Monday 23 March: Resolute kindness amid the atrocious behaviour of panic-buyers

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/2020/03/23/lettersresolute-kindness-amid-atrocious-behaviour-panic-buyers/

1,083 thoughts on “Monday 23 March: Resolute kindness amid the atrocious behaviour of panic-buyers”

  1. Good Morning Folks,

    Cold & Frosty start here.
    Been to the station and back, steady trickle of people going in to work.
    Got my Columbian blend Costa
    Wondering what I’m going to do now.

    1. Good morning.
      Not so warm here either. Frosty, but a gloriously sunny morning.

  2. Lord Sugar asks if mock report suggesting lions are patrolling Russia during coronavirus pandemic is a joke. 23 March 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/868f91ddcd65a3dedbae46173c9c10d2293a8cc5ca4c14cad4c91b092f0f8db5.png

    Lord Alan Sugar shared a mock news report on social media suggesting that lions are patrolling the streets of Russia during the coronavirus outbreak and asked whether it was a joke or not.

    The image shows a lion walking along a street, with a ‘breaking news’ banner which reads: ‘Russia unleashed more than 500 lions on its streets to ensure that people are staying indoors during this pandemic.’

    They must be kicking themselves at MI6 that they didn’t think of this for themselves!

    https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/23/lord-sugar-shares-mock-report-suggesting-lions-patrolling-russia-coronavirus-pandemic-12440559/

          2. “BOOM! BOOM!”????? You are Mr Derek, Peddy, and I claim my five bob postal order. (Good morning, btw.)

          5. Peddy thinks I self-identify as male/female on different days and can never remember which one I am currently., Herr Oberst.

            :-))

          8. When will the woke community decide that gender in languages such as French, German, Spanish etc is unacceptable….
            La Fenetre….. is their a gender neutral term, one for LGBTXXX versions?
            Le Thames….. who gave the French the right to decide that the Thames is masculine? The Channel feminine?

          12. Or the North Sea even? Depends how far to stretch the Channel I suppose….. but given that Kent is in the Channel Cross Border Group (or is it “Interregional or trans boundary? I cna’t remember which EU designated Group description applies….) maybe the Channel does stretch that far now.

  4. Coronavirus is a disaster for UK prisons. Releasing the harmless now will save lives. Mon 23 Mar 2020

    Releasing these prisoners, who are now completely harmless, will undoubtedly save lives, not just of prisoners but also of prison officers and other staff, especially in jails where there are wings full of elderly inmates. We have already had the first case of Covid-19 in a prisoner at Strangeways in Manchester. Make no mistake, this virus will take hold. Nowhere more so than in our antiquated local jails, such as Strangeways, where two or more prisoners are crammed into cells Victorian prison planners designed for one. Please tell us, justice minister, how such inmates can self-isolate?

    One likes the assumption that these people are in prison because they are harmless. In actuality of course it is extraordinarily difficult to get into gaol in the UK. One must either be an enemy of the state or an incorrigible offender who is serving just a fraction of their deserved time!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/23/coronavirus-uk-prisons-releasing-harmless-staff

    1. The compulsory “self-isolation” of the elderly is an indication that they are entirely expendable. They are going to be cut off from medical help, and risk running out of food. If they do become infected they will be bottom of the queue for treatment when these choices require to be made.
      We have seen with the illegal release of detainees and the proposal to release convicts that the priorities are not with our senior citizens.

      1. Well, they were until it was thought that doing nothing would be politically not a good idea….

        Stanford virology professor John Ioannidis observes,

        “If we had not known about a new virus out there, and had not checked individuals with

        PCR tests, the number of total deaths due to “influenza-like illness” would not seem unusual this year.

        At most, we might have casually noted that flu this season seems to be a bit worse than average.

        The media coverage would have been less than for an NBA game between the two most

        indifferent teams….

        And then there is Cummings, who seems to determine policy these days, not Bojo or the elected MPs or ministers:

        http://www.thegwpf.com/inside-no-10-ten-days-that-shook-britain-and-changed-the-nation-for-ever/

    2. With a reoffending rate around the 50% mark, a measure like this could unleash many career petty criminals to carry on with their thieving. I think, on balance, this is not a good idea, although it may come to this if too many staff require isolation or treatment.

      ‘Morning, Minty.

      1. The whole hip-hop rapper culture that has taken over our national identity is based on grabbing what you can from the weaker untermensch with as much violence as required to impress one’s peers, and bragging about it.

      2. Indeed, Italy, supposedly in lockdown has seen a rise in burglaries and thefts……. it appears that when law-abiding citizens do what they are told, the criminals see it as an opportunity. Now who would have thought that would happen?

    3. Morning, Minty.
      One must either be an enemy of the state ..” – nope, that’s the way to get into government. To get into prison, one must be fitted up.

    4. What defines a harmless prisoner? No. They’re in jail for a good reason. Despite the Left wing madness they’re staying there.

      Besides – that calls for probation officers, half way houses and a job set up. Cripes the Guardian is stuffed with morons.

    5. But are not they mostly young males of some other country? The least at risk group?

      Yes, what we really need is to be locked down in our own homes when the home invaders come in brandishing knives and baseball bats ….keep them where they belong please……. and let them contemplate that this is simply the price of “diversity”. Besides, I would have thought Corona Virus the least of a prisoner’s health worries.

  5. Morning all

    SIR – My parents, in their 90s, live in rural North Wales. My father is frail and housebound, my mother does not drive. They are almost unaware of modern electronic communication methods. I am 200 miles away.

    Every Sunday my mother dictates a list to me over the phone, and I enter it into the Sainsbury’s online shopping website. A week ago, I could not get a delivery slot on any day. Thanks to a phone number from my parents’ delivery driver, I was able to ring the Sainsbury’s online manager.

    I was delighted at her response. She told me that if I rang her personally later in the week and dictated the shopping list, she would go round the store and collect everything. If it was not possible to get the order on a van, she would put it in her car and deliver it herself at the end of her shift.

    Having witnessed the atrocious behaviour of panic buyers locally, it brought a tear to my somewhat cynical eye to deal with a young lady who firmly and kindly declared that this elderly couple were going to get their grocery delivery, whatever it took. How does one say thank you for this sort of resolute generosity?

    Ralph Marsh

    Wraysbury, Berkshire

    SIR – I am not hoarding. I am buying extra so that I don’t have to go shopping when everyone has caught the virus in a week or two.

    Dr Doug Jenkinson

    Nottingham

    SIR – A close look at the demographics of those in the huge supermarket queues gives one a good idea of where the selfishness and ignorance lie.

    Lt Col Dale Hemming-Tayler (retd)

    Edith Weston, Rutland

    1. SIR – I am a “glass half full” bloke and fed up with negativity in the current situation. Tim Montagnon of Uppingham (Letters, March 21) wrote of shelves stripped bare at his local Co-op. A few miles away in Oakham he would have found most essentials at small retailers or farm shops.

      He suggests that rationing should have been introduced. I kept my petrol coupons from 1973-74, as a souvenir, and recall how long it took to issue these for just a couple of types of fuel. How long would it take to distribute ration cards for 65 million?

      Colin Cummings

      Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire

      1. One benefit of ration cards would be that the unregistered (illegal) occupants of the UK would not be included.

        1. I would also refuse ration cards to those who featherbed their bonuses whilst refusing to pay tax on them, feeling that financing the nation with their good fortune is none of their business.

          1. The forgeries would be on the street before the real ones, the way things work these days.

      2. I’m a “I’ve got half a glass” type person.
        I recognise things are not perfect, but appreciate what there is.

    2. Dr Doug, when 99.988 of the population have not got the virus you’re going to look stupid.

      Stop being a git.

  6. Report on South-East BBC Breakfast this morning. Six ambulances were damaged by vandals in the depot in Thanet over the weekend.

    Do these morons not realise that they themselves or their relatives may need the services of these ambulances and their crews? Unbelievable.

    1. Morning A. You are assuming that they are morons. Six speaks of deliberate intention!

  7. SIR – Perhaps panic-buying hoarders could be given a white feather with their purchases.

    Andrew Jukes

    Eye, Suffolk

  8. Morning again

    SIR – I was using social activity to help recover from the death of my wife 18 months ago – we were married for 50 years.

    I am sound in mind and body but isolation is killing me.

    David Northcroft

    Sutton Valence, Kent

    SIR – My husband, who is only 55, has terminal cancer. He has also suffered from diabetes all of his life and a few years ago was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

    I am 63 this year, in a wheelchair because I am unable to walk due to an amputation, and I suffer from depression.

    We put ourselves in isolation about 10 days ago. Unfortunately, we have received no help at all from anyone. We live in a small village, the type where everyone knows everyone’s business and not one person has telephoned or put a note through the door asking if we are OK.

