar on the radio this morning, still getting a platform.
            clarke following the usual run of ersatz tory party hierarchy, major,cameron( the wretch)
            may ( treachery on stilettos).
            Black comedy.

          2. FFS, Oggers. He’s posted a tweet purporting to be by Kenneth Clarke, which is clearly nothing of the sort. He’s since deleted his tweet, so presumably he acknowledges his mistake. Is your head so far up his rectum that you can’t see this?

          3. 318365+ up ticks,
            GG,
            I conceded the point did not ” to err is human” cover it then, I then posed a comparison question.

          5. 318365+ up ticks,
            GG,
            It is the patter of the well seasoned intercontinental , land & offshore
            ( construction) chap, plus a touch of pikey, my bab.
            Right, just off to take the jook for a toby down the doughy alright.

        1. I thought it was traditional for a disgraced individual to take to his study pour a large whisky and take out the Webley from the top left hand locked draw…

          Weren’t stadiums the favourite places of executions ordered by Juntas?

  34. 400,000 protective gowns that have been procured from Turkey, but are late in arriving .

    I just dont understand why don’t we have the manufacturing base here ..

    Are these gowns made in sterile conditions , are they used in operating theatres .

    I just think buying these resources from across the globe is utter madness.

    We should rely on no one but ourselves. We used to do all this stuff here in the UK.

    1. It’s cheaper to buy from low-wage economies, Belle, and bugger the long-term view.
      Good morning, btw. Sunny day, birds tweeting, cats sleeping in the sofa.

      1. If we lowered the cost of living and the fixed overheads for business by transferring taxation from Council Tax and Business Rates to Income Tax and Corporation Tax, we could afford to pay less and live just as well. It would also help by transferring wealth distribution away from the speculators and the hedge funds and towards those those that make and do things that are worth something. We do this by keeping our currency and prices in general stable, and by keeping interest rates at Inflation + Growth.

        Thanks to the U.S. inspired political theorists, public relations and metropolitan lobbyists, we are doing the opposite and paying for it now.

        1. All the cuddly perks of modern employment come at a price. Maternity leave, longer and longer holiday entitlement, drawn out employment procedures when a company wishes to restructure …. Add in Green imposts on power, constant tinkering by revenue greedy governments, labyrinthine H&S hoops to be jumped through.
          All very nice, but ultimately, someone has to pay and there comes a stage where even a ten thousand mile journey from the other side of the globe becomes more reasonable than running a factory 15 miles up the road.

          1. Good morning, Anne.

            All very true. However, with the advent of robotics in manufacture the human costs in manufacture should fall and more could be manufactured by fewer operatives. Extending that idea and there is no reason why the UK should not be self sufficient in many products that have been moved to countries employing cheap (slave) labour. What an opportunity for Johnson, after all his talk during the election, to set in train a massive programme of modernisation and investment in robotics etc. Sadly, after hearing that >£100 billion is going to be poured down the HS2 drain, will this opportunity pass the Government by.
            On the issue of HS2, many people have been disappointed by this decision. The earlier decisions relating to Hinckley Point and 5G have also received much criticism, in part because of the influence China has in the construction of these major projects. A question that has to asked is: how dependent is HS2 on Chinese production?

          2. Bringing in robots takes investment, often a lot of money. Short-sighted management means that is unlikely to happen.

          3. Long term strategic planning has been sacrificed on the altar of cheap foreign labour. We are currently paying a price, what THE price will be is yet to be seen.

          4. Young’s, who pack fish, send their prawns from Scotland to China to be processed and packed. They are then returned to the UK to be sold in supermarkets.

          6. Yup.
            It’s cheaper to import pretty tasteless, generic apples from Chile & New Zealand in the autumn (their spring, so out of season…) than pick the nice, ripe, tasty Norwegian ones that grow JUST UP THE ROAD! AAAAAAAA!!!!!

          7. I always look at the stalk. If it resembles wire, it has been in storage for months (Golden ‘Delicious’ was designed to be stored for two years).
            At this end of the year, arguably, NZ apples are fresher than English apples stored for 6 months. Look at the stalk and also know your apple varieties.

          9. Very few people nowadays know what a genuine winter apple tastes like. They are one of my favourite foods.

        2. My Brother’s take on this is that everything is too expensive, and we should be paid more. Problem is, without fundamental change in the business models, for “everything” to be cheaper, there are really only two options for business in the UK – move to a cheaper location (like China or Turkey) or reduce the payroll by reduced employee headcount and/or lower wages.
          Fixed costs in the way of taxation are a big load on any business, and they are pretty powerless to reduce them. They could take a lower profit margin, but then that will affect the share price and the dividend payout, and thus many pensions. Not an easy answer, but I believe some strategic thinking is needed as regards crucial industry and competence that must be retained in the country, as once lost, it’s almost impossible to regain. See what happened to nuclear power (I was once part of that) – the UK pioneered the use of atomic power generation, then it didn’t like it, now it’s one of the greenest forms of high-density energy and it needs bought from abroad – design, manufacture, and likely operation as well. No Nuclear Engineering graduates any more. All that expertise – gone.
          So, there needs to be a deep and serious discussion about strategic industries, and strategic jobs, and the implications of this.
          Another example – what if shipping stopped sailing (for whatever reason)? Where would the food come from for all those about 70 million mouths in the UK, now that farming is seen as optional and much of the fertile land being built on? Population control, maintenance of farming competence, and farming capability is essential, to match the requirements to the production capacity. And the other aspects of the farming value chain – fertilisers, machinery and parts, processing, distribution, storage & warehousing…
          Interestingly, In Norway, supermarket workers have been designated as “Key Personnel”, to ensure that we can all get fed. So, key personnel are not just the obvious medical types.
          :-))

    2. Globalism. Companies find it much cheaper to have their manufacturing and production in countries where the cost of living is a fraction of ours. They don’t give a rat’s about the effects on this country.

    3. Mr Bliar and his pals introduced the Minimum Wage, almost as saintly a concept as the (deleted expletives) International Health Service. MW was the final straw for the UK-based textile industry.
      Charities can disguise slave labour as ‘volunteering’ but the private sector is not allowed to imitate that tactic. Meanwhile, there is no minimum wage for the self employed (obviously).
      In countries such as Bangladesh, outworkers produce a vast range of garments. In Britain, single parents etc would regard that occupation as an affront to their dignity, and a hit to their benefits.

    4. 318365+ up ticks,
      Morning TB,
      Think along the lines off “where is the highest concentration of rubber stampers to be found”
      = pass the parcellers ( I know) manufacturing, of-shore.

    5. When I was in training during the early 1970s, we were taken on a ‘school trip’ to a factory near Clacton that made catheters and suchlike medical equipment. I assume nowadays, that school trip would be a week or so to the equivalent town in China.
      Talk about knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.
      Morning, Belle.

        1. We are run by politicians and businessmen with little knowledge of history.
          I know it is looked upon as a ‘soft’ subject, but it does give one a sense of perspective.

          1. Entirely O/T

            I saw your BTL posting on DT letters re:Zoom. Very valid concerns, not so much because of ownership, but because many Zoom conferences are/were being routed via China giving them ample opportunity to harvest whatever data took their fancy. Some companies and all the military now refuse to use Zoom. Zoom’s response has been to put in a ‘fix’ as described below.

            This New Zoom Control Allows You To Stop Chats Being Routed Through China

            https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2020/04/14/this-new-zoom-control-allows-you-to-stop-chats-being-routed-through-china/#57659e84ea8e

            Others on this ‘ere blog would know more about this topic than I do.

          2. It does bother me. Once again, we seem to have gone headlong for a partially understood technology.
            We’ve had battle royal with Zoom Telecomm because elderly chum got herself embroiled with them.
            When we eventually did get through, they were very defensive (‘we’ve done nothing wrong’) and the voices were definitely Chinese.
            All seems to be sorted and the whole saga rendered nugatory because she’s now in a care home.

          3. Life without any knowledge of history or physics is like groping around in the dark. Since the 1980s when the left got control, the state education system has done its best to ensure that most students leave school with no suspicion of either.

  35. Good morrow, Gentles all. Bright blue sky; lovely sunshine and a biting east wind.

    I see yer French slammers are revolting. There’s a surprise.

    1. Good morning…

      They have only been doing it nearly every year since the 12th Century. Cut them some slack !

  36. This was posted beneath the latest Speccie article, and deserves wider exposure.

    New Lines on Westminster Bridge.

    Precedent hath naught we can compare:
    Wet would be he of soul who could pass by
    A sight so sickening in hypocrisy:
    This City now doth, like a garment, wear
    The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
    Restaurants, pubs, churches, theatres, temples lie
    Closed and bankrupt underneath the sky;
    All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
    But yet, last evening at the hour of eight
    I heard a noise that broke the calm so deep!
    No social isolation now, we needs must prate
    On ‘our NHS’ and act as sheep
    By clapping like dull morons, tis our fate
    To find our nation ruined as we sleep.

    Alison Houston (after Wordsworth)

    1. My own contribution – a little doggerel:

      Westminster Bridge on Thursday Night
      All covered from End to end.
      No space between, all packed tight
      Knowing the time to spend.
      Each clapping like something demented
      Really helping what WuFlu prevented.
      Such is the example set

      2. Excellent…old memories stirred up by that, Nanners.
        A minor confession…shortly after joining an insurer when I was 18, one of the more mischievous longer-serving types taught me the ‘art’ of creating such letters, particularly if the policyholder was a stroppy so-and-so. Endless hours of fun setting up the first word in each line (obviously without the bold) and no one ever picked up on the insult. I once saw a letter consisting of 2 full pages of A4 go out, with a lengthy insult embedded. It was pure genius, and better still that it went to a well known firm of union solicitors (not our Bill’s practice, of course).

    3. Another of Alison Houston’s postings (under Tom Slater’s dull article about Corona Cops)

      Alison Houston • an hour ago
      This is why it is so important to fight this battle on our Common Law grounds and our Constitution, our full Sovereignty was restored to us at the end of January, this must be the first test of it. We must not shout hurrah when it is fought on Human Right’s legislation, because the Govt. can get out of that, it must be fought under Common Law. Under Common Law freeborn British subjects cannot be held under house arrest.

      We must not accept the premise that scientists have the right to dictate government policy. We did not vote for scientists, remember Tony Benn’s 5 questions. Once we accept that the Govt. has to take the advice of scientific experts rather than make moral, political and ethical decisions, based on all kinds of other ideas as well, we have accepted for example the ‘ Climate Change Agenda’ and all the garbage that goes with that. We have to reject the very principle that the government must act on the advice of experts in any given field, to the exclusion of all other considerations. Scientists are just as capable of being politically motivated as anyone else and have their own agendas. Neil Ferguson looks like a member of XR, who happens to have shaved for the duration of his present time in the limelight.

      Our Common Law Constitution trumps Acts of Parliament. Every time a case goes to trial the legislation which underpins it is tried along side the criminal and can be found wanting, ie unlawful. If this legislation is not found unlawful, then any extreme far left or far right government with a large majority who can get such draconian measures through both houses will do so again. Once the idea takes hold that all there is in our system is parliamentary legislation our common law will wither and die. We will be left with the republican system Jonathan Sumption pretended we already had in his Reith Lectures, one in which the Queen was a mere nodding dog and all there was was the Two Houses of Parliament and the Judges, who could examine law but not invent it. To some extent this dreadful state of affairs might technically have been the one under which we were living before Jan 31 this year, although the Common Law Constitution cannot and has never been repealed,but now we have full sovereignty again and we must make full use of our ancient freedoms and protections and make the law serve the Sovereign people.