    There obviously is no community spirit. All we can see is greed and selfishness. When the shopping arrived last night, half of it was missing because selfish people had cleared the shelves.

    When I am feeling really down I just feel like we have been left to die.

    Kathryn Hadley

    Clutton, Somerset

    SIR – My wife and I are fit and in our 70s. Our neighbour, on his daily stroll to the shops, very kindly knocked to see if we needed anything. He’s 90.

    Roy Kimberley

    Petts Wood, Kent

    1. Kathryn, you write “We put ourselves in isolation about 10 days ago… and not one person has telephoned or put a note through our doors asking if we are OK”. Did it not occur to you to let your neighbours know of your plans before you put yourselves in isolation? And if no-one has phoned to ask how you are, why don’t you telephone them yourself and ask for help? Your letter strikes me as coming from a whinger who expects to be helped without making any effort themselves.

      1. Yerss… my mother occasionally complains that I haven’t rung, as usual, on Sunday evening. My answer is to ask if her phone is broken, because it seems OK just now. When she says “No, why??”, I reply with that it must have been broken, because if it was so important we talked, she could have called me.

        1. I thought that happened only in my family!
          My mother once went round the entire family telling them that “Blackbox has cut off from us!”
          Apparently her phone was broken so that she could not pick it up to call me ONCE!

          1. Seems many families are dysfunctional, BB. Thoughtless, even. I try very hard not to moan about my family – made easier, because there is very little to moan about. Mother, however, could moan for Britain… she complains we never visit her at home, yet she never invites us – never once invited her grandchildren, never called them up, always forgets a birthday card… wonders why they don’t make the first move to talk to her.
            /Ponders

          3. It used to happen to me, too. I was busy with work and would put off ringing my mother (largely because I knew I would get an ear-wigging when I did). Not once did she ring me. As she launched into her tirade about my lack of consideration for not ringing, I used to say, “well, I’m ringing now …”

          4. Do you think it’s a generational thing? Earlier generations had higher expectations of filial duty? Or maybe the push to socialism after the war meant that they invested so much in us (private schools, universities) that they got a bit disappointed with the results?

          5. Not in my mother’s case. I went to a state grammar school and she wasn’t keen on my staying on at all. It was my teachers who persuaded her that I was too bright not to go to university.

    2. The Hadleys obviously have no friends in the village of Clutton. Whose fault that is one can only surmise.

      1. I have to say, the same ignoble thought crossed my mind.
        You tend to get out of life what you put in.
        Elderly chum is now – hallelujah – in a home; sadly as the result of a fall.
        But neighbours, family and friends would not have supported her for so long if she hadn’t been a kind person to begin with.

  9. SIR – Would the idea be considered of awarding all nurses with a medal or badge so that in the future new nurses will be able to see those who went through such a serious time.

    Roy Spencer

    St Brelade, Jersey

  10. SIR – I am having to self-isolate and need a haircut. I could ask my wife to do it for me, but as she has never cut anyone’s hair before I fear that the result could produce an additional reason to self-isolate. What can I do?

    Nigel Gerrett

    Boarshead, East Sussex

    SIR – We are three or four weeks from knowing everyone’s real hair colour.

    Gordon Moser

    Barkingside, Essex

    1. If Nigel Gerrett is self-isolating, he need not worry about whether or not his wife gives him a bad haircut, as no-one else will be around to see the result.

    2. I have made an appointment for a colour session at the end of April.
      By May, I could possibly be contemplating the unthinkable.
      I haven’t been my natural colour since the boys were toddlers.

    3. Well so what if she makes a mess of it. SHe is the only one who will see you and by the time the virus scare goes away it will have all rown back out again…..:-)

    4. Not as long as the supermarkets have henna in stock – you will NEVER see my real hair colour!

  11. SIR – We welcome the Government’s action to protect public health in this pandemic. Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures, but we cannot let basic rights fall casualty to crisis.

    The Coronavirus Bill contains the most draconian powers ever proposed in peacetime Britain. It contains sweeping powers to detain and test “potentially infectious” people, even children, in isolation facilities.

    It contains powers to shut down gatherings, which could thwart protest against extreme measures. And it weakens safeguards on detention under the Mental Health Act, when people are under unprecedented psychological pressure.

    These powers require our utmost caution, closest scrutiny and the strictest time limitations. Two years without review is too long.

    These islands face challenges best when we uphold our values. This crisis requires courage and co-operation.

    We must protect the laws and liberties that are the foundation of our democracy, so that when this is over, we will be reunited with the freedoms that define us.

    Andrew Mitchell MP (Con)

    David Davis MP (Con)

    Baroness Chakrabarti (Lab)

    Shadow Attorney General

    Sir Ed Davey MP

    Acting Leader, Liberal Democrats

    Joanna Cherry MP (SNP)

    Caroline Lucas MP (Green)

    Stephen Farry MP (Alliance)

    Silkie Carlo

    Big Brother Watch

    Kate Allen

    Amnesty International UK

    Diane Abbott MP (Lab)

    Shadow Home Secretary

    Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (Lab)

    Rachel Hopkins MP (Lab)

    Kate Osborne MP (Lab)

    Paula Barker MP (Lab)

    Beth Winter MP (Lab)

    Sam Tarry MP (Lab)

    Navendu Mishra MP (Lab)

    Grahame Morris MP (Lab)

    Aspana Begum MP (Lab)

    Kim Johnson MP (Lab)

    Claudia Webbe MP (Lab)

    Christine Jardine MP (Lib Dem)

    Daisy Cooper MP (Lib Dem)

    Alistair Carmichael MP (Lib Dem)

    Wendy Chamberlain MP (Lib Dem)

    Tim Farron MP (Lib Dem)

    Wera Hobhouse MP (Lib Dem)

    Layla Moran MP (Lib Dem)

    Sarah Olney MP (Lib Dem)

    Jamie Stone MP (Lib Dem)

    Munira Wilson MP (Lib Dem)

    Lord Newby (Lib Dem)

    Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames (Lib Dem)

    Lord Strasburger (Lib Dem)

    Lord Thomas of Gresford (Lib Dem)

    Lord Clement-Jones (Lib Dem)

    Baroness Ludford (Lib Dem)

    Martyn Day MP (SNP)

    Alyn Smith MP (SNP)

    Chris Stephens MP (SNP)

    Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green)

    Matt Kilcoyne

    Adam Smith Institute

    Kevin Blowe

    Netpol

    Martha Spurrier

    Liberty

    1. Anne loves these multisignature letters. Allen Towers will rock on its foundations when she sees it.

      2. I am disappointed that David Davis signed it. But with names like Abbott, Chakrabarti, Sarah Olney, etc., I think we can safely ignore it. As Minty clearly explains, a sunset clause would obviate all possible future dangers.

        1. Morning Elsie and Nottlers.

          I think, regardless of who signed it whose politics you disagree with, two years to have these unprecedented draconian powers, just because of a virus, is far too long. I’ve already written to my MP about it and other matters.

          I also think this particular letter will make not the slightest bit of difference.

          1. Yes. One of my tasks today is to send an email to my MP.
            It needs to be brief but to the point. I hope he respects my opinions enough to give it some credence.

        2. In some ways I am disappointed that so few Conservative MPs felt able to openly support such a sentiment, but, give the hypocrisy of most of the signatories, I can understand their reticence. This is not a party political matter; these measures strike at the very core of what it means to live in a free society and governments do not willingly release their grasp.
          I am hoping that, behind the scenes, they are pressing for a less draconian time scale. Our present Downing Street incumbents would be a sympathetic audience; future ones may not be so attached to liberty.

          1. Fair point, Annie. But from what I am reading now the Government already had included a 2 year Sunset Clause into their Bill [not your Bill, btw. :-)) ] and now they have belatedly added that the Bill if passed will be subject to reviews at 2-monthly intervals.

    3. I may dislike, in some cases despise, and often disagree with many of those signatories, but in this case they are correct.

    4. As soon as I saw signatories such as Chuckabutty, the Abbopotamus, Ed Davey, Caroline Lucas, I just knew in trice that this is a very bad idea and that the very opposite would be a certain winner.

      ‘Morning, Epi

    5. There’s plenty of signatories on that list whom I would not be happy with if they had their grubby hands on the levers of power. Those hypocrites wouldn’t have gone anywhere near such a letter if the positions were reversed.

      1. While Boris is in charge, I’m pretty chilled about these measures.
        However, I agree that they should be reviewed every 6 months, rather than after 2 years. All such laws must have a sunset clause; governments of every stripe have a bad record when it comes to releasing their grip on the population.
        That is why we still pay income tax.

        1. Ah, yes, income tax. That “temporary” measure imposed to fight the Napoleonic Wars.

    6. Politician’s! Whaddya know? It is possible of course to insert sunset clauses into legislation so that they relapse after a set period. This never happens in the UK because the whole of the Political Elites either hate or fear the native demos and the restrictions may be used another time!