      2. I like that very much. I find it quite amazing that the public have taken up the “stay at home, only go out for essential shopping, etc. etc.” with such alacrity. And if you meet somebody coming the other way now they will step into the road rather than break the 6ft social distancing edict.

          4. Cyclists are a law unto themselves Geoff. They may have a rude awakening when life returns to normal though; at the moment in our road they’re completely ignoring the lines in the road, cycling right on the other side, just presuming there will be no other traffic. Parents with their kids too.

            Hope you are well and have some sort of help with shopping rather than walking 6 miles I think you said?

          5. Afternoon, V. Lately I seem to be managing to grab the odd Ocado slot, so I won’t starve anytime soon. The nearest shop, and the nearest bus stop are both1.5 miles away, i.e.a pleasant stroll. I’ve noticed that pedestrians will cross the road or throw themselves into the nearest hedge to maintain social distancing, but sweaty panting cyclists prefer to hog the kerb, and with the narrow (or non-existent) pavements around here, that puts them within a couple of feet. This morning, while waiting for traffic to clear so I could cross the road, a Lycra lout decided that he wanted to pause for a rest on the exact spot where I was standing, and muttered something about keeping my distance. My response is unprintable.

          6. I’d (accidentally of course) ensure that they got knocked into the road, where they belong – especially the gutter.

          7. I live on a cycle route. Some of the self-centred Lycra-wearing tw@ts around here seem to think that means they have priority use of the highway, to the exclusion of all other road users.

          8. That’s normal behaviour for cyclists, surely?
            I’ve come across them on the wrong side of the road several times recently before lockdown. They seem to think that if they keep very close to the edge, nobody will notice them.

    1. Why would one want to insert wax in one’s ears – unless to drown out the sound of clapping?

      1. More to the point: why do people get bored?

        Boredom is nothing more than the direct result of a lack of imagination [a.k.a. a lack of intelligence].

        1. The benefits of boredom have been seriously neglected and overlooked in education.

          When I was at Blundell’s in the 1960’s tea ended at 6.15 and first prep started at 7.15. The hour from 6.15 – 7.15 was called Quiet Hour and if one stayed in one’s house one had to remain quiet – seated at one’s desk with no radios, record players, television or any other distractions allowed – only reading or schoolwork could be done.

          This was intensely boring for many of us – but there were a great variety of other things available outside the house. None of these things were compulsory – one made one’s own choices.

          I developed an interest in woodwork and went to the workshops two evenings a week and on the other evenings went to the swimming pool, cricket nets, five courts, squash courts or gym – or the school library where we could work on producing house magazines or writing articles for the school magazines. The music school was also open during Quiet Hour so one could practise or rehearse if one was in a school or a house play or revue and the chapel was always open and there were Choir practices there twice a week. One could also visit the pottery, art school and metal workshops and all the things that needed adult supervision were supervised by the teachers.

          Boredom opened many doors and many interests for me which have been of tremendous benefit throughout my life!

          1. …it teaches one to look outsde the box rather then ‘go with the flow’ ……………

    2. Argh! I just ate a dried date that looks exactly like that!
      I think I’m going to be sick… :-((>

        1. A plastic bag of them lurking since God knows when, on the dining table, and I wanted a snack… Not as good as fresh, but better than chewing gum.

          1. Oddly enough, I found a pack of dates in the freezer the other day. They tasted okay when I ate them and I’m still here 🙂

  38. Morning all, sunny skies 😊
    Germany sends China a 130 billion pound bill for compensation claims over Coronavirus. Beijing is not happy.
    First in the queue eh.
    I wonder how much our claim will amount to ?
    😉

      1. That’s what the article said, you can do your own calculations to alter it 😊

          1. Daily Express Joseph, it’s the only British news paper I can access on my phone with out selling my soul to the cookies devil and all the other internet cr*p infesting our lives. 😕

    3. More likely to award them future contracts to build and manage our infrastructure. Does anyone else have reservations about our Government’s rather too close association with China?

  39. 318365+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Face it, as now must happen, someone must be capable of working out
    the % of beds, ventilators, surgical gowns,needed in a war game worst scenario planning politico group for X amount of NI paying peoples, and
    keep that amount at hand.
    At a push get the person responsible for procuring the liquor for the HOC bars, no shortages there I wager.

    May one also ask do we have this problem with armaments as in, plenty of bows but no arrers ?
    That brings to mind aircraft carriers minus aircraft.

    Is there a planning department in the Hoc or has it been made redundant
    on bringing rubber stamping into play.

    1. Morning Ogga

      Don’t you remember when Blair was PM, the army went to war with useless equipment , and some even had to wear their own shoes in battle?

      1. But do not forget, visiting ‘pollytishuns’ were given protective clothing, taken from front line troop, who died because they were not wearing it

      2. 318365+ up ticks,
        TB,
        I do remember the sergeant who gave his flak jacket to another resulting in him being killed.

        1. They probably still do.
          https://www.silvermans.co.uk/

          I’d recommend their Walking Out Shoes, sold by them as RAF DMS SERVICE SHOES.

          “https://www.silvermans.co.uk/collections/footwear/products/raf-dms-service-shoes?variant=19818757062710”

      4. I was buying my own woollen socks in the 70s because the Army wool/nylon issue ones were useless.

  41. SIR — I live in Delhi, where my family owns 25 restaurants. While they are shut, we are helping the poor. The draconian lockdown in India has been a catastrophe for the millions who depend upon a daily wage.

    The debate in Britain is about mental health and lives versus the economy, but how would people feel if they were locked down with no money, no food and no hope of any subsidy? For many, this is the reality of coronavirus.

    Jasper Reid
    New Delhi, India

    Tell me, Jasper Reid (funny name for an Indian), why the hell should I feel sorry for the population of India, the country that has the most out-of-control, profligate, reckless attitude towards breeding on the entire planet?

    The majority of the Indian population has been suffering terribly for decades, from a complete lack of resources, paucity of food and potable water, effective sanitation and proper shelter. Yet they continue to breed as though there were no tomorrow (which might turn out to be the case) in a headlong compulsion to become the most populous country on the planet.

    3. Good morning,Grizzly

      When I read the letter earlier I thought
      ‘Aaahh…….Here is one for Grizz

      You never disappoint!! :-))

      1. But not in breeding, Joe.

        Look up the respective population figures for those countries versus India.

        1. Just had a quick Google, according to which SSA ‘s population is growing at 2.8%pa, India’s at 1.2%

        2. Africa is projected to reach 4 billion by the end of this century….
          And about a third would leave if they could.

    5. Here you go, Grizz
      https://www.futurehope.net/assets/files/Governance/India%20Trustees/jasper-reid.jpg
      Jasper is the founder of IMM who build consumer brands in international markets – for example, the Wendy’s and Jamie Oliver restaurant chains in India. Jasper studied English Literature at the University of Oxford and has worked around the world in Airlines, Consulting, Outsourcing, Railways, Investment Banking and Food. He is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Business India, Economic Times and other publications. Jasper is a keen cook, gardener and lives in New Delhi with his family.

      1. Thanks. He’s obviously seen a fast way to make his fortune: feeding crap (J. Oliver!) into 1·1 billion mouths.

  42. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/309332

    Close the borders petition:
    “Petition
    Close the Borders of the United Kingdom to Prevent the Spread of Coronavirus.
    We call on the Government to close the borders of the United Kingdom for all but essential travel excluding imports of supplies and medical equipment.

    More details
    Boris Johnson has introduced many restrictions on life in the UK but has not closed the borders to countries that could still pose a threat via transmission of the virus: on the plane, airport or other public spaces even if symptoms are not present.”

    This y forgot to mention the boats coming across from France.

    1. 318365+ up ticks,
      Morning Ims2,
      I keep in mind that johnson was also known to say that
      an amnesty could be an answer.

  43. Richard Branson is pleading with the Government to bail out his airline saying it is close to bankruptcy. He is not having much success with a similar plea to the Australian government. I have no sympathy for this man. BBC Radio 4 news.

    2. Why doesn’t he use the money he’s got stashed away in the Cayman Islands?

      1. They had better bl**dy not give him the money. If the airline folds, it’ll be tough on the employees though.
        Virgin has been operating at a loss for several years. Branson says his £billions are tied up in other companies – how can he invest in other companies when the ones he has lose money? He should have kept himself some available funds for a rainy day such as this.

  44. Trump Calls FBI ‘Human Scum’ For Investigating Russia Ties To His Campaign. April 20, 2020 7:57 a.m.

    Trump crowed that “now the tables are turned” and the need to “investigate the investigators,” referring to a U.S. Attorney John Durham’s current investigation into the FBI’s Russia probe. Attorney General Bill Barr had directed Durham to open the investigation.

    “These were crooked people. These are bad people. These are very dangerous people,” Trump told reporters. “You know what they are though? They’re scum. They’re human scum.

    Hmmm. Donald being uncharacteristically reticent!

    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-call-fbi-human-scum-investigating-manafort-flynn-stone-russia-campaign

  45. Rastus feels he’d like to do what a number of you have already done, which is create a new Disqus account. Those of who are au fait with this, please could you give me some advice on how to do this for him?

    Disqus won’t let me create a new identity using the same email address. Do I therefore need to delete the current Disqus account? And if I do, will that then delete all Rastus’s previous posts, or will they remain visible?

    Or should I just create a new email address on gmail and get on with the thing that way?

    Thank you!

    1. If that post is directed at me, Caroline, then you’re wasting your time. I understand much less about creating a new identity than Rastus! But good luck, ‘cos there are a lot of brainy technophiles on here.

      1. I believe that Rik changed his name and avatar because his upticks had been reduced to zero as mine have also been. Apparently having no upticks restricts the ability one has to post on other Disqus sites.

        Caroline has the brains in the Tracey Family so she usually helps me with computer things when our brainy son Henry toils away in the computer business in the UK.

          1. Mine are slowly climbing back up again, having lost around half.
            I created another account, but can’t remember the password….

        2. I think this business of not being able to post on other Disqus sites is a bit of a myth. Since my upvotes crashed, I’ve had no problems with commenting or voting on other D. sites.

    3. Hi Caroline,

      I created a new account with the same name and initially the same avatar but a new gmail address. At first the problem was that Disqus didn’t send the confirmation e-mail but eventually it did. My old account still exists with the votes well into minus figures now but the new one appears to be safe from the bot.

    4. Hi Caroline,I simply created a new hotmail email acc and used it to log into discus and hence here

  48. Chinese people bred huge wild RATS for their ‘nutritious’ meat, came up with dozens of ways to cook them and celebrated ‘100 reasons to eat them’ – before they were banned due to coronavirus. 20 April 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0aa0f0400daf734178d54871ab7fb0584d7bc076dddac1952929eb1234fcd53.jpg

    For many people, rats are unwanted guests in the house. But in China, they can be a delicacy on the dining table.

    Chinese bamboo rats, a possible coronavirus carrier, have been a sought-after food source in the country for centuries and hailed for their ‘nutritional value’.

    Tens of thousands of farmers raised them, chefs cooked them in dozens of ways and web users celebrated ‘100 reasons to eat them’ – until the pandemic brought the trade to a standstill.

    Obviously people who live this close to the wild must always be in danger of contracting some infection or virus. The only real way of preventing some other epidemic is to bar them from eating anything outside the conventional farming food chain!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8233427/Chinese-bred-huge-RATS-meat-celebrated-100-reasons-eat-coronavirus.html

    1. They’re also well on the way in wiping out tigers and rhinos for their “medicine.”
      All the charities who fundraise to save these species never mention the reason why the poachers are killing them.

        1. I hadn’t, but didn’t want to think about it.

          As the UK and too many other countries are kowtowing to China, we’re compromising all the advances we’ve made over decades and centuries, e.g. animal welfare. I’m disgusted with and despise our leaders.

  49. Hello, all my Nottler friends!

    And here I am with my new avatar and properly capitalised sobriquet!

    The old Rastus had all his upticks circumcised but do please feel free to start my new ball rolling by giving me an uptick or two!

        1. Oh i’m sure he will find something to complain about. It’s his raison d’etre.

    5. Welcome, newcomer!

      Could you ask your delightful wife to explain – in simple language – exactly what she did to create your new persona – step by step?

      1. My dear Bill, of course!

        Step one: create a new gmail account. For this, go to http://www.gmail.com and follow the instructions for creating a new account.

        Step two: create a new disqus account. For this, go to http://www.disqus.com, click on “Get started” and set up your details, giving your new email address that you have just created.

        Step three: go back to your new gmail account. You will see an email from disqus asking you to “verify your account”. Click on the link in this email, which will take you back to disqus, logged in under your new identity.

        Step four: go to your Profile settings and upload a picture for your avatar.

        The whole process didn’t take me longer than the time it took for Rastus to light the fire.

        2. Thank you, Caroline.

          Step one was simple.

          Step two – impossible. As soon as I clicked on ” get started” it immediately came up with my existing account – and there appears to be no way of creating a NEW account.

          I’ll go and have a lie down…!

          1. Before you go, Bill: at the top of the disqus.com welcome page you will find a tiny little square with your picture. If you click on the arrow next to this picture a menu will come up that will allow you to log out of disqus. You can then “get started” and go ahead.

    7. For a brief moment I was tempted to break my habitual approach to them and give you a down vote, just to get you back into the swing of minus votes!

          6. Good morning P-T

            I always enjoy the songs you post here. Do you also have disreputable songs such as Cats on the Rooftops, Cats on the Tiles in your collection?

            Here is a verse from this disgraceful song which I have put under a spoiler screen so as not to offend those who are likely to be offended

            The donkey is a steady bloke
            Who very rarely has a poke
            But when he does
            He lets it soak
            As he revels in the joys of fornication.

          7. Good morning P-T

            I always enjoy the songs you post here. Do you also have disreputable songs such as Cats on the Rooftops, Cats on the Tiles in your collection?

            Here is a verse from this disgraceful song which I have put under a spoiler screen so as not to offend those who are likely to be offended

            The donkey is a steady bloke
            Who very rarely has a poke
            But when he does
            He lets it soak
            As he revels in the joys of fornication.

        2. 318365+ up ticks,
          Rest assured PT, I wake up singing and my sense of humour was instilled in me at an early age, would never have survived as an international tramp ( construction) without it.

    2. Lighten up with a Mike Myers spoof?

      He’s very close to being the most unfunny man in cinema.

      1. Definitely.
        Teacher on LBC this morning scoffed at the suggestion that the schools should remain open for part of the normal summer holiday period. “We’re not contracted to work in the summer holidays” she said. I’m guessing she still gets paid though….

  52. Our embrace of China was naive and cynical – now is the time to hold Beijing to account

    NICK TIMOTHY

    Back in the days of the David Cameron government, senior Cabinet ministers were presented with the concerns of the intelligence agencies about China. Beijing would spy on Britain, they warned, and steal our military and commercial secrets. And the Chinese would use their economic power to exert geopolitical pressure on us.

    The ministers listened politely, but failed to heed the warning. As one senior attendee summed up, “China is going to do all this anyway. We might as well take their money.” And so a cynical bargain was struck. Britain would win foreign investment in its economy, but place itself at the mercy of a brutal and autocratic government. The “golden era” of relations between the two countries – as Beijing insisted on calling it – was under way.

    Even its advocates called the policy “Operation Kowtow”. But the Treasury got what it wanted, and the investment kept coming. Trade between Britain and China more than doubled in a decade, while last year alone China invested more than $20 billion (£16 billion) in Britain. From the new nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point to the rollout of 5G, Chinese investors and companies have been at the heart of our most important recent infrastructure programmes.

    And yet the decision to go “all in” with China was not only a matter of finance. Understanding that this would be “the Asian century”, Mr Cameron’s chancellor, George Osborne, decided that Britain should make itself China’s best friend in the West. Just as Harold Macmillan had perceived that, as British power declined, we should play Athens to America’s Rome, Mr Osborne thought he could pull off a geopolitical pivot that would strengthen Britain for decades to come.

    This judgment – powered by a curious mix of arrogance, naivety and cynicism – has been proved foolish. Chinese investment has come with strings attached. It has bought British silence as China abrogates its treaty responsibilities in Hong Kong and incarcerates one million Uighurs. British ministers refuse to meet the Dalai Lama and, like other Western countries, refuse to recognise the independence of Taiwan.

    China’s Hinkley deal grants its General Nuclear Power Group a contractual right to “progressive entry” into Britain’s nuclear energy facilities: after Hinkley the Chinese will gain a deepening operational role at Sizewell and Bradwell. With 5G, inviting Huawei into our telecoms infrastructure risks industrial espionage and other security threats. And the decision to go with Huawei, just like Britain’s choice to become a founder member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, has alienated our security partners.

    So there are several good reasons why we cannot go “all in” with China. It is the principal strategic rival of the United States, our most important ally. It is surely now obvious that China is also a strategic rival to the West as a whole. It is an autocratic and oppressive state, with wildly different values and interests to our own. Its policy towards Asia, Africa and elsewhere is inevitably imperialistic. And its modus operandi – setting debt traps for countries to gain leverage over them and engaging in mass industrial espionage – is a danger to our interests and those of our allies.

    Already, the leverage we have allowed China means British ministers and officials come under pressure to respect Beijing’s wishes in forums such as the United Nations. And we are not alone. China seeks to control the votes and voices of countries in all the world’s institutions. Most notably, given recent events, it has successfully manipulated the World Health Organisation.

    The pandemic, for anybody still in denial about China, ought to be a wake-up call. Since 2002, virologists have warned that the viruses in horseshoe bats, and the Chinese custom of eating exotic mammals and using them for traditional medicines, was “a time bomb” for the world’s health. Yet China did nothing to limit the danger. When the virus emerged, it silenced the medics who tried to blow the whistle. It allowed millions of people to leave Wuhan, making the virus an international danger. It left other countries guessing the characteristics of Covid-19. Now it is using the crisis to round up democracy activists in Hong Kong, claim the coronavirus began in America, and attack Britain for its “poor epidemic control”.

    This is the reality of the “golden era”, and if some good can come of this appalling crisis, we need to reset our relationship with China. Sceptics will say there is little we can do. But this is nonsense: as leaders of other Western countries, including the French President Emmanuel Macron, have said, there is plenty that can be done.

    We can start by reversing the decision to allow Huawei to run parts of our 5G network, and work with allied governments to strengthen Western telecoms capabilities. We should restrict the role of Chinese companies in our critical national infrastructure. We must build greater resilience and more state capacity to protect us from danger. In particular, the coming defence review should reflect China’s threat to our interests.

    We should lead the reform of international institutions, giving the world’s growing powers, such as Brazil, India, Indonesia and Mexico, the global voice they deserve. We should lead the creation of new global bodies to ensure peaceful economic competition between East and West. And we should help to establish a new forum in which democratic governments can work together to regulate cyberspace and technologies like artificial intelligence.

    We should insist on an independent international investigation into Covid-19, so the world can learn the truth. We should build new alliances with countries – such as Japan and South Korea – that share our scepticism about China. And we should follow Tokyo’s lead and provide financial assistance for companies bringing production and assembly work back home, or in some cases to other low-cost countries such as Malaysia, Poland and Portugal.

    When the worst of the pandemic passes, the sham of the “golden era” must give way to reality. We must be more assertive in our defence, and China must be made accountable to the world.

    Nick Timothy is the author of ‘Remaking One Nation: The Future of Conservatism’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/19/embrace-china-naive-cynical-now-time-hold-beijing-account/

    1. This is the wazzock who destroyed the Tory majority and wrote the irresponsible, leftie, “manifesto” under Treason.

      A very long period of silence from him would be greatly appreciated.

    2. And apart from WW3, just how do you think we, or anyone else, can actually hold China to account?

      1. Can’t be done. What could and should be done, is to stop relying on China for goods and services. Otherwise sooner or later, countries will end up completely under China’s thumb due to dependence on Chinese companies for all their critical products. Which of course is what China’s goal is. They are already a huge supplier of medical products, including many of the generic drugs in use by health providers in the West.

        But once this scare is over, companies will go straight back to outsourcing to China to “be competitive” – and generate fat bonuses for the execs.

        1. Hi jack, saw your post come up while I was typing mine, but didn’t see the contents until I had posted mine.

          Apols for inadvertent duplication, but I think it is indicative of our thinking generally.

          1. No need for apols. As you say, same thinking. And about as much confidence anything will get done.

            In terms of the competitiveness thing, it gets packaged in different ways. Back when I was still working, my then employer came up with the phrase “We need to leverage the global talent and resources open to us” – or in English, we are going to outsource and bring in Indian contractors. And they did. Lots of layoffs resulted.

          3. My previous employer did the same. Ultimately a product is only as good as the cheapest component – the weakest link, as it were.

        2. We need to stop the Green scam, to get energy prices down.

          Look elsewhere for goods, I’m sure China doesn’t have a monopoly, and accept that some prices will rise.
          Bring back vital industries, like pharmaceuticals.

          Consider stopping accepting Chinese students in high tech subjects in our universities.

          There are some things we can do to reduce dependence on them, but it’s too late too be talking about holding them to account.

          1. Re. university entry, universities are charities – i.e. subsidised by the British tax payer. Yet, because of greed, universities often fill courses (e.g. medicine) with foreign students and turn down indigenous students with higher grades.

            They should no longer have charitable status – they have become businesses, no more, no less. As for Common Purpose, how the heck that got, let alone keeps charitable status is beyond belief.

          2. Yes. The Sultana worked in a University. Many undergraduates and almost all PhD/Masters students were recruited from outside of the EU because the fees are very high. Also many of the students are State-sponsored so the fees are guaranteed. Universities send high-powered recruiting teams to the Middle East (Saudi etc) and to the Far East, especially China, in order to attract students.

          1. 318365+ up ticks,
            GG,
            Common sense really would dictate medication delivered next day & medical gowns I would think.
            I have no doubt they having their finger on the pulse, would know & approach every sweat shop in England, do a deal in the morning & deliver tomorrow.

          1. It’s a start and something that is within OUR power to achieve, rather than the government’s.

          3. Not to be too negative, but I almost defy you to find anything other than food that doesn’t have a Chinese tentacle in there somewhere.

          4. Look harder! There are still a lot of electrical goods made in Europe. A lot of the plastic tat we don’t even need. At least we can reduce the amount we buy.
            Of course if we are successful, they will just start repeating their Italian strategy.

          5. I agree, but as I note below:

            Are you completely confident that none of their materials, rents, IT
            support etc. were not made in, sourced from, or paid to Chinese
            companies?