      1. The Norwegian legislation needs re-affirmed every 6 months, and can be voted down at any time by a 1/3 majority in Parliament.

      2. A very bad precedent was set with the 2010 Fixed Term Parliament Act. This was an emergency measure to stabilise Parliament when the hedge funds and global financiers were threatening a run on the banks. It should have been for one term only, and I cannot fathom the mentality of those that made it permanent, binding on subsequent parliaments.

        1. The minority parties cling to the thought that they might yet again hold the balance of power and be part of Government for five years and enabled to effect disproportionate changes in legislation to suit their agenda.

          It should be repealed.

        2. It clearly was not binding on subsequent parliaments, as was demonstrated last December

          1. I believe that the provisions of the act were used last December to call the election.

            If the votes in Parliament had not jumped the FTPA hurdles they would have had to carry on.

          3. I refer learned Nottlers to the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019.

          5. And future governments could do it again in a heartbeat. In our system, what is plainly constitutional legislation carries no privileges – perhaps it should, but it doesn’t. (Anyone who points out the implications of the Metric Martyrs case, I’ll buy them a drink. (Ts & Cs apply.))

          6. Sorry, Joseph, it was binding on subsequent parliaments, as demonstrated last October and November when the Remainers stymied Boris’s attempts to hold an election long before December the 12th.

          8. True, but only if the subsequent parliament repeals whatever legislation they do not want to be bound by.

            They cannot just ignore what is on the statutes.

        3. Neither Cameron nor Osborne were able to think things through.
          Too many people go for the obvious, immediate solution without considering how measures can be abused.
          MT’s reaction the Hatton’s misrule in Liverpool – while understandable at the time – has lead to the poor spavined thing masquerading as local government.

          1. Kinnock’s most famous speech at the 1985 Labour Conference was based on Hatton’s antics. So too was the Channel 4 drama by Alan Bleasdale ‘GBH’ with Robert Lindsay as the power-mad council leader and Michael Palin as his nemesis head teacher of a special school.

      3. I seem to remember that, when the IRA were causing havoc, the Terrorism Act came up for annual review.

    4. 317349+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      Do you get the feeling many of these new measures are never going to be repealed, a lot will be put in place as a new alinement showing the peoples how it is going to be in the future as in, the political butler is now the
      Lord of the manor.

    5. Habeus Corpus has already been suspended from the moment the EU’s ETA (Extradition Treaty Act) came into effect and – after David Cameron rejected it – Home Secretary Theresa May foolishly decided to accept it.

      CORRECTION: I think I meant EAW (European Arrest Warrant). ETA is really Estimated Time (of) Arrival, isn’t it?

    6. Now this is bad news.
      They could have kept jury trials, eg separating the jurors by plexiglass, and having discussions via videoconferencing from hotel rooms.
      What this decision shows, is that jury trials aren’t considered important.
      As ogga says, jury trials have already effectively been thrown away by the government anyway.

  15. How many elected representatives are making fortunes by shorting markets at the same time as closing down the economy ?

    1. It’s not the puppets that worry me as much as those faceless drones pulling the strings.

      1. Certain senior British politicians were in very close contact with Soros during the 2008/9 financial crisis.

        I wonder how many are this time ?

        We also know that Soros jnr was in contact with Macron recently.

        We also know that a friend of Soros made a hundred million in London in the last few days.

        I wonder if Soros passes the info to his British political friends just as Schweizer alleges he did with Obama ?

        1. Please repeat this another 27 times, Polly I don’t say you are wrong, but having porrige for breafast every day does turn you off.

  16. Just had a phone call from the dentist cancelling my 9am appointment. They are only treating emergencies.

    As an alternative I thought I might pop in and get the haircut I could do with, so I checked the barber’s website to see what’s going on. They posted a message an hour ago saying that as from today, they are closed until they feel safe to do otherwise.

    Hippy days are here again. 🙂

    1. I have a dental appointment at 10.30 this morning. The surgery phoned me last Friday to confirm that I would attend.

    2. At the risk of being accused of repetition (!), your hair isn’t going to grow that much in 12 weeks.

      1. It’s already been growing for 10 weeks.

        No sleep will be lost over it.

        It was a joke!

    3. I have mentioned it before (sorry Peddy) but I have not had a professional haircut for 32 years as Caroline trims my locks. I used to nickname her the Trimmer when she also tried to trim my gastronomical excesses – the name I borrowed from Evelyn Waugh Sevillian in the Men of Arms Trilogy.

    1. Fascism is a Left wing trait.

      Authoritarianism is equally, a Left wing trait.

      It shouldn’t be needed if the nation were resolutely right wing but it isn’t. Us sensible people have to cope with the stupid people.

      As for demanding a complete shut down – we simply can’t. Our economy has to feed 75 million people (thanks, Labour). It can’t without persistent production and importing of goods by air, road and sea.

      Those systems require people to monitor the systems. What do you do? Stop anyone doing anything? What if I need to walk the dog? What if I’m injured? Is a vet an essential service? What about a bin man? A lorry driver? A mechanic? Petrol pump store people? Pharmacies? Airport staff? Logistics peeps? Plumbers?

      We cannot simply stop the country and tell everyone to stay inside.

      1. ‘Afternoon, Wibbles, my daughter in Tasmania works for the Australian Tax Service – she is designated a key worker!

    2. The last thing you should expect from brain dead leftards is logical consistency.

  18. Late Night Phone Call To The Vet

    A dog lover, whose dog was a female and “in heat’, agreed to look after her neighbour’s male dog while the neighbours were on vacation.

    She had a large house and believed that she could keep the two dogs apart. However, as she was drifting off to sleep, she heard awful howling and moaning sounds, rushed downstairs and found the dogs locked together, in obvious pain and unable to disengage, as so frequently happens when dogs mate.

    Unable to separate them, and perplexed as to what to do next, although it was late, she called the vet, who answered in a very grumpy voice.

    Having explained the problem to him, the vet said,

    “Hang up the phone and place it down alongside the dogs. I will then call you back and the noise of the ringing will make the male lose his erection and he will be able to withdraw.”

    “Do you think that will work?” she asked.

    “Just worked on me,” he replied.

    1. I have been appalled by the number of people here (North Tyneside) who are DEMANDING that we go into total lockdown. They believe the police and army should be roaming the streets stopping anyone who is moving. I wish I could say to them to be careful what you wish for, but it’s not worth the abuse you get if you dare to go against “public opinion”. It is truly terrifying how brainwashed these people have come. They would have done very well as STASI informants 30 odd years ago.

      1. Look at the panic yesterday because a few hundred people decided individually to go for a walk along Tynemouth Long Sands on Mother’s Day, because the weather was nice and the pubs were shut, so they couldn’t go for their usual carvery sub-standard Sunday dinner.

        Low tide, loads of space and plenty of room between the various (presumably family) groups, but somebody takes a photo of a few dozen people with a telephoto lens, which causes foreshortening and compression, puts it in the paper as an example of ‘crowds and crowding’ and the comments are full of how they are ‘idiots putting everyone’s lives at risk for their own selfish ends’.

        In an area with about 20 recorded cases in a population of over half a million.

        All sense of proportion is gone.

        https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/please-stay-home-north-east-17962451

      2. I suggested that he should begin to try to cure his verbal diarrhoea as far as posts here are concerned by rationing himself to a maximum of 15 posts a day.

        Of course, unless it is required by an edict from HMRC he will pay no attention to any advice because he seems to to be autistically insensitive to others.

        I note that this morning above this he has pasted 8 separate posts in the space of 14 minutes. That equals a rate of 32 posts an hour. As he spends about 15 hours a day on this site at this rate willl achieve 480 posts – maybe he is aiming for 500.

    2. Bill, I am pretty tolerant and respect differences of opinion, but I am getting heartily sick of these postings.
      We can all read and do not need this sort of stuff.

      1. I blocked him a long time ago. I can usually get the flavour from the surrounding posts. Sorry Bill, nothing personal!

  23. Bolton stabbing: Girl, seven, killed by stranger in park

    A seven-year-old girl has died after being stabbed by a stranger in a park.

    The girl suffered serious injuries in the attack at Queen’s Park in Bolton at about 14:30 GMT, Greater Manchester Police said.

    A force spokesman said despite the “best efforts of her family and medical responders, she died a short while later”.

    A 30-year-old woman, who was not known to the family, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder.

    Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson said officers were “working to understand the motive for this completely random and brutal attack”.

    “A woman who was not known to the family was detained by a member of the public and then arrested by the police,” he said.

    “We understand that the woman has some history of mental illness and we are working to understand if this played any part in her motive.”