          6. Fair point. Given the Italian experience, we are going to have to be a lot more suspicious from now on.

          7. Where can I buy a mobile with no connection to China? A laptop? A desktop? A car? A TV? A Kindle? A microwave oven?

            You simply can’t.

            China have played the international trade game perfectly. Even today you can still get 8 to 10 Chinese workers for every British worker you can afford. China makes all the components that the West needs. Resistors, capacitors, magnets, coils, wire, integrated circuits, printed circuit boards, diodes, engine parts, brake discs, brake pads, catalytic converters, motors, pumps, and so on.

          8. My riding boots were bespoke by a chap in Oxfordshire and my saddle was made by a saddler in Cheadle from English leather 🙂

          9. Are you completely confident that none of their materials, rents, IT support etc. were not made in, sourced from, or paid to Chinese companies?
            };-O

          10. Yup. They didn’t do IT (no email, no website, the boots were made from a tracing of my foot and measurements by tape measure and the saddle was a rebuild of a 1930s one – only English leather because of the quality for both).

          1. No, they may make everything we want, but that isn’t quite the same. We need to bring the manufacturing of things we need in house.

        3. Just imagine the things you couldn’t buy. Just about anything containing electronic components for starters. Your car’s engine management system probably came from there too along with many of the parts. Anything with a strong magnet. Anything with a lithium ion battery.

          China is firmly embedded in global supply chains.

      4. We can’t. We can just stop their interference in our industries and markets. But we won’t; it is a puzzle why not. We are told that if so, China then “retaliates” by saying we can’t export to them. But China threatens us even if we are not holding it to account – apparently there was were some threats by the Chinese in order to be given contracts like 5G. If they threaten our exports to them in order to gain contracts, what do we lose by expected retaliation – they’re already doing it.

        So we stop exporting to China. Those exporters will have to export to somewhere else. The Chinese already receive advantage by threats – we have little to lose. Certain exporters might. Plus in all likelihood many friends or members of government and the elite generally. Tough. It’s time to look after the country, not their greedy selves.

        And then I woke up…

        1. Trade with China is very one sided, hence their massive balance of payments surplus.

          4. A surplus they use to buy up businesses in the West. They do this by picking out enterprises that have intellectual property, patents, and expertise and then taking over. The valuables are moved to China.

          7. As you would expect the service economy has a surplus with China in services and the manufacturing economy has a massive surplus in goods.
            We are a service-led importing nation now. We’ve had a constant trade deficit since 1984.

          1. Getting our own house in order is the biggest hurdle – telling China where to go would be a doddle if we had done that.

          2. 318365+ up ticks,
            Afternoon HL,
            Now there’s a thing, so simple, why has it not been tried especially in the last two decades?

          4. 318365+ up ticks,
            Afternoon Ptv,
            That is an astounding revelation that could cause a flutter in the English language, which in turn could cause an earthquake in Brazil, more bloody problems.
            Otherwise Peddy if it has caused offence then I will be filled with remorse, and weighed down with sorrow.
            PS, will rectify ASAP.

      5. I saw in the German media yes’day that the German govt has sent China a £multibillion bill. Always the optomists

        2. We never send anybody a bill – we just forgive others’ debts (e.g. Germany after WWII). Do we get thaks? Do we get acknowledgement? Nope, nien, non!

        3. We never send anybody a bill – we just forgive others’ debts (e.g. Germany after WWII). Do we get thaks? Do we get acknowledgement? Nope, nien, non!

    4. What a terrible article.

      ” It is an autocratic and oppressive state, with wildly different values and interests to our own”

      So is Saudi Arabia who we bend over backwards for regularly and turn a blind eye to the atrocities that go on there.

      “Most notably, given recent events, it has successfully manipulated the World Health Organisation.”

      Evidence? Or are we just Trumping on the bandwagon.

      “Since 2002, virologists have warned that the viruses in horseshoe bats, and the Chinese custom of eating exotic mammals and using them for traditional medicines, was “a time bomb” for the world’s health.”

      So we’re all ill because the Chinese eat bats? Any evidence of that? Didn’t it escape the lab we built in Wuhan through a faulty door seal on a fridge ( really a -80 degree Celcius freezer that looks in pristine condition) ? Or wasn’t it deliberately released by a CCP party official first in Wuhan as a test and to create carriers to send to the West so that China can buy all the stocks in the West at rock-bottom prices? We can’t stop evolution. Sometimes viruses evolve and are able to jump hosts. The Spanish flu was Swine flu Influenza A-H1N1-(19)18.

      “It allowed millions of people to leave Wuhan, making the virus an international danger.”

      People are infectious when asymptomatic. In reality China warned about the virus and released the full genome in 3 days. The WHO took their time to declare a pandemic because they had previously been caught out. We were warned in early January and chose to dither and think of herd immunity until mid-March.

      “We can start by reversing the decision to allow Huawei to run parts of our 5G network, and work with allied governments to strengthen Western telecoms capabilities.”

      No we cant. We are not allowing Huawei to run parts of our 5G network at all, we are simply buying their antennas as they are light-years ahead of the competition. The code in them has been torn to pieces by our cybersecurity unit and pronounced safe and the operating system is an embedded OS from USA. Besides countries such as the UK and USA that practise ‘full take’ of every packet that crosses their networks can’t really complain about spying. They are the worst culprits of all.

      “We should insist on an independent international investigation into Covid-19, so the world can learn the truth.”

      What ‘truth’ are you hoping to learn? Virology experts have said it’s entirely natural, apart from a couple of dodgy Americans that claim it’s a result of recombination of SARS, HIV, and a bat coronavirus yet strangely no one else seems to be able to come to that conclusion. It is simply not in china’s interest to ‘destroy the West’, but it is in USA’s interest for people there to believe that so they can keep the defence industry in money. Now the Cold War is over USA desperately needs a new ‘enemy’.

      “And we should follow Tokyo’s lead and provide financial assistance for companies bringing production and assembly work back home, or in some cases to other low-cost countries such as Malaysia, Poland and Portugal.”

      The entire reason for the Thatcherite push for global free trade was exactly so this work could be done where labour was cheap. She even told us she was changing us to a service-led economy. All politicians since 1980 has considered this a great idea. Remember how much people hated subsidising things.

      1. “So is Saudi Arabia [an autocratic and oppressive state] who we bend over backwards for regularly and turn a blind eye to the atrocities that go on there.”

        If you think Saudi Arabia presents as great a threat to the world as China you’re a fully functioning idiot.

        Timothy warns of the economic danger that China presents to the world. Stop being such a bloody self-important sixth-former.

        1. I’ve been hearing this ‘China presents a massive economic danger to the world’ crap for 40 years. Still waiting.
          What economic danger exactly? There’s nothing in the Timothy article about that other than him moaning about the Hinckley deal. Well we’re not capable of building a reactor. The skills were lost when we decided they were too costly to keep.
          We are or at least were the most imperialistic nation on Earth. Did we represent economic danger? I’d like to think we mostly improved the places we took over and left them as self-governing nations.
          China has stacks of foreign currency. What do you expect them to do with it? just sit on it because spending it in any way is a danger to the West? What on Earth are you so worried about?
          China is a real centre for innovation now. They produce 8 times as many Science and maths grads as we do. They’ve favoured slow organic growth over a debt-fuelled credit expansion. They have a huge and strong manufacturing base. Yes the government is autocratic. Yes there’s a lot going on over there that I don’t like personally, but in general the Chinese people are happy with their lives and the government is becoming more ‘westernised’ by the day. The Chinese government is only doing what other governments do in investing in foreign countries. It’s trying to earn some profit and secure resources.

          1. “Yes the government is autocratic. Yes there’s a lot going on over there that I don’t like personally but…”

            Great. You damn Saudi Arabia’s ‘atrocities’ whereas China just does things that you don’t like. But then you compared Pinochet to Mao and Stalin and declared the British victory in the Falklands illegitimate because of Chile’s modest help.

            Your excuses for China are frightening. People like you are a danger to humanity. You see danger where this is none but never where it exists.

            China is run by foul despots. Do you actually know what that means?

          2. I didn’t say any of that.

            I simply said we have no problem dealing with countries run by ‘foul despot’ regimes if there’s something in it for us ( like Saudi oil).

            I never mentioned Pinochet, or the Falklands, not Chile’s help there.

            China has improved greatly over the past thirty years. Most sensible people can see that. Yes it’s not as ‘free’ as the West even though that freedom n the West is mostly an illusion since big data tracks your every movement, your every internet post, every site you visit, every email you send, and records your calls just in case they may be needed to provide evidence against you.

            Again exactly what danger does China present to us? How is China buying up resources in Africa, property in London and building us a nuclear reactor going to change the lives of everyone in the UK?

          3. You are naive, aren’t you?

            The Falklands argument was a while back but I haven’t forgotten it.

          4. I have never moaned about the Falklands war or Chile’s help in it. You definitely have me confused with someone else.

            I did say the Falklands War was the only thing Thatcher got right in her first term but that was weeks ago.

          6. I have never said that which you accuse me of nor would I ever. I fully supported the Falklands war. Those people chose to be British, we were right to defend them and accept any help doing so.
            I have no love for Pinochet that much is true, but then he did round people up in football stadiums and execute them simply because they had a different idea about how their country should be run then didn’t allow free elections until 20 years later.
            Now stop making crap up. My profile isn’t private, you are welcome to trawl through years of posts but you won’t find what you’re looking for.

          7. I’m not ‘making up crap’. My memory is good enough, thanks very much.

    1. I simply do not understand why they think that plugging their faces with meal is attractive.

      5. Nor those who have tattoos all the way up their necks. What will it look like when/if they reach old age and the skin has gone saggy and wrinkly?

    4. I must confess that I do not know any lesbians socially but the photographs of self-declared sapphists always seem to show sad and unattractive-looking people.

      By contrast a very great friend of mine was a homosexual who was exceptionally charming, musically talented and very good looking. Sadly he was also sexually promiscuous and died of AIDS in the 1980’s.

  54. Good Day folks,

    Looking on the bright side, there are benefits to this lockdown and like me you live away from the large urban areas. I count myself very lucky. Being an authorised Covid volunteer means I can go pretty much anywhere I want – but find that I am not going far.. Occasional supplies runs to Citreon on the Hill, Meds runs to the Pharmacy (unhelpful ot at Boots) and a bit of shopping here and there. Apart from that, the weather being so good I am enjoying the horses, and walking the dog – and the garden is under attack at last.

    I might get used to this life 🙂

    2. My question at 1.33 pm was a SERIOUS one!

      How do you become an authorised volunteer?

  55. Wow, we received an emergency food parcel today! The only reason we applied for it as ‘vulnerable folk’ was that Sainsbury’s hadn’t received our details for priority on-line ordering and it’s taken three weeks to finally be able to place orders.

    1. ‘Afternoon, AA, #WeToo but, since we seem able to get delivery slots, we will let them know that we don’t need more.

      We didn’t apply for it AA, it seems that if you’re on that list – as we are – you get one automatically.

  56. Lots of bods are experiencing a fly problem at the moment .. the insect variety , so I toddled off to wait outside our little local hardware store that sells candles, parrot food and other such delights.

    I purchased a tiny box of 4 rolls of fly paper , each one looked like a film roll.. by Rentokill. Moh said.. What’s this as he undid the end of the enclosed roll, a drawing pin … and a length of dangly thin brown sticky paper over 3 foot long. The instructions said stick it to the ceiling out of the sun.

    Hang on a moment , fly paper doesn’t appear to have changed since the Flit era of pre colonial days in Africa , but hanging these modern flypapers from modern ceilings is quite health and safety compromising because one could walk slap bang into the sticky horrible paper , dangling and waving around in the house.

    We have tried fly spray, the flies are small and brown and quite elusive . My neighbour has a real problem with them , cross fingers we haven’t yet .

    Any fly killing solutions would be appreciated.. No fly whisks , gave them away years ago , and no spare newspaper either to act as a swat .

    Sorry to be off topic here , but the little things can be really irritating .. As some of you pedants will understand!

    1. Buy one of those racket-type swatters with batteries. Then you can kill flies while getting your daily exercise.

    2. If you can find any, and are allowed to buy them, Venus fly traps are rather good at clearing a house of flies. Firstborn’s farm suffers a fair bit, then after the trap installation (four, two in each kitchen window), no more problem – inside. Their soil needs kept moist, is the only hassle you get from them.

      1. “It’s the best thing since sliced bread.” Since I don’t have any Red Tops (No, my name is Elsie not Meagain) I shall hang up some toast in the garden trees and see what happens.

        :-))

        1. The slogan isnt ‘sliced bread’, it’s ‘the best thing since flies bred’. So you can bring your toast in Elsie!

          1. I never came across “flies bred”, Harry; I have always heard (and used) the phrase “sliced bread”.

    4. If you have a fruit bowl, Maggie put the bananas in the fridge. Bananas are the worst offenders for attracting those little critters.

          2. Don’t they? Why not? I never buy them anyway as I dislike bananas. Except for the little sweet ones you get in Africa.

        2. Don’t know about the shipping but the weather is just fine. I take my laptop and drink out to the pergola and just waste the afternoons away. apparently it is going to get a lot hotter.

    5. Loved your final sentence, Maggie. I am currently trying to stop myself wading in when I spot a greengrocer’s post. (Other grammatically incorrect posts which result in my seeing red are equally valid.)

    7. Have one of the ‘blue-light’ variety – type you see in food shops and is available from various sources. Aside from frying the odd big b*gger, it kills much smaller ones as well, which is a surprise given that their wingspan doesn’t seem wide enough to bridge the electrical wire grids.

      1. We have two of those, for playing “Wasp Tennis”. A game of skill… bat the wasp to each other in rallies, but not so hard that it breaks up, and avoid getting stung.

        2. In Sweden when there was nothing better to do, we used to chase wasps with the aspirator & keep a tally on the wall.

      2. The likes of Screwfix and Toolstation sell them. We have one in the kitchen of one of our village churches, and it’s quite effective, as long as well meaning folk don’t keep switching it off. Grrrr…

        1. Or the installers hang it from the ceiling
          …….the switch is at the top and the
          mains socket is at the top of the wall!!
          …..Still, nothing a broom handle won’t
          sort out!

          Good afternoon, Boss.

          1. Good afternoon, Garlands.

            I like the sound it makes when it electrocutes a bluebottle. Bzzzzzttt.

          2. We have one of these battery-operated racquet things. The sound of the sizzle, the flash and the smell of cooking fly is disgusting.

    9. “Lots of bods are experiencing a fly problem at the moment.”

      They should bury their dead promptly!

    10. That’s not a fly problem.

      Six pints of maggots left overnight in a fridge that failed with no lid on the pot. Now that’s a fly problem. When maggots are wet they stick to surfaces. Six pints of maggots is probably about a million maggots. The neighbours called the EHO who knocked and asked if we had a fly problem which of course we denied. At that exact moment mum was chasing flies around the lounge with a hoover.

          1. I know, but ’tis the only one I have. How are you? Peeps here were concerned.

          2. As I said to others here, on the mend John I think. Got a bit of chest pain but I think it’s muscular rather than lung pain.

      2. Good afternoon T

        How are you doing , lots have been concerned that the virus had hit you hard ..

        Good to hear you are alive and kicking back ;o)

        1. It really was. It was an old house. The bait fridge was on the ground floor so the maggots got wet, escaped the pot, made their way through the seals, dropped to the floor and disappeared under the floorboards into an airspace shared with next door. A week or ten days later the flies started and the problem went on for months.

    11. Solution: 2 drawing pins. One at either end. Or a screw or nail or some other type of removable fastener. Slack, so as to create a valley or semicircle.
      Best to keep windows closed, or you might sadly catch a bat.

  60. That’s us lot screwed then,how dare we post about the Gates vaccine clusterfucks in India and Africa

    “The UK government is considering new rules to ban any anti-vaccine posts from sites like Facebook and Twitter, after a surge across social media in content promoting false information.

    Health Secretary Matt Hancock said internet firms have a “duty of

    care” to their users and legislation may be needed to enforce this.”

    https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/anti-vax-facebook-twitter-instagram-vaccines-measles-mmr-a8841666.html
    Oh and you can shove your ID2020 scannable injection where the sun don’t shine as well

    1. First of all imprisonment in your own home and now censorship no doubt aiming to protect politicians from the truth. We are degenerating/have achieved the status of a third rate banana republic.
      Heaven save us from these morons.

      2. Have any of you received form your local Council a pack of yellow cloth stars to affix to your clothing when going out?

    2. Btl comment:
      PhilMartinCoUk
      2 days ago
      I wonder if this Government link is okay to post
      https://www.gov.uk/vaccine-damage-payment

      The rest of the comments, bar one, are highly critical of this suggestion.
      If the information is incorrect, then give the correct information, don’t just censor the public. It makes the government loom like it’s hiding something.

    3. Very bad. Banning free speech is seldom the answer to anything.
      They are now closing down legitimate questions because someone thinks it might be anti-vaxxer.
      I know I’ve said this before, but I don’t like the march of the totalitarian state in Britain. It worries me.

      1. The electorate here love a strongly authoritarian government. Many wish we were like Singapore in that regard. The very same people will moan incessantly too about the size of the state, and the imposition in our lives of state control, and the amount of state nannying, yet they keep voting for more of the same. What really winds me up is they call it freedom.
        We need massive changes in politics. We desperately need new parties that we can vote for. I’d like a party that based its economic policy on Georgist theory rather than neoliberalism, and its social policy on the basis of maximum real freedom.

  62. University Challenge final tonight- 8.30pm

    I will be tuned in…how about you…?

      1. I record it and play it back to see how many answers I can remember. Am I a sad person or wot?

        1. I once saw it in Cardiff, many moons ago. I was visiting my then boyfriend in his digs, which he shared with 12 other men. I got question after question right. They were looking at me in amazement.

          I really savoured the moment – until after it had finished and I told them that the same programme had been shown a week earlier in London. Too honest, me…

    5. Our chance to meet the future panel of experts that will be conning us with a virus or climate change

    6. That oriental chap Wang, who captains Corpus Christi College, is unnaturally quick-witted and encyclopaedic in his knowledge. My money is on his team.

      1. I can’t stand the arrogant Yank. He knows a lot – but his manner is very off-putting. Last time – in their discussion about a question, he said, “Tell me the question, again, I wasn’t listening…”

        1. To be fair, the presenter is pretty arrogant too. I’d want to wind him up if I were on the programme too.

  63. Its quite bizarre that everyday seems the same and everyday seems like how Sunday’s used to be,
    should be an English idyll in a way but not quite.
    The birdsong is more vocal this year but that might be because of less traffic and eerie silence that
    only their beautiful singing can disguise .

    2. Most people in Britain haven’t truly relaxed since Sunday trading was made legal.
      I didn’t realise how destructive Sunday trading was, until I lived in Germany where everything is closed on Sundays.

      2. I got very used to not hearing lawnmowers on Sundays.

        Where were you in Germany?

          1. Where in NRW? I lived most of the time in Düsseldorf but I did dental locumships all over the Bundesrepublik. Two of my favourites in Bayern were in Simbach am Inn & Gangkofen, the latter being a regular.

          2. Kamp-Lintfort. I’ve never been to the places in Bayern that you mention, but it is a very big place – there are still a lot of areas I have never visited.

      3. “until I lived in Germany where everything is was closed on Sundays” – but no longer.
        There, bb, fixed it for you.

    3. I find it quite difficult to remember which day it is. In the days before lockdown, if it was Monday, I’d be having lunch with friends or attending RAFA with the Parish Council in the evening on the first of the month, Tuesday was riding and attending a coffee morning, Wednesday was lunch with people from church or going to a coffee morning depending on the week in the month, Thursday was Shropshire Air Crew lunch or a Fellowship lunch, Friday was when my cleaner came, Saturday was racing and Sunday was church. In between these regular occasions I attended Masonic meetings. Now every day is the same – walk the dog and stay home.

  64. Wastewater testing is the latest innovative strategy deployed by the Marshall Liberal Government to locate and eliminate COVID-19 infection clusters in the community.

    Hand-in-hand with the testing blitz, wastewater sampling will help our public health team identify the extent of COVID-19 infection within the community, as part of the Marshall Liberal Government’s strong plan to protect people from the spread of the virus.

    Minister for Health and Wellbeing Stephen Wade said the joint initiative by SA Water and SA Health is a non-invasive way of monitoring for COVID-19, providing a tool for our public health clinicians to detect the virus on an ongoing basis.

    “South Australia is leading the nation with COVID-19 testing and this initiative will give us an even further clear picture of COVID-19 in our community,” Minister Wade said.

    https://www.premier.sa.gov.au/news/media-releases/news/covid-19-testing-boost?fbclid=IwAR3WYnaT169tY9wuxh1lU6lNmjcYywaXoUh4BEw9yknY1I6IR2N1rzCXTg8

      1. Okay now, can I throw in an idea here ..

        What about effluent from muck spreading .. the pong factor is appalling .. just before Easter the farmers were very busy spreading stuff on the fields , it can come from septic tanks as well as animals , and of course from… cruise liners , and passenger aircraft .. will someone engage brains on these matters .. please.

        If this virus is alive in transported pooh from aircraft and ships , we will NEVER get rid of this virus .

  65. Afternoon, everyone. Been another lovely day here, thankfully. Even having to go into town to collect MOH’s medicines and braving the maze of Tesco (although their system at the tills nearly made me dump my shopping and walk out) didn’t dampen the mood. I sat out in the sun with a cappuccino and a new book and chilled before tackling some more cutting back in the garden. Soon I shan’t have any more displacement activities left before I have to tackle painting the shed and studio and digging up (and weedkillering) the ground elder 🙁

      1. All day here in yer North Narfurk. Bright sun and all that – but a very strong and VERY cold easterly gale.

      2. No we haven’t had any howling gales the last two days. A coolish stiff breeze is the nearest we’ve got and my chaise longue is in a sheltered sun trap.

        1. One woman’s howling gale is another man’s stiff breeze. We live on the side of a hill.

    2. Ironing is my displacement activity. And I can listen to music with with my wireless headphones (Bose of course….!) and end up with lots of lovely neat piles of ironed clothes. So satisfying. Everything gets ironed, except towels. Better than cleaning the cooker any day.

    3. Even having to go into town to collect MOH’s medicines and braving the maze of Tesco

      Did much the same today, i.e. collected meds from GP, and provisions from Asda. Not much of a queue at Asda, but was confronted on the way to the GP with a DPD van coming in the opposite direction down a single-track side road. He was a van-length from a passing place where we could have driven the car past him, and he was about a quarter of the way down the lane from where it branched off from the road. But he wouldn’t reverse back. We were 3/4 of the way along from the road where we’d turned into the lane, with steep banks either side and nowhere behind us where we could have passed each other. He was a monumental pr*t, who eventually got out and told us we were supposed to be at home, and telling us he couldn’t reverse because he was carrying medical supplies. Yeah, right. And I’m the Prime Minister.