  25. Lockdown likely to come into force tomorrow

    The problem at the moment is the Emergency Powers Act has not yet been passed so the government can only request premises to close and quite a few are ignoring that

    The Act should be fast tracked though today and become law at midnight

      2. Yes

        2.30 pm

        Business

        Coronavirus Bill: Business of the House motion

        Legislation

        Coronavirus Bill: all stages

  26. Army has now been mobilized

    Mainly for logistic and supply chain duties at present

    The Army will be brought in to help get deliveries of protective equipment to frontline NHS staff who are battling the coronavirus pandemic.

    Hospital trusts have been told they will be receiving deliveries of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, safety glasses, gloves, aprons and protective suits “around the clock”.

    The Army is being brought in to support the supply chain after NHS staff warned they did not have the correct equipment to protect themselves as they treat hundreds of patients with coronavirus.

    Army trucks will deliver the equipment to “all who need it”, health secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday.

    Over the last few days, NHS England said “millions more items” of PPE had been delivered to hospitals, ambulance trusts and care homes, among others.

    Mr Hancock told Sky News a PPE shipment was sent to every hospital over the weekend and he is making sure “there is a constant flow” but trusts need to let him kno

    2. Why do the army need to deliver unobtainable supplies, rather than the usual Eddie Stobart? Or is this a stage in getting people used to seeing uniforms on the street?

          1. They are not going to be competing with DHL or Eddie Stobart. There remit is to assist with the logicians by providing extra capacity for critical items. They have more than enough lorries for that and DHL etc will have some spare capacity as many retailers have closed down. The military also have planes and helicopters that can be used

            They are experts in logistic. If you are in a ware zone you cannot pop around to the local supermarket for supplies

          2. The Army has 10,000 Man lorries, made in Germany. (I am not even going to comment that that number of lorries would justify setting up a factory in the UK. Oh…)

          3. The MAN (as pictured) are 15-tonners. The Stobart / DHL etc are mainly articulated 55 tonners. over 3 times the capacity, and more volume for light goods too.

          4. I was simply stating a fact I gleaned from research a couple of years ago. Research that related to our buying lorries in such large numbers from Germany when we should be building them here.
            I make no comment to suitability.
            When I was managing deliveries in SE England my largest vehicle was 3 ton van. Even so, the drivers had fun getting around Soho and the West End.
            The container deliveries to our cellars at Tower St were something else and always resulted in a weekly fine…

      2. Morning Oberst. It’s quite obvious this could be handled by present resources. It’s just an introduction to the UK’s Peoples Liberation Army!

    3. Treat the Army like sh!te and then expect it to bail out the country because civilians are addicted to cheap fashion and carp garden furniture.

    4. Not necessarily a good idea, given that the Spanish ‘flu was brought over from Kansas, where it is now believed to have originated, by the US Army when they shipped over to Europe after three months of close-contact intensive training.

      1. The virus was first identified in a Kansas facility, but its original apparently remains formally unknown. Though the usual suspects might have been involved. Possibly Dorothy’s family were short of food and ate her dog. Or they were fond of bat soup.

          1. Got it! Originally, Dorothy wasn’t Kansas raised as the story suggests. She was blown in from China on a previous tornado.

      3. Well you can forget the cavalry arriving this time, their hospitals are saying that they have as big a shortage of equipment as the UK.

        Have you tried asking Russia?

  27. Ambulance service warns of hand gel shortage

    Surely supplies to the NHS need to be prioritized. If need be cut back other customers orders. Whilst soap and water is fine in hospitals. Ambulances only have a limited supply of water

    The region’s ambulance service has warned it is facing a shortage of hand gel as the health secretary admitted there had been “challenges” supplying the NHS.

    n an internal message to staff at the end of last week, the East of England Ambulance Service said it may have to use alternatives to hand gel in the short term, while it waited for more supplies.

    It asked staff to use soap and water or anti-bacterial wipes instead.

    1. Many Canadian distilleries have switched their efforts to making hand sanitiser, take a bottle or two of spirits adding a dollop of hand lotion and there you are. Apparently the coconut lotion helps make a very appealing gel.

      Surely not beyond the skills of Gordon’s or any of the scotch companies. No doubt bureaucracy will turn this same day response into a three month procurement exercise.

    2. I’m not sure this is true. Alf has had an unsolicited email from an unknown company offering hand sanitizer for sale.

  28. Every cloud has a silver lining.
    The obsession with the Covid-19 virus seems to have pushed the latest whinges of St Great out of the media altogether.
    If she should happen to say to the Chinese “How dare you?????!!!!???” then I will allow that as acceptable. But otherwise she is lost in the media wilderness as yesterday’s news…..

        1. Naomi Seibt says she had to go into hospital for emergency surgery but she’s back now. Good to know that there are some intelligent teenagers who understand the physics of CO2 and realise that its function as a gas precludes the retention of heat.

          2. CO2 doesn’t retain heat. It scatters – technically, reradiates – IR radiation, which is why it is a greenhouse gas.

    2. Greta is oh, so yesterday. And none of us will have the energy for ‘saving the planet’ after this if we survive covid-19, social isolation, the depression that goes along with it and the effort of survival under a collapsed economy. ‘How dare she’ think her own personal crusade is more important than people’s struggle for their own personal existence as they will attempt to get their lives back on track when this is over. She will be swept aside in the tsunami of relief. Anyway, there is a new kid on the block now with a very different message.

      .

      1. I strongly suspect that the coronavirus reached the U.K. through all those bloody foreigners coming in and telling us what to do, bringing their germs with them. I hope Greta has gone into self-isolation, taking her parents with her.

    4. Her puppeteers will be rewriting the scripts to get climate change and scary virus in the same sentence. This is the proof that she was correct all along!

    1. I really despair of a society that produces people that not only behave like that, but advertise it to the world. That is a pure lack of civilisation, a real savage.

      1. I think in China he would have been taken out and shot. It would have been a good riddance for society.

  30. We have been here before. Once the war against the virus is over, after much blood, toil, tears and sweat, the superb work of Boris and our Conservative government be rejected and forgotten. Much work will be needed to restore our country to what it was before. There will be an election, and the Labour Party will win. The successors to Jeremy Corbyn will be in charge, with socialist or even communist principles. There will be a brave new world, possibly with Rebecca Long-Bailey in a leading position to ensure gender equality.
    You think I am joking ? Not this time.

    1. You may well be right, this Conservative Government will take the blame whatever happens. However, hopefully a GE will not happen until 2024, if we survive and hopefully people’s memories will have forgotten covid19. (That’s if we don’t have another outbreak or something else doesn’t crop up).

      1. 317349+ up ticks,
        Morning V,
        No one can with proof, back up these governance parties performances over especially the last two decades.
        It has been unconcealed,in your face treachery by a pro eu coalition.
        One has taken the leadership baton from tother without an iota of benefit to the country,
        far from it.
        As the electorate sink deeper into the mire of sh!te you can still hear cries of “we will get revenge at the next GE”

      2. In the GE of 2024, Boris may well suffer the curse of rising expectations. A brief history lesson: in 1992, the economy was bad and worsening. The sitting government won the GE. In 1997, things were palbably improving. The sitting government lost the GE. Times are hard now, but I look around and see that I am better off than many. I count my blessings. Five years hence, we shall be reading lots of good news stories, but that won’t be much comfort for the many for whom things are still getting worse, or at least not yet improving.

    2. ‘s what happened after the last World War. Tired population wanted jam today, and voted socialist. that went well.

    3. The superb work so far being…………

      Huawei

      HS2

      Net Zero

      Signing the hideous Withdrawal Agreement

      The threat of tens of thousands more inland wind turbines

      The continuation of all the Soros compliant legislation and policy which is wrecking Britain.

      The likelihood of completely wrecking Britain’s economy, trashing the Pound and massive inflation.

      It would be superb work if Prime Minister Johnson had rubbished all those things, but he has enthusiastically promoted them !

        1. Oh…. ok then……

          All those things I listed are great and all of them are of huge benefit to Britain.

          Do you agree with that ?

    2. 15% is probably less than the number of cancelled elective surgeries that would use blood transfusions.

    3. I was ‘retired’ from giving blood three years ago, after having donated for 36 years. My iron level was found on 3 separate occasions to be just below the permissible limit, although not low enough to warrant a visit to my GP. I have no health problems. I could easily resume giving blood, with virtually no risk to my health, but I don’t suppose I would be contacted by the NHS Blood and Transplant people even if it were a real emergency. Perhaps I’ll try to contact them to see if I could volunteer again.

      1. They stopped calling me for blood donations when I was diagnosed with breast cancer many years ago. Not wanting to endanger people by passing on cancer cells I complied. Since then, restrictions on people who have travelled to certain parts of the world have discouraged me from offering my blood.

  32. Evening Standard to deliver to homes for first time

    the Standard will begin a home delivery service from Monday, delivering its print edition to homes in 26 neighbourhoods in Zone Two and Three of the capital.

  33. Top of the morning to ye all!
    Here’s one for you.
    Apparently the government closed Norway without a financial costing in place. That’s now been done, costed as £28 billion…
    That’s money!
    And unemployment has not been worse since 1945.

  34. These are Morrisons new opening hours as it gives NHS workers an hour to shop before everyone else. 22 MAR 2020

    NHS workers have said they have struggled to get what they need at the start and end of their shifts as others hoard pasta, long-life products and toilet rolls.
    So Morrisons will dedicate 7am to 8am for people working in the NHS, following similar moves by Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Marks & Spencer.

    Morning everyone. I’ve accessed my local Morrisons website and the opening times have been changed to 0800 opening. I assume this is now the norm!

    https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/morrisons-new-opening-hours-gives-3971367

  36. The left is so full of hatred for Johnson that it is already blaming him for the spread of the disease, claiming he should have put the country into ‘lockdown’ the minute the virus first arrived, citing Italy’s decline in infections as vindication of the tactic. For them, the pressure on the NHS right now is a result of delaying.

    It’s a brave man who challenges the view. Question the policy and ‘you don’t care about the sick’ and ‘you’re challenging the science’. Yes, that line again. Why are they any more qualified to comment on the success or failure of any methods adopted when we’re dealing with something beyond modern experience?

    As I wrote a few days, the choices are difficult ones: save the NHS or crash the economy; have all the deaths now and get it over and done with or spread the misery out over several months. How many want to make that choice?

    This is from the Guardian:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8efd8543ecdcbdf22e2e7ff972190b0dbc7b76f19ec912adfd5022cc5c84a1b.jpg

    1. TBF, both sides would try to make political capital out of a crisis. It’s in their DNA.

      1. I would not say that Boris’s handling of the crisis is ” trying to make political capital ” Nothing that he does could possibly make him popular.

        1. That’s not what I meant. The Torys would criticise a Labour administration if – God forbid – they were in power.

          1. HM’s loyal opposition have a duty to question Government policy.

            It’s a great pity that the current mob are point scoring rather than establishing the facts and reasons behind what the Government proposes.

    2. The sad thing is that there are so many Labour voters, so many Guardian readers, so many whose understanding of current affairs comes from accidentally being in the room when BBC News is on TV.

      1. There may be many guardian readers but they don’t pay for it. About 130,000 a day circulation out of the entire population and the BBC buy most of them.

        Sounds a bit left wing that does. 🙁

    3. Words that the left have taken over and ruined:

      Gay
      Science
      Community

      I really don’t understand how they cannot see that exhortations to “Follow the science!” and “Believe the science!” are straight out of the Life of Brian.
      But then again, the left have never been strong on irony.

    4. I would say the reported Italian experience vindicates the government’s step by step stance. Flatten the sombrero. Italy hasn’t and has suffered.

  37. A good question. What is happening to the sex industry while all this is going on ? What’s happening with the dating sites – are they still in business.
    No personal experience of either, maybe some of you have ?

  38. I wish people would make a difference between responsibly building up a stock that will last through quarantine, and mindlessly buying 20 pasta packets.
    The former can be done by buying a little bit extra every week for a couple of months, the latter leads very quickly to empty shelves.
    I started slowly building up a quarantine stash at the end of January because if anyone in my household gets the bug, there will be no just-one-more supermarket visit! It’s over once someone gets the bug – you all stay. at. home. till they are better.
    How much virus-spreading will be done by people who are busy condemning others for panic buying at the moment, but have no stocks themselves for if someone in their household gets ill?
    I get the impression that a lot of people in the UK still regard chinese flu as something that primarily affects their social life or interferes with their ability to buy pasta.

      1. No, they don’t.
        Home deliveries require a surrender of privacy, the impact of which is far greater than any sanctions the government are imposing. When you sign up for home deliveries, you
        – effectively trust a supermarket not to get broken into, and your bank details stolen
        – give the supermarket for free, the exact details of what you buy during your online shop
        – allow them to track you in the future, if you carry on shopping at that supermarket after the quarantine is over, even if you use cash. The pattern of your grocery buying enables you to be tracked with a high percentage accuracy.
        Detailed information about your shopping reveals facts to big data businesses about your household that you yourself may not be aware of, and that your nearest and dearest don’t know.

        As for friends and neighbours, there are not the housewives with time to spare for keeping an eye on the neighbours that there were in former times. Multi-culturalists will no doubt be looking to this situation to try and “prove” that diversity is strength, and people work together to overcome community problems – there is more evidence that they won’t.
        Too many people are immigrants, and live isolated lives, restricted by limited knowledge of the local language, and enabled by long distance links with friends and family back home. They simply don’t know any locals. And because they live in houses that would previously have been occupied by locals, the locals don’t have the same connections that they would have had in years gone by.
        Many neighbours and friends are elderly, and can’t be relied upon to fetch groceries. A small circle of two or three families may all be in quarantine themselves at the same moment.

        There are too many possible reasons why relying on friends and neighbours is not a sensible option in our diverse, divided modern western world.

        1. Looking at the YouTube videos and reading newspaper reports indicates that the shelf-stripping is mostly carried out by the “diversity”. How nice.

          1. And much of it going straight into their handy little corner “convenience” stores to be sold at a vast mark-up.

          2. Certain political morons would praise these crooks for the latter’s entrepreneurial abilities.

        2. Pay for your shop with a debit/credit card and it is all the same. They know what you buy and who you are plus they have your bank details from the card.

          Your only hope for that sort of privacy is to pay cash at all times.
          Oh, and they also have number plate recognition on the cameras watching the car park….. so unless you drag a shopping trolley with you, they have you identified as a shopper……

          1. I pay in cash. The number plates are less useful as they have a looser relationship with one person. They won’t bother to use number plates when most people cheerfully hand over this information in exchange for a few unicorn points or saving 15 seconds at the checkout.

          2. I haven’t used ‘loyalty cards’ for years.
            I could see that information being distributed to government agencies.
            Visit your GP and your butter and cream buying record would appear; so, particularly in times of drug shortage, goodbye to any heart treatment.

          3. Private companies are as much or more to be feared these days, as they have so much hold over our lives – in combination with laws passed by governments, of course.
            Expensive insurance could be a consequence.
            Or not getting a job because you look like a bad risk.

          5. They are so close, I don’t think there is a meaningful difference any more. Democracy was always a fig leaf over the Establishment in the UK, since Blair wrecked that, it’s been a free for all.
            Big companies and the Blairite Blob control us now – despite Brexit, voting has never been so pointless.

          1. No. I’m a software developer, and I read security news. Most break-ins never make it into the mainstream news, because companies keep them secret if possible, to fool people like you. It always makes me laugh when people say things like “Carry cards instead of cash because you can always cancel cards if they get stolen.”
            I have also read a little about big data and how it’s used – trust me, that’s another stone that you’ll wish you’d never looked under.

            As for using cash, I believe people will regret it bitterly when they have given away the anonymity of cash. You only have to look at what is happening in China. It won’t be the government doing it here, but private enterprise – the results will be the same for us little people.

      2. Maybe the big supermarkets, or one of them, secretly started the virus and the panic to drive people to their online order and home delivery service……. and the premium charge they get…. this is, we are told, the future…. online shopping.

        And this is what we can do locked down in our homes, think up new conspiracy theories all day long. Sooner or later someone will, by the law of averages, find the right one…..
        I suspect it will involve some mega billionaire who despite owning pretty much everything already and more money than Croesus, still can’t get enough money power or influence.

        1. I’m happy to shop on line. Let them collect what they want to. Their profiling is daft as they still think I want Pampers.

          The problem with Online shopping at the moment is the nearest appointment is some time in May.

      3. I don’t have much cash at home. If I’m quarantined, how do I repay my neighbours if I can’t get to the bank? They don’t have debit card readers.

    2. The problem is that most people seem to be treating the time off work as a vacation….. and behaving accordingly…. record numbers in Snowdon National park, for example, and this seems to be the case all over…..

      1. I think that is a symptom of chronic overcrowding, tbh.
        They went out walking at the weekend. If the country weren’t so overcrowded, that wouldn’t be a problem.

    3. How long will the quarantine last though? We’re all fit and healthy and working. I appreciate we can’t all dash about living normally but when do we get the ‘this is daft, carry on’ signal? End of March? April? May?

      Dear life I’m already going potty. People are dumb and covering their mouths – as if that’s the only point of ingress to the human body and wearing gloves for fear of ‘germs’ which they encounter simply by existing.

      Perhaps we could have a common sense test, whereby you can carry on as normal as long as you aren’t a gormless moron?

      1. “Quarantine” in this sense means when one of your family gets the virus, and the whole family stays at home until at least one of you is recovered and can go out without infecting someone else.
        About 3-4 weeks, I think?
        Until then, it is food shopping as normal.
        I think the restrictions are probably going to last for a month, at a guess.