        2. People who make their own bread think they are superior to those who buy a white sliced loaf from the local supermarket. …they are not…they are idiots.

          1. Not superior Plum – I just prefer to blend different types of flour and add other ingredients that I fancy e.g Fennel Seeds.

          2. KIngsmill super-seeded wholemeal loaf £1.45… perfect….and I’m bluddy fussy!!!

        3. I’ve got a breadmaker, but she can’t get any flour at the moment.

      2. It’s a bit addictive, Plum, give it a whirl. Not that you’ll find any bloody bread flour.

        1. Been there done that.
          I made bread at school – Domestic Science, I came top of my class and my Irish stew followed by a rice pudding was ‘best in class’….

          1. Ah, none of that at my boys school, I didn’t cook or bake bread until 10 years ago.

      3. “So Prime Minister, these are the measures we recommend to ensure everyone obeys the isolation rules”

        1. Man on left. “Don’t worry, by the middle of next year, you will have become quite used to confinement.”

      4. “Any last words before we shoot you for spying, Herr Schmitt?”
        “Mmmmppphhhh!”

  68. A few minutes ago I had a harrowing phone call from my friend in hospital. He has COPD and Pulmonary Fibrosis and was diagnosed last summer as terminal with a life expectancy of 18 months.

    He went in 10 days ago for 1 night, he was told, due to breathing problems. Because of his symptoms they put him in a ward with other CV19 suspects. Tested him and 2 days later test came back negative and he was put in a ‘clean ward’. Should have been sent home but it was Easter weekend and there wasn’t any transport. Easter Monday evening his temperature spiked to 39 for 2 hours. He was immediately shouted back to the ‘dirty ward’

    Another test on the Tuesday and 2 days later negative result and put back into clean ward to await discharge. Wasn’t released quickly and on Saturday his temperature spiked again for 2 hours and back to dirty ward. He’s awaiting another test and is at his wits end. To cap it all a doctor told him earlier today that if he tested positive he would be more comfortable at home which is exactly what he wants. He has lost 8 kg (18 pounds) since his admission.

    I suggested he discharge himself and I would help his wife get him home or get the doctor who told him he’d be better off at home to make that happen. He has the feeling they want to continue testing him until he’s got CV19.

    If someone had told me something like was happening I wouldn’t have believed it but hearing the desperation in his voice was heartbreaking. So far 3 have died while he’s been in and out of the dirty ward. His morale is at rock bottom.

      1. It would be worth a taxi to get out of places which are guaranteed to have pools of the virus.

    2. If they keep putting him on a ward with patients with CV, then he probably will eventually get it.
      The medical profession are currently far too quick to diagnose everyone with CV.
      Best wishes to your friend. He needs someone else there to fight his corner.

    3. ‘He has the feeling they want to continue testing him until he’s got CV19.’ This is all so sinister. Is it so that this can be put on his death certificate? And they are actually trying to ‘make him dead’? The nhs is trying to euthanise him ….. ? And, in another world out there people are clapping, and being encouraged to applaud, the nhs? He needs to get out of there asap. I would not give the government/nhs the satisfaction of adding me to their tally with which to frighten everyone else. He belongs to himself, himself alone and then his family. He did not arrive in this world with ‘Property of the State’ stamped across his forehead.

      1. I did suggest he asked the doctor who said if he had CV19 to falsify the records, say he has it, then discharge him. Alternatively I would assist his wife if he wanted to discharge himself.

        1. I know it is difficult – you can hardly grab him by the scruff of the neck and make a run for it. It is amazing how quickly one can become institutionalised in a hospital and hand over one’s rights to that institution.

          1. I think he is so poorly and pi$$ed off and struggling to breath that it’s worn him down. As he can’t get internet of phone signal in hospital he’s thankful for WhatsApp.

    4. He needs to get home and die there if his condition is terminal. At least he could have his wife there with him.

      1. Dreadful thought though it may be but they seem determined to detect another patient with COVID 19.

          1. I will do anything he wants me to. It’s very difficult as he will need needs and he is permanently on oxygen. If it was easy I’d be down there like a shot.

          2. You must feel very helpless. Does his wife know who is the Doctor who said he’d be better off at home? Can he help?

          3. His Japanese wife does not communicate very well in English. And yes I do feel helpless.

    5. He should ask where the management suites are situated and get himself taken up there to cough, spit, sneeze and generally give them what their incompetence might have given him.

      Yes, I know he can’t, but you get my drift.

  69. “Ain’t that the truth files”

    “The speed at which the media moves from demanding the heavist lockdown
    possible to slagging the govt off for not removing lock down ASAP is
    going to be the only thing that that can move faster than light”.

        1. [Can’t stand the stuff but I thought Plum’s theme song was Ma Sherry Amour…]

          3. I started early today with an aperitif at 11am. this morning … then it was lunchtime, so downed a couple of schooners before lunch and now it’s early evening….the night is young!

          4. My MiL used to drink schooners of the stuff until I discovered I had a flower vase the exact shape as the schooner glass but about 5 times bigger – I called it a Super tanker sherry glass….

          6. Plum if it would make you happy I’d give it to you free of charge. The only problem is like me it’s locked down (somewhere in one of 40 packing cases)….

            [Further note to Sue M – Are you paying attention?]

          7. Plum if it would make you happy I’d give it to you free of charge. The only problem is like me it’s locked down (somewhere in one of 40 packing cases)….

            [Further note to Sue M – Are you paying attention?]

          9. Yes. I know a number of people who use wine glasses. Beats using an old mug, I suppose, as you can generally see what is in it.

  71. A shocking new survey has revealed that nearly one in five people in Russia are in favour of “liquidating” or “eliminating” the entire LGBT+ community. 20 April 2020.

    Homosexuality is not illegal in Russia but discrimination and violence is widespread, and LGBT+ people are often equated with paedophilia and deviancy.

    This intolerance was reflected in the results of a new study by Levada Centre NGO. Demonstrating views reminiscent of the Holocaust, 18 per cent of those polled stated that queer men and women should be “liquidated” or “eliminated”.

    That’s terrible, in the US it’s 100%. Lol!

    https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/04/20/russia-lgbt-attitudes-survey/

    1. LGBT+ people are often equated with paedophilia and deviancy.

      http://transcrimeuk.com/2017/11/12/male-transgender-individuals-convicted-of-violence-against-women-children/
      Male transgender individuals convicted of violence against women and children.

      https://conservativewoman.co.uk/trans-takeover-of-the-justice-ministry/
      Trans takeover of the Justice Ministry
      ACCORDING to the Mail on Sunday, former Tory Cabinet Minister Rory Stewart has revealed that female prisoner officers have been raped by men housed in women’s prisons. These men were placed in the women’s prisons because they identify as female.

      It had previously been reported that female prisoners and officershad been sexually assaulted by male ‘trans’ prisoners, but this was the first reference to rape. Perhaps Stewart has mis-spoken, mis-remembered, or been misquoted. I hope he or the Mail on Sunday will clarify. I have put in a Freedom of Information request to try to find out more.

      Can’t think why.

    2. They used to send them to the Gulag. When the whole USSR thing came crashing down, one of the KGB types revealed that the gay men and lesbians were required to have sex – basically at the point of a gun. His quote was to the effect that after a while they got pretty good at it. I guess as the alternative was a bullet, one would adapt…

    3. They used to send them to the Gulag. When the whole USSR thing came crashing down, one of the KGB types revealed that the gay men and lesbians were required to have sex – basically at the point of a gun. His quote was to the effect that after a while they got pretty good at it. I guess as the alternative was a bullet, one would adapt…

    4. Live and let live…….. but why do they have to ram it down our throats all the time?

      2. I know someone who is one of these activists, and in their case, it is the overwhelming desire to be a victim at all costs.

  73. I am off. Greenhouse to close up; glasses to fill. Bracing myself for shopping tomorrow…..

    Have a grand evening writing your script for the daily news conference…

    A demain

    5. Face masks of some sort are pretty much universal here unless you are way out in the backcountry. And they are required in states with significant outbreaks.

    1. Cloudy at present. The best meteor shower I’ve ever seen was a Leonids one, many years ago, about 50 miles offshore from west Africa. A green firework display. I thought I might wake up blind in the morning.

  76. Cigarette sponsership,indoor smoking,pints of lager on the side table,people we know as grizzled veterans appear as teenagers
    Vintage Crucible Snooker,memories of a lost world…………

    1. We are watching whilst decorating/ironing curtains and suite covers and feeling very old…!

  77. Good afternoon all … and RastusC. !

    Godson just texted me … last night the mohamadans, in the house next door to his home, had a ramadan party for at least 20… police were called !

    The plod knocked seven bells out of his front door [ captured on video ].I’ve no idea what resulted then.

    These muzzies hate us and will always defy the advice, rules and law. …. grrrr.

    Just a Ramadanadingdong, I guess.

    ps … at least it wasn’t an abattoir.
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/19/police-uncover-suspected-illegal-abattoir-house-telford-england/

    1. Out of your godson’s door, or the neighbour’s? I hope it’s the latter.
      At least the plod are being consistent in bashing in front doors when they actually don’t have the right just for WuFlu gatherings.

          1. The godson as clearly committing a hate crime. Anyway, since when has the Perlice Farce needed an excuse to smash doors?

  78. Met police face legal action over death of PC Keith Palmer. 20 April 2020.

    Palmer’s widow, Michelle, who has been left to raise their daughter, Amy, said: “How could Keith have been left alone, unarmed, guarding an open gate at one of the most iconic buildings in the world and one of the country’s top terrorist targets? He was left at a vulnerable location, with no protection, to die. The fact there were no firearms officers there for nearly an hour is hard to believe.

    There is of course of course a huge White Elephant missing from this piece and it doesn’t appear to have been mentioned during the proceedings either. This is Sir Craig Mackey who sat in his limousine and watched Palmer being murdered not sixty feet away without even bothering to unlock his doors and then drove away when the firearms officer killed Masood.. I don’t know whether this has been deleted from the text or that the hearing was manipulated to prevent it being raised but it was one or the other…

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/20/met-police-face-legal-action-over-death-of-pc-keith-palmer-terrorist-attack

    1. In days of old his shame would be unbearable and a retreat to his study with a bottle of whiskey and his old revolver would have been the only honourable way out.

      1. The modern way is to stick in a seven-figure claim for compensation for trauma suffered in the line of work.

        1. And take early retirement on a handsome pension, stopping only to pick up one’s gong.

          1. And then get invited to dive into another public sector trough at an even bigger salary.

    2. Well, Minty – there is a very good chance that he will be called to give evidence….

      1. Is that so Bill? Your confidence is greater than mine. In pursuit of the facts here I googled several older stories about the incident and Mackey appears to have disappeared. I eventually found him on one of my old comments!

      2. Is that so Bill? Your confidence is greater than mine. In pursuit of the facts here I googled several older stories about the incident and Mackey appears to have disappeared. I eventually found him on one of my old comments!

        1. The litigation (if it is actually happening) is under the control of the plaintiff – who can sub poena whom they wish.