    1. As someone commented:

      “We are focusing on the weak. This us all necessary to keep the numbers down so we have a chance to give them treatment when they need it. No lockdown means thousands more will die when the system is overwhelmed. It’s simple but go ahead and feed conspiracies.”

      1. 317349+ up ticks,
        Morning AA,
        I do hope you are not aiming the feeding conspiracies post at ogga.
        By the same token the more credible theories
        are seemingly gaining reality.
        Cross channel invasion still operating, planes still landing on GB soil, is that not so ?
        A three party system that has NEVER especially in the last two decades put the peoples of these Isles first & foremost, never.

        1. Not at all. TBH, I find the Government stance on imposing self-isolation on sections of the British public whilst allowing into the country from Corona virus hotspots rather inconsistent to say the least. I would say there must be a reason, but then I would be supporting the conspiracy theorists.

          1. A_A, I’ve posed that very question re importing from hot-spots, to my MP this morning. I pointed out to him that irresponsible people are less likely to do as the Government demands if they see the Government being irresponsible.
            There’s no hope for the moron licking bottles and for brainless people like him but the Government should set the right example to the majority if they demand compliance. Do as I say, not as I do is guaranteed to annoy people.

          2. 317349+ up ticks,
            AA,
            As I have just posted some of these conspiracy
            theories, the more credible ones are seemingly becoming more factual.

  40. Yeh! Got my cancer drug delivered today by courier, which normally requires me or my OH traipsing through the local hospital each month. And they’ve also given me three month’s worth in one go.

    1. Will we worry when the death rate among muslims is higher than for the rest of the population?

      3. 317349+ up ticks,
        To be honest I would not wish it on anyone and would find greater satisfaction if the islamic ideology was obliterated via the ballot booth.
        Instead the governance brigade are fully embracing it , swearing by it in the HP sauce factory, & abiding by it having introduced the
        halal treatment to the canteen menu.
        Remember which ever governance party is in
        it got there with the peoples support…… for now.

      4. If their hygiene regimes aren’t up to standard they will have brought it on themselves.

    2. According to Majid Nawaaz, Muslims in this country account for 25% of the corona virus deaths.

      1. I wonder how many racists are thinking, “At least it’s a start”?
        I know I am!

      2. And I bet this will be presented by the BBC as evidence of terrible islamophobia in Britain, while muslim NHS workers have been saving our lives!

  42. TIM STANLEY

    We were wrong: this isn’t a war, it’s a plague

    This is more like 1629 Florence than Second World War Britain

    My mother came home from South Africa the other day, so I popped round to see her. We shouted at each other across the front garden. “I’ve brought you some flowers and a bag of oranges!” I said from a safe distance.

    “Leave them on the step and I’ll pick them up with gloves.”

    They were still sitting there when I drove away. Mum was looking at them suspiciously, as if they might explode.

    This is life now. When the coronavirus first hit Britain, our minds went back to the Blitz. But the analogy is completely wrong because the Blitz brought people together. This drives us apart. This isn’t a war, it’s a plague, and there’s only ever been one way to get through them.

    In his book Florence Under Siege, published rather prophetically last year, Professor John Henderson says that when the plague stalked Florence in 1629, the authorities threw up a cordon sanitaire around the city, but it didn’t work. The guards got bored; peasants slipped through. With thousands suddenly dying, the Florentines imposed a complete shutdown in January 1630, ordering the majority of citizens to be confined to their homes. Food was delivered to their doors and it’s possible that, for some people, their diet improved: bread and wine every day, some meat, rice and salad. It was as close as the early modern era came to socialism. The flipside was harsh punishment for anyone who defied the curfew, including prison, and that probably meant death.

    Workshops closed, games were banned, lovers were separated. Mass was said in private, just as is being done today. The priest would ring a bell to announce that the service had begun and the entire city would join in at home, which is beautiful and a vast improvement on all those videos of Italians singing O Sole Mio on their balconies (that would drive me mad). The plague finally abated in the summer and the citizens took to the streets in a Corpus Christi procession to give thanks. The city must have got something right. The death rate was roughly 1 in 10, a high number, but much lower than in other parts of the country. Verona lost an astonishing 61 per cent of its population.

    You need three things to get through a plague. First, as much social distancing as possible, perhaps for months. Second, a strong central government to do what civil society can’t. And third, a strong sense of oneself, a confidence in being alone, a hinterland and, yes, a “faith” in the broadest sense of that word. You need hope.

    Coronavirus has completely derailed my book

    I despair for the book I’m supposed to be writing: coronavirus means I’ll have to tear it up and start again. There’s a chapter on how classical liberalism (small state conservatism) dominates Western politics and I was quite happy with what I wrote until, last week, classical liberalism walked into the library with a loaded revolver. It hasn’t been seen since.

    Boris Johnson, who we all thought was a libertarian, has signed off on something akin to war communism. The government is about to get big – very big – both in how much it spends and how it treats civil liberties. For example, the coronavirus bill would temporarily amend mental health legislation to say that only one doctor’s signature is required to section someone, not two. According to the bill’s explanatory notes, “Temporary amendments also allow for the extension or removal of certain time limits relating to the detention and transfer of patients.” It’s frightening.

    There might be strong arguments for bold action and we all want to help out, which is why some journalists have tempered our language. But we can’t suspend our critical thinking just because there’s a crisis. Fiscal conservatives have every right to ask questions about the economic plans just as libertarians have a responsibility to challenge measures that, I suspect, are creeping towards an official curfew.

    The problem with leviathans is that once you’ve created one, they’re a bugger to get rid of, which was our experience at the end of the Second World War. It took us forty-odd years to roll back the state (an effort for which we have to thank classical liberals like Margaret Thatcher).

    Having built all these mechanisms for fighting the virus – and having admitted that, yes, if a society wants to do something badly enough, the money’s there to do it – won’t people say that the next task is to fight inequality or global warming? Again, that’s what happened in the 1940s, when the war state turned into the welfare state. I fear the next culture war will be between puritans and cavaliers, between those who want to use these instruments to build heaven on earth and those who want to get back to life as it was as soon as possible; back to heaving pubs and long drives to Cornwall, all the old pleasures that are suddenly illicit.

    So, speak up! If you think the Government is getting something wrong, say so. It’s not unpatriotic to question excessive power, even when it is used for just ends. It’s the duty of all human beings to exercise and articulate their conscience.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/23/wrong-isnt-war-plague

      2. I recall Ted Heath, torment be upon him, mentioning such a thing in a somewhat different context.

      3. How are you and Mrs AA today? A friend of many years’ standing grand-daughter, aged 13 came down with the cv ten days ago. She lives in Leicester and has an Italian friend. Over the weekend I heard that friend’s daughter (the 13 year old’s mother) has now caught it and is ‘poorly’. We will be having a telephone catch-up tomorrow.

        Why oh why have flights from China, Iran and Italy not been shut down?

    2. Eyam a small Anglo-Saxon village nestled in the hills of Derbyshire, is known as the ‘plague village’ due to a decision made by the whole village during an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1665.
      According to reports, the plague was brought to the village from London in a bundle of cloth ordered by local tailor George Vicars. He died within a week, and after several more deaths the villagers, on the advice of their rector Reverend William Mompesson, took several steps to ensure that the plague did not spread to neighbouring villages.
      Families were required to bury their own dead, and ultimately the village quarantined itself, allowing no-one in or out during the fourteen months that the plague took hold. Reported numbers of deaths vary—around 260—but it is said that less than a quarter of the village population survived. The self-imposed quarantine did, however, successfully contain the spread of disease.

    3. But Trump has visions of being a great wartime leader, he is now calling it a war. Where one leader goes, they all follow because they are all following the same script.

      Visions of the great trump leading a battalion of heavily armed nurses into battle, his golden locks blowing in the wind and his orange dayglo makeup splattered with camouflage paint spring to mind.

      1. You don’t know what Trump has visions of, you’re not a mind reader. You know what the media are telling you, and they are very, very heavily biased against him. He’s certainly used his position to get government and private businesses to work together to deal with the virus outbreak, and the majority of people now see him as doing a good job.
        You don’t like him. That’s fine. But I think I’d rather have a pro-active Trump right now than Johnson.
        The clampdown on movement is being done at state level, is it not, not at the Federal level? It’s the Democrats who are busily taking advantage of the crisis to push their own agendas, like gun control.

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c7KiPI6kRuA
        Now EVERYONE Can See EMBARRASSING Media HYPOCRISY over ‘China Virus’!!!

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O1OXOobGo4w
        President Trump’s Approval Rating SOARS During Coronavirus!!!

        1. Well at least it is not Clinton or Sanders.

          As I am in the same timezone, I am able to see his daily press briefings without too much effort on my part. I get to see them unedited and without any massaging by the media.

          His scripted comments are bad enough, his glib answers to questions are just a rambling sequence of disconnected words interspersed with insults to any Democrat within range plus his self congratulatory claims of a job well done. He is doing himself no favours with his appearences, especially when experts in the same press conferences follow up his speech with corrections to what Trump claims as fact.

          As for pro active, this is the president that routinely dismissed the virus as nothing more than Democrat fake news. His proactive actions include tweeting insults to state governors who were pleading for action before finally backing down and supporting their actions.

          The Democrats are stupid to not approve that finance bill, unless they can demonstrate some really big failings in the proposal, they should have approved it then instantly followed up with their own bill to support family care rather than business.

          Approval? Even some of the dyed un the wool Republicans in South Carolina were questioning him last week, normally you cannot day a word against him.

          I had great hopes for Trump when he was elected but he has shown himself to be no more than in insecure salesman trying to bluff and bluster his way through – just like some sales reps that I worked with.

          1. Well said Richard! Like you, I was excited to see Trump elected, he seemed like such a breath of fresh air, much needed in government. Now, he has become such an embarrassment with his constant tweets and press conferences, the only good thing I hear in WV, is at least he is not Hillary Clinton!

    4. I shall, for the advice of any government officials who may be watching, be leaving my house at my normal time tomorrow for my Tuesday weekly shop, 9.10am. I shall visit M&S and then Tesco. I shall then return. Usually by around 10.30am. In the afternoon, I will deliver my cousin’s food.
      If machine guns and prison await, I will attempt to duck the bullets.

      1. I drove through my town today, just a normal market town pop about 26000. Queues snaking back and forth on the pavements with people waiting to enter banks and the local Boots store. This was only the part I would see driving through.
        You may leave at 09:10, not too sure what time you will arrive home. As Capt Lawrence Oates said “I am just going outside and may be some time.” At least you will have a happier ending than the good Capt.
        Stay safe.

    5. I never thought Bojo was a conservative, let alone a libertarian. I would have been a Cavalier in the Civil War. I expect I shall be in this one, if I’m spared.

  43. SIR – Now that I can’t socialise, I’ve taken to writing to The Daily Telegraph most days. I don’t send all the letters in – they wouldn’t be published. But it does allow me to get things off my chest and makes me feel much better.

    Edward Gratwicke

    Exeter, Devon

  44. Free rail travel for NHS staff across Wales

    NHS staff in Wales are being offered free travel on Transport for Wales rail services with immediate effect, the company has announced.

    NHS workers will just need to show their work ID to access services to get themselves back and forth to work until 30 April.

  45. Dixons Carphone, Halfords and The Original Factory Shop are among the chains vying to claim “essential retailer” status, even as the government prepares to introduce new restrictions on economic activity.

  48. Seven NHS doctors ‘feared to have coronavirus’ at London hospital amid strain on city’s health services

    That surely means the entire hospitals at risk as is anyone that visited there as on any reasonable basis it means those doctor got infected in the hospital

    It could be worse though as many doctors work at more than one hospital

  49. Ministers issue fresh warning as coronavirus death toll in London ‘jumps to half UK total’

    Time to lock down London perhaps ?

    The death toll from coronavirus in London has jumped to 148, about half the UK’s total.

    Ministers could hardly contain their anger that some members of the public were flouting social distancing and work-from-home advice, and in so doing threatening lives, particularly of elderly people, those with underlying health conditions and nurses and doctors treating a spiralling number of patients.

      1. The younger generation that were flouting crowd controls and requests to stay home in Florida at the weekend have apparently been shown as not immune, apparently some have tested positive for the disease.

      2. Despite having been to that well known opticians, I thought for a couple seconds that you’d written “Enforce Ovaltine” – I now realise that I had the wrong glasses on!

    2. Maybe they should point their anger at the powers that are reducing public transport. Some people still need to go into work, not everyone has a cushy desk job.

      For the past few days you have posted almost endless news of bus and train service reductions when surely the opposite is required if essential workers are to have any chance of physically distancing themselves from others.

      So big government, turn your wrath on that London mayor, demand full rush hour service be resumed and do the same for all of the other transportation services that are no longer servicing the workers.

    3. I think their anger may have more to do with the fact that their orders are not being obeyed.

  50. Government Embarrassment

    IT has been pointed out that at their daily press briefings they are not the regulation 2M apart

    1. Immediately after giving her briefing a week or so ago, the Prime Minister in Norway went to shake the hands of the Health and some other minister… who recoiled in horror! Excellent – didn’t think of what she has just said about touching people!

      1. The US government play pack a podium during their daily briefings. They are getting better, they were barely a foot apart on Sunday.

        Beloved Trudeau does it alone. He is in quarantine but no doubt there are lackeys ready to admire his words of wisdom.

        Our Canadian conservative opposition have been remarkably quiet,. At the weekend they said that now is not the time to simply criticise the government, they will work behind the scenes to help improve government actions.

  52. I have from time to time been responsible for making deliveries. The notion that home deliveries can be easily increased on a scale that will supply basics to the quarantined is not sensible. Existing delivery services, such as Royal Mail and Yodel, are carefully tailored to the level of service currently required by these businesses with profit margins to maintain. The number of vans and drivers that would be required is considerable. (Think man+ van = 100 deliveries per day.) Just as important is understanding route planning. There is the additional difficulty of finding addresses, not just in the countryside, but in leafy suburbs where hedges and walls conceal front doors from the road and there are no street numbers or house names on gates or gate-posts.

    1. My brother was white van man for a period. Paid by the delivery, regardless of where it was, he said exactly what you wrote. It was a nightmare, no wonder the poor buggers drive so fast to get it all done – he’d often be working late just to complete his round because of the difficulty in finding the address, and the distances between them.

      1. How long ago? It’s all done by GPS now, unless there are still some idiots who don’t use their post code.

        1. Post codes are not that accurate – particularly in the country where they can cover a huge area.
          Add to the mix darkened streets and roads.
          We have houses opposite us that are divided into flats.
          Often we get taxis or deliveries for No. 3 that are actually for a Flat 3 opposite us.

        3. My postcode covers a road ¼ of a mile long with only a couple of dozen houses, most of which are set well back from the road making identifying them very hard.

          1. One of my friends lives in an Old Rectory which has a postcode, but for some reason, satnavs don’t recognise it and send people completely in the wrong direction.

    2. The ‘They should be doing this, that and the other Brigade’ never seem to consider logistics and equipping. They imagine there’s an endless supply of men and vans just lying in wait in some unknown location to spring into action to deliver mountains of stuff that hasn’t been manufactured yet, or hasn’t even been invented.

      Then they complain when it doesn’t happen and join the ‘Why didn’t they just… Brigade’.

      1. One thousand upvotes, bassetedge, and this is exactly why I posted along similar lines a few days ago.

    3. Tesco reports they will recruit another 20,000 during the crisis…. to do what? Stock the shelves? I would think that the opportunity to grow the online home delivery business is a godsend to them….. especially the premium charge,,,,, I don’t hear any of them offering free deliveries to loyal instore customers…..

  54. 317349+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    The anti society ambulance disablers should have eight hours a day in the stocks in the market square for a month, let decent peoples show their appreciation.
    The authorities know who is doing what at any given time in the main.
    They can have you picking your nose showing on the front page from a satellite shot.

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1241851953321295879

    1. “Is it time to lockdown the media?”
      An eggsellent idea.
      Unless the hens have stopped laying ?

    2. Tomorrow’s article by Laura will be entitled: “Why milk is becoming as rare as unicorn semen”.

      1. They had two milk distributors on this morning, assuring the public that all was well – their salaries are unaffected but farmers’ price dropped and have to accept a delay of two months before getting paid.

        Because of the closure of the pubs and cafés, there is a glut of milk that has to be thrown away. There is a shortage when it comes to domestic supplies, but for management reasons and EU competition rules they cannot move supply over from one to the other.

        Legally binding executive bonus packages are unaffected, and are covered by Government borrowing.

        2. It’s past time we chucked all the EU rules. They never followed them on the mainland. Some cynical people might think that the rules were created for France, Germany et al to ignore, and for us to follow to the letter, slavishly, so that the UK suffered continual embuggrification and impoverishment.

          1. I agree, but I am beginning to wonder if the EU is just an excuse for British bad management, and that by leaving, we expose British management for the self-assured money-grubbing incompetents they are.

            My guess is that Westminster will pass legislation that will prohibit any way the public can hold them to account, and they will do this while burying bad news that’s hogging the headlines. Any idea when they might try it on?

          3. tbh, I doubt we will ever get rid of 99% of them. Our civil service won’t want to. The EU was always a civil service utopia.

    3. Well why not panic, it is the way to sell papers.

      Beyond domestic requirements, Canada exports 85 million kilos of toilet paper per year, we are not likely to run out but sure enough they are stockpiling it.