          1. Yep that’s 2 years old. He isn’t mentioned in the Mail today or the Wikipedia entry either!

  79. Utterly off topic.

    The wild marguerites here are just kicking off. One of my favourite, no effort required, wild flowers in the garden.

    They are great swathes of daisies on steroids, they are a real heart-lifter with their yellow centres and bright white petals.

    If there are plants with smiles these are close to the top of the lists.

      1. Always great to hear them.

        You usually beat us by about a week, I wonder why ours were earlier this year.

        We’ve had some quite strong winds here, perhaps that’s a reason and it might also explain my vagrant woodpecker.

        I rechecked the books this morning and while the Syrian is closest match it doesn’t really fit the profile, mine has next to no red feathers.

        1. I would bet my house on it not being Syrian.

          Non-migratory species rarely turn up outside their home range as vagrants. THey just don’t undertake long flights from their home territories.

          Syrian woodpeckers are almost identical to great-spotted woodpeckers, with only minor plumage differences (smaller white spots on the outermost tail feather, slight streaking on the upper breast, slightly paler bill and one or two other minor differences). Some great spotted woodpeckers have darker colouration than normal on the breast, looking a bit like staining in some parts of their range. To all intents and purposes Syrian looks just the same as great spotted.

          Have you considered three-toed? They don’t show red.

          EDIT Three-toed have been recorded in the Jura in France. There were between 10 and 100 pairs in France in the 1970s, but they are said to be increasing (but still very low numbers). They like damp coniferous forest, with areas of wind-blown trees.

          1. I’m always very cautious when claiming sightings, because I’m a watcher not a twitcher, hence the original question a couple of days ago.

            Three-toed would fit.

            It was such a surprise seeing this thing appear, chase off one of my regulars, and then feed for several minutes. It didn’t reappear today.

            It is/was by far the scruffiest looking woodpecker that I’ve seen here, next to no sharp colouring.

            We’re not supposed to get black woodpeckers here, but we have a pair close by and they are regular visitors to the garden but never the feeders. They arrived about three years ago.

            We had a real bird afficionado staying in the gite and he commented that it was extraordinary how many different species he saw here. He was hoping to see a type of shrike (?) but apart from that he saw many that were relatively rare in the UK. He was particularly enamoured by the hoopoes, which are very common here.

          2. Woodpeckers as a whole are notoriously bad travellers. They limit themselves to short flights. Black woodpeckers have a range all across Europe for instance, patchy in places. I’ve seen them in the Pyrenees. They occur close to the channel coast in France in Normandy and around Calais, yet there has never been a single record in Britain.

            Great spotted and green woodpeckers are common all over Britain, yet there are no woodpeckers at all in Ireland.

            Where three-toed woodpeckers occur, it’s in mountainous dense mature spruce forest with damp areas. They need the soft decaying insect-rich fallen timber.

          3. “…yet there are no woodpeckers at all in Ireland.”

            That’s because the snakes ate them all. :•)

    2. I would love to have daisies in my lawn. I get everything else but not daisy. I have sown wild flower seeds in a patch of poor soil at the back, in the hope that they would spread. Nothing. It’s not as if my lawn was treated with anything, or mown within an inch of its life.

      1. These “daisies” are nearly two feet tall and grow like Topsy.
        If I remember, I’ll post a picture in a few days. They are quite impressive.

        };-)

        1. I’ll make do with the smaller ones, though I’d love to see yours.

          Edit: University Challenge is brilliant at the moment!

          4. It was when it finished. Although I did think that many of the starter questions were more science than non-science based.

          6. I wouldn’t put it past the BBC to slant the programme in favour of the black candidate winning.

          9. Wang just didn’t seem to get going this evening, leaving the Brandon show-off with a massive score.

          10. I missed several of the earlier bouts, but Imperial were impressive. I thought the starter questions were overly science-oriented, though.

      2. Same here! There are daises on my lawn, but they aren’t nearly enthusiastic enough. My grandparents had a daisy lawn, sadly ripped up for a housing development. I’ve always wanted to recreate it.

    2. They ought to be really worried.

      While they were unconcious the buggers have been marinating them in soy sauce.

      they’ll be on the market in the morning.

    3. They should be asked to show the inshore account from which they paid their employees in the first place. Plus to show that the funder of that inshore account wasn’t non-taxed.

  82. What’s occuring?/

    Man with Oil central heating on the phone to Supply company ” 1000 litres please ”

    ” That’ll be £10.00 Sir”

    ” Ten quid- thats fantastic ! How do you want the money ?”

    ” Put your wallet away Sir , We Pay You “

  86. A report shows almost 35% of intensive care patients are ethnic minority
    2011 Census showed non-white people make up 14 per cent of the population
    But they account for at least 17% of COVID-19 deaths in England so far
    Areas with large Muslim communities appear to be less affected than expected
    Regular hand-washing and low employment ‘may protect Muslims from virus’
    Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8236303/Ethnic-minority-areas-make-three-quarters-Englands-coronavirus-hotspots.html

    1. 2011 census is worthless.

      Help people impacted by COVID? How many of the ramadanadingdong lot care about the rest of us?

      1. It is in one of their texts, that they should only help non muslims if no muslims need help, or something like that.
        And yes, the census is fiction. If you live in a foreign country, and an official looking form drops through the letter box, everyone knows that you ignore it as long as possible, especially if you ask someone else, and they tell you that nothing will happen if you ignore it.

    1. Strange how this can happen on a daily basis and our next door neighbours have been stuck in France on lock down for a month.
      It’s long past time that we should have been sending them back imeadiately. They are probably all breaking international law as are the French by allowing them to get into the boats. If they went out on fishing trips plundering their fish stocks, the French would be going beserk.
      Enough is enough.

    2. Sure France is a friend of the UK. The French governments have always hated the fact that we showed them up as the wimps they were in WWII and they are helping the immigrants into this country.

      Talk about demanding reparation from China for Covid-19, it’s about time we start not only deporting people before they are taxied here, but charging France for not preventing them coming here.

      1. We are the ones bringing them here! Or rather the NGOs, the “rescuers” and the “do-Gooders”. Why on earth would the French stop them from coming? They are probably in cahoots with the people smugglers or at least taking kick-backs. It is our authorities that are not doing their jobs. These illegal boat people should be sent straight back to France along with all the other illegals who have arrived here this year and every other bugger who came the same way. Trouble there is no political will to do this.

      2. France has always been, and always will be, ‘me first’. I see it every day in the people here who live by the mantra of ‘me, here, now’. Right down to how they behave on the roads or in shops.

  90. Ronan O’Rahilly died today, age 79. The man who brought us Radio Caroline in the ’60s, which kick-started and revolutionised the British popular music industry and eventually forced a reluctant BBC to recognise the emerging ‘pop culture’. He never got the recognition he deserved.

        2. Maggie, yer too young!
          I remember Radio Luxembourg with D.J.’s Jimmy Savile , Jimmy Young, Tony Hall, Alan Freeman Jack Jackson, Don Moss, Keith Fordyce, Peter Murray, Peter Aldersley, Ray Orchard, Muriel Young, Pete Brady, Brian Matthew, Sam Costa, David Jacobs, Kenny Everett, Keith Skues, Johnny Moran, Simon Dee, Barry O’ Dee, Hughie Green, Doug Stanley, Alan …

        1. Still a radio ship, still owned by the Caroline organisation and moored on the River Blackwater. Caroline is still going and is better than ever, on the internet (in high quality stereo), DAB in various places and on MW. Technology enables programmes to be transmitted from anywhere although broadcasts from the ship still happen once a month.

          http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk

    1. Night night Peddy

      We have just been outside to gaze at the sky, just Venus shining brightly , and no sight of the Starlink satellites.

    2. What is causing this? People, you muppet.

      People overbreed and then kill off all the natural predators.

      People get what they deserve.

    3. Great-tailed grackles: highly social, hugely adaptable and will eat just about anything. Think of starlings but with less fussy eating habits.

    1. Isn’t that an example of a truly great leader -not!

      What has this nonsense got to do with giving the country an update on the state of covid in the nation? I have no idea what this reporter has done to deserve this attack but his rant has no place in a public briefing.

      2. I think it is just what is required when the particular reporter has a J.Goebbels approach to the truth.

    1. The NHS staff is infected by numbers of Labour Party and Unison/Unite activists of the Corbyn persuasion; this extends to junior doctors and nurses.

      1. ‘Evening, Cori, hence the ni55ers in the woodpile when it comes to reforming the NHS. These Union Members know full well that if it went ahead and efficiency ruled, they and there colleagues (mainly in Administration) would be out of a job. Bring it on, Boris after you’ve sacked Hancock.

        1. I recall a lesson from just after I had been interviewed by a bunch of developer suits intent on flogging off the environs of Fulbourn Hospital Cambridge for a development of B1 Offices.

          Firstly it was clear that the NHS Trust and developer cared little for the mentally ill patients under their care.

          A few weeks later my wife and I took lunch in The Bull PH in Cavendish. On an adjacent table were a group of four NHS Trust managers. They collectively gorged their way through the entire menu whilst talking very loudly.

          At the end of their meal one of the large women with the loudest voice got up and the chair she was sitting in got up with her. A fat smelly overpaid charlatan employed by the same NHS Trust that had flogged off the acres around Fulbourn Hospital to oleaginous developers.

          1. The Bull is a lovely pub in a beautiful little village. Popped in many times for a bite and a pint after a day’s fishing on the Stour or the lakes at Glemsford.

            Care in the community was all about selling land cheap to developers so someone could live off rent for the rest of their natural life.

            This was Claybury Hospital when i was a kid…
            https://www.huntpropertyservices.co.uk/Repton-Park

            Napsbury Hospital is now flats and houses for millionaires.

            Friern hospital in Friern Barnet….
            https://www.thecomergroup.com/development/princess-park-manor

          3. On the Repton park estate the houses start at about 1.25M and the flats at about 500k. The service charge and ground rent is 5k per year. Seriously who can afford that?
            It was supposed to be affordable housing for keyworkers.
            It’s actually award winning housing development with gym and communal pool and concierge services in a gated community for pop stars and footballers.

            Princess Park is the same and lists among it’s current and former residents such people as Cheryl and Andy Cole, One Direction, Busted, The Wanted, several Arsenal footballers, Tulisa Contostavlos and members of the Saturdays. You need that income level to afford to live there. The area outside of the housing development is pretty much a slum.

    2. The mainstream media is extraordinarily unsuspicious when it comes to anything to do with a globalist or left wing agenda.
      The so-called broadsheets like to pretend they are superior, but they are not.

  98. Our GP telephoned today just to tell us that we are both old and have had heart problems, you are vulnerable so don’t go out and mix with other people.

    Some local politician has now come up with the idea that we need to get the economy going, which to us means getting tourists in to enjoy the countryside. To protect seniors, their self isolation neds to ge extended by several months.

    I hope that my response to the suggestion was succinct enough – sod off.
    About thirty percent of the local population are retired, does he really think that we will stay locked up all the way through summer so that townies can come play in our back yards?

    Humbug.

    1. Your GP is both ageist and heartist.
      In the NHS Frailty chart used to assess vulnerability there is no mention of age.
      Your GP must think that any medication prescribed for you is insufficient to keep you in the managing well (Stage 3) category and this shortfall has left you in the vulnerable (Stage 4) category.

      Your GP needs a course on vulnerology.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/670abca65a0dbc67f51acc333fd240a8e2184ed29c2be990ef2cb715a7cf339a.jpg

    2. Your GP is both ageist and heartist.
      In the NHS Frailty chart used to assess vulnerability there is no mention of age.
      Your GP must think that any medication prescribed for you is insufficient to keep you in the managing well (Stage 3) category and this shortfall has left you in the vulnerable (Stage 4) category.