      Next week, a shortage of snow, polar bears and trees.

      1. Well why not panic, it is the way to sell papers.

        Which of course will come in handy.

  56. Popular DJ and radio star Black N Mild dies of coronavirus after revealing illness on social media

  57. Travel hub UAE to halt flights as virus reaches Gaza and Syria

    The United Arab Emirates, home to the world’s busiest international airport, has announced that it is suspending all passenger and transit flights for two weeks to stymie the spread of the new coronavirus.

    1. The source of the virus has now been traced to a Palestinian night club called the Gaza Strip.

  58. Fashion giant H&M to redirect suppliers to make masks, gowns and gloves for doctors

    Fashion giant H&M will redirect its suppliers to manufacture thousands of masks, gowns and gloves for doctors.

    It said it would use its ‘purchasing opera- tions’ and transport networks to deliver masks to hospitals ‘as soon as possible’.

    The firm may also buy kit from existing mask manufacturers in its bid to help fight coronavirus.

    2. He used to be quite an art enthusiast, often to be seen at Christie’s South Kensington. Like Taki says, “I don’t share his politics”, but he is well known in the Kings Road area.

    1. Many of the slebs are being starved of the oxygen of publicity.
      So, of course they will contract a trendy flu virus – despite their security detail and electric gates ensuring that they never meet common people.

    2. Good morning Tony, and all the other Nottlers.
      I was expecting him to stage a miraculous recovery once inside, although I don’t yet see him as a born-again Christian.
      Tanya Gold wrote a piece about him in the Telegraph (I believe): a manipulative bully, of the type who would flourish in any dictatorial regime.
      Question is, what did Ms Paltrow do for him?

    3. And of course, they cannot be out of the media for a few minutes without panicking….so we are to be subjected to them trying to appear “normal” while self isolating (virtue signalling all, and one attempted to show herself doing some home cooking but had to nip round to a neighbour to get some basic ingredients……)
      If there is any good going to come of this virus it will be that “celebs” get cut off from the media and go into terminal decline…. I expect they will all get PTSD

        1. There’s enough of that as it is, without having more. They could try growing a pair, though.

    4. If any of this is true there are a number of questions:
      For the incidence to be so high, does that indicate that the prevalence of infected persons is far higher than indicated?
      How is it that they can be tested when ordinary people are not?

    3. So long as she doesn’t get nearer than two metres from anyone, I suppose she will be safe.

          1. Hmmm, I have trouble with one pair as I found on our aborted holiday.

            One black croc, one blue croc with a mirror image pair left at home.

          4. It was not such a bad mismatch, the blue croc is a very dark blue. However, once I realised that they did not match, I was very self conscious about them.

            Any excuse for a trip to the croc shop.

        4. Good morning Anne

          I believe several abattoirs had to be closed because some of the distances in their construction were 6 feet rather than the 2 metres required by EU regs.

          The fact that British officials observed such rules to the letter shows just why the EU was never any place for Britain to be.

          Can you imagine the French, the Italians or the Spanish slavishly inflicting this sort of damage upon themselves?

          1. Bring back the franc, the lira and the peseta. Maybe after the collapse of the EU ………

        1. Indeed not, I posted yesterday a lovely video made by a 21st century English romantic composer, who had cobbled together a Beethoven medley waltz with the task for people stuck at home to identify all the quotations. She is every bit as beautiful as the lady in the picture, as she walked around an apricot orchard in full blossom in the hills above Vienna. Not in the 19th century though, but in March 2020.

          1. I did suggest a Music/Art thread to lift the gloom over the next few months/years.

            Any volunteers….?

          4. Dame Myra Hess and her concerts at the National Gallery. We were an entirely different people then.

        1. Found it. Thank you Richard.

          It’s called Sweet Dream and there is a similar picture of the same model sitting up

          Many more delightful pictures on the website

  63. So, I tried to work from home today, I really did. I joined a Zoom meeting and my boss could see I was at home. Then I tried to raise two contracts and the contacts system allowed me to enter and save the data but it refused to generate the contracts. So I packed up, walked down Wood Lane and begged security to let me back into Television Centre. Contracts duly completed and the other two people working on this floor are more than 10 yards away from me, one of them at least twice that. It’s a big space.

    One of the rare sights I saw on the way here was two policeman on the beat. Mind, they were side by side without any space between them. Also still a lot of black youngsters going around in twos or more and muslim people (I can tell by the clothes) out and about. They account for a high percentage of the local population of course but there’s a good number not staying indoors.

    1. One of the rare sights I saw on the way here was two policeman on the beat.

      Afternoon Sue. Now that is really scary!

    3. Blacks, muslims – two groups of people which the LeftardMSM will NEVER show footage of when they flout the lockdown and ignore social distancing guidelines.

    4. There is talk that West Mid muslims have been told to stay at home instead of going to the mosque for jumu’ah (Friday prayers). Whether they will or not, is another matter. Whether there will be any consequences if they do go is pretty obvious (there won’t be).

  64. Early last week I applied for my new driving licence.. I had almost left it untill the last minute .

    I filled out all the necessary stuff on line .. and felt really worried that because I had no acknowledgement back, that I had stuffed my application up .

    Guess what..

    My new licence arrived last FRIDAY ..

    What an amazingly quick turnaround , wouldn’t you agree?

      1. Yes I know Plum … yes , where am I going .. nowhere , but someone must have had an empty desk and rushed my new licence back to me .. I haven’t opened the envelope yet , just in case the virus may be lurking!

      2. From Tuesday you will probably need a permit to purchase fuel which will be restricted to essential users

      1. I am not off any where ..apart from buying some milk , meat and potatoes!

        When one reaches a certain age , you have to apply for a new one!

        I said driving licence , not passport!

    4. Online passport application, including a photo from the telephone, got me my new passport in less than 2 weeks. Amazed.

        1. Red.
          I’m holding fire with passport #2 until blue are available – I hope.

  65. It would be interesting to know if there are any cases yet of COVID-19
    in supermarket checkout staff. Three weeks now of panic buying and If
    the virus is as dangerous and infectious as claimed that has to have been one of the
    most risky jobs going as “Social Distancing” is impossible

    1. Afternoon Rik. I went to Morrisons this morning and the staff all seemed quite cheery even giving me good day and taking no precautions about contact. Make of that what you will!

    2. On the Continent, supermarket staff are behind plexiglass. Only one customer at a time is allowed at the band, and you have to stand right at the bottom to pack your stuff, not near the checkout person.

      1. Same in Tesco this morning.

        Folk queuing in the aisles. You get told off if you move forward too early even if you’re at one end and the other people are at the other.

        1. I don’t mind stuff like this to protect the supermarket staff. I’m a bit worried about the massive subsidies being thrown around and grab of liberties by the govt.
          Jury service gone, nationalisation of railways etc.

  67. Children of key workers told to stay at least two metres apart in schools

    Children of key workers who are allowed to attend school must be kept “more than two metres apart”, ministers said today as mass classroom closures began.

    Health Secretary Matt Hancock acknowledged it would be a “challenge” but said it was the best way to stop coronavirus spreading.

    Headteachers, who are supported by only a skeleton staff, were today bracing themselves for the scale of demand with experts predicting two million pupils — a quarter of the UK school population — could still arrive.

    2. Unless they put them all in hazmat suits, keeping them two metres apart is pointless if the CV carriers touch door handles, seats, desks, books, etc.

    3. My son, a teacher, is at school today to look after an unknown number of boys who for various reasons their parents cannot look after them at home. It will be like herding sheep without a sheep dog. Meanwhile he continues to support his A level students on the internet.

  70. Ann Summers has closed all its stores and agreed to give staff full pay until at least the end of April.

  71. Scientists are warning that the corona virus could cause the interweb to suffer from a very serious pundemic

  72. Pets at Home under fire for coronavirus key worker claim for staff

    That would only apply if it had a vet on the premises and then only to the vet and any veterinary nurses etc he had

    A letter, drafted by the retail company for its employees to allow them to apply to headteachers for emergency school childcare, argued that its workers were eligible under the criteria of providing key goods.

    The document, signed by the company’s group legal director, states its workers qualify under the provision of hygienic and veterinary medicines.

    1. Veterinarians and their staff, like those caring for animals in shelters and stables, are not classed as key workers.

      1. I would think that most of the cases are concentrated in the big cities and the Russian authorities are no more likely than ours to have completely accurate figures but I do believe that closing their borders early made a significant difference, yes.

      1. I didn’t down-vote you. I don’t understand.
        I’ve just up-voted you so the down one has disappeared.

      2. I didn’t down-vote you. I don’t understand.
        I’ve just up-voted you so the down one has disappeared.

      3. They’ve both vanished now Sue; both yours and Tony’s. GCHQ playing games?

  77. Ram-raiders use digger to steal ATMs from Tesco Extra in Kent. Mon