      Your GP needs a course on vulnerology.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/670abca65a0dbc67f51acc333fd240a8e2184ed29c2be990ef2cb715a7cf339a.jpg

      1. He is simply a good Canadian GP. Lucky we are not “of colour” or he would probably locked us away until a vaccine is found.

        If this covid is more harmful to the older sufferers, how come your NHS do not use age in categorizing vulnerability?

        1. Because the vulnerable ones are those who have been persauded by WHO that their blood pressure should be 120/80 whatever their age.

          Big pharna, big money.

          1. You mean that it wasn’t polly and the great gates/soros/who/China conspiracy behind the recommendation by a caring GP.

  99. Millions of pieces of vital protective equipment are being shipped from British warehouses to Germany, Spain and Italy despite severe shortages in this country, The Telegraph can disclose.

    Lorries are being packed with masks, respirators and other PPE kit before heading back to supply hospitals in the EU, it has emerged.

    On Monday night, UK firms said they had “no choice” but to keep selling the lifesaving gear abroad because their offers of help had been repeatedly ignored by the Government.

    It comes as the Government faces growing criticism over the PPE crisis with hospitals close to running out of critical equipment, and doctors forced to choose between exposing themselves to the virus or “letting a patient die on their watch”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/20/exclusivemillions-pieces-ppe-shipped-britain-europe-despite/?utm_content=telegraph&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3rV0OaR-FvVSFsZPLHbsBu9IS2lG8Uaf_8KV27XjDcPFeBqn7Eomk0jHo#Echobox=1587415471

    1. Just exactly what is happening, what is going on? It has all gone beyond the realms of incompetence and stupidity.

      1. Trump used the US war measures act to prevent supplies going outside the US. Now his actions really upset us in Canada because 3M had already agreed to sell the equipment to us but charity begins at home and all that.

        Doesn’t the UK government have powers that could be used to buy this equipment and force it to be distributed within the UK? How about the military delivering directly to hospitals (right to ER rooms if the stores won’t take them).

        What better way to show up the NHS managers than by bypassing them.

        1. No doubt the government either already has the power or could easily give itself the power. But perhaps the extent of its incompetence/stupidity/corruption? is such that it is not doing so. Certainly PHE’s executives need a very thorough examination.

          1. They need a very thorough boot out of the door with no compensation and banned from any public office forever.

    3. Why is everything about procurement failures the fault of the government.

      Where are the layers of very highly paid NHS management and why are the procurement managers not spotlighted with their names, responsibilities and salaries. I would sack the lot of them and restructure the NHS giving clinicians a greater say and appointing small numbers of dedicated and competent management.

      The abolition of local hospitals and reliance on a few massive teaching hospitals was a mistake as was the replacement of effective matrons by people in white coats carrying clipboards. I saw this myself when admitted to West Suffolk ten years ago.

  100. Aaaarrgghhhh ……………….
    I will just have to cheat. Calling all bulgy headed NOTTLers.
    DT Cryptic X-Word clue; 16 down, 9 letters. It’s the only one I can’t get.
    “Break even in other school initially.”
    I have E – E – E – S – S. There maybe an O between S – S.

      1. Knickers and Spit!!! I knew I would kick myself once the NOTTL geniuses pointed out the blindingly obvious.
        Ta ever so.

  101. 318365+ up ticks,
    Now there’s a thing, my way of thinking also, the political murder of the
    left / right stance in politics took place 1/11/1993 all voting since then a farce because the politico’s were running a progressive / aggressive manner campaign resulted in, wait for it,
    …………..”Taking no bloody notice of the peoples needs”

    https://twitter.com/YardleyShooting/status/1251976416222208003

    1. That’s just a conspiracy theory promulgated by the far right and other nutcases.
      The media commentators say so, so it must be true.

          3. Boot’s been around, on and off, for as long as I can recall.

            I’ve never had an issue, he’s posted some excellent observations in the past.

            There is a tendency on Nottle for people to take some offence and then troll the perpetrator for a while, but by and large it stops and bygones become bygones.

          4. “There is a tendency on Nottle for somepeople to take some offence and then troll the perpetrator for a while” (my italics natch).

            Possibly because we are (or have become) rather like a community as well as a forum. That is not to say that the community doesn’t morph. (That double negative was intentional, by the way Peddy, min ven!)

          5. That’s not a double negative in the accepted sense; the negs are in separate clauses.

          7. I never had a problem with Boot, but sometimes he was very irascible and would flounce off, only to reappear sometime later. He would also target certain posters and never leave them alone. I deleted some of his more abusive posts, but never banned him.

      2. 318365+ up ticks,
        Evening N,
        I actually missed my early morning insult from the poor demented soul.
        I only hope it’s medication / treatment is a success.
        New name, same bile methinks.

    3. That’s just a conspiracy theory promulgated by the far right and other nutcases.
      The media commentators say so, so it must be true.

      1. 318365+ up ticks,
        Evening Ims2,
        Yes you could be right, but I cannot help seeing it in the light of much of the action / inaction
        levels are at stratosphere in unbelievability
        regarding current issues.
        whereas the conspiracy theories are at roof top level and seeming believable.

  102. Now for something different (not Wuflu-related):

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/04/20/the-ethnic-cleansing-of-afghan-sikhs/
    The ethnic cleansing of Afghan Sikhs
    ISIS’s bombing of a gurdwara is the final straw for a minority long persecuted by Islamists.

    Just like the attack on the mosque in New Zealand, this was worldwide news, with politicians from around the globe voicing their horror a condemnation, Jacinda Ardern especially.

    Yeah. Right. Complete silence, of course.

  103. The DT have got their knives out for these two

    How grateful we are that the Harry formerly known as Prince, and his glamorous assistant, have taken this moment to walk back into our lives. Today, in the midst of the pandemic, they have chosen to announce that they will no longer work with the Sun, Daily Mail, Mirror and Express newspapers, and will pursue a policy of “zero engagement” with them. Naturally, they have done this through a letter sent to the editors, and then gleefully republished by other outlets.

    It seems strange that, in the letter, they stress their support for a free press whilst actively scorning it. It also seems strange that a pair so determinedly opposed to press intrusion and stories they dislike seem so keen to propel themselves into the public eye.

    As people suffer, The Couple have decided that now is the perfect moment to open up about how much they dislike people talking about them. They clearly have a talent for timing. It was recently announced that Meghan would be starring in a new Disney film, which is exactly the happy news millions wanted to hear, in the process of losing their incomes. And, of course, another story emerged that The Couple weren’t all that keen on living the quiet life in beautiful, wild and relatively media-free rural Canada after all, and were going to live in beautiful wild, and entirely media free… Los Angeles. Which rather suggests a priority for acting over the non-profit, unless their charitable intentions revolve around resuscitating Hollywood careers.

    Then, of course, there is the letter itself — poorly written, self-aggrandizing — that has naturally been picked up on by so many in the press and elsewhere, and roundly mocked. How, people ask, can this duo have got everything so wrong? Have misjudged the mood so badly? Who is advising them?

    Except, they haven’t. And whoever is advising them is doing a pretty good job of ruthlessly exploiting this pandemic.

    The vacuum Covid-19 has created as economies shut down and politics packs up, has suffocated almost everything that isn’t directly related to it. Last week, democracy campaigners in Hong Kong were arrested en masse by China. How many front pages did it make? The humanitarian crises in Libya and Syria have almost been forgotten. It’s all gone quiet on the Brexit front. Even the oil production clash between Saudi Arabia, Russia and the US, which sent global prices crashing, faded into background noise. But through all this, The Couple have found a pocket of air.

    That precious oxygen is extracted from us, and our need for something other than the desperation of Covid-19 to read about. Most celebrities have cleared a path by retreating from the public eye during lockdown, but not The Couple. Moreover, their relationship with the press is already based on antagonism — so why stop now?

    The very effort of sending a letter to the UK’s most popular tabloids to tell them to get stuffed in the middle of a pandemic is proof of that. The backlash will play very well with in the US, for whom the Brits are always the snooty villains. One almost wonders if the letter reads as if composed by a West Coast arts graduate not because it was, but to rile the British media into reacting like aunts in full battle formation from a PG Wodehouse novel. Here, The Couple are the ridiculous ones, but over the pond, who seems out of touch?

    But whilst this is happening, other, more important, bits of information from The Couple are seeping into focus, where once it would have been drowned out by literally any other piece of news. Who cares that Meghan is starring in a new Disney film? No one, but everyone now knows she is. How will this non-profit improve your life? It won’t, but you now know it exists.

    We in the UK want very little to do with them any more, and the feeling is more than mutual. But, as their celebrity competition batten down the hatches, Harry and Meghan are free to gleefully lap up all the media attention they say they don’t want.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/20/meghan-harrys-attack-tabloids-whiffs-cynical-pr-genius/?utm_content=telegraph&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1587402105

      1. He was, and probably still is, given half a chance.

        And that’s the real shame of the whole thing.

      2. Perhaps he’s been led by the male appendage, which ain’t unusual in young men.

        1. Except he’s not young any more. Most of us at 35 were grown up and responsible human beings.

        2. Not just that, but he hasn’t enough brain cells to distinguish banality from profundity.

        3. It’s a classic pattern; abusers pick on someone with a problem, and offer them a “solution” to their problem. In this case, Harry’s mother yearnings.

      3. He was, until he got involved with her. Manipulative, devious, scheming. She’s turned him into a doormat.

          1. No. Diana wasn’t the sharpest tool in the drawer, but her manipulations tended to be instinctive reactions against situations that she found herself in.
            Meghan looks like a classic narcissistic abusive manipulator, and most of the stuff that happens around her is stuff that she herself has initiated.

          2. I have it on good authority (I believe the source is impeccable) that Diana set out to capture Charles. I’d say that was pretty manipulative.

    3. What I do not understand about this self-centered pair is moving from a rural island in Canada, to coronavirus hot spot of LA with such a young child…..I think I know the answer!

    5. Ah yes, the Telegraph, the great trumpeter of the free press that ran an article a few weeks ago quoting a Soros-section group as though it were an authoritative source.

  106. Sir Richard Branson offers to part with Necker Island in return for £500m airline bailout

    ……A largely boring article
    *
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    Sir Richard’s health arm Virgin Care sued the NHS in 2016 after missing out on an £82m contract to provide health services in Surrey. The NHS settled the dispute a year later for an undisclosed sum. Virgin Care has denied that it sued health authorities because it lost the contract, insisting that the dispute centred round its claim that there had been a flawed procurement process.
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    Top comment BTL

    Carpe Jugulum

    20 Apr 2020 11:30AM
    Would this be the ‘Sir’ Richard Branson whose first response to the crisis was to put Virgin Atlantic staff on unpaid leave?

    The one that has studiously avoided paying a single penny in UK income tax by buying a Caribbean island and living on it.

    The one who campaigned against Brexit when he doesn’t even live here.

    The one who now wants money taken out of my wages to be given to him as a ‘loan’?

    The second word is ‘off’ Branson.

    1. He’s only offered it as security for the loan.

      In the unlikely event the loan was granted, and he defaulted, why would he care?

      How much did it cost? SFA when he bought it, and he’s made an absolute fortune out of it since.

      The man is a particularly poxy fundamental female orifice.

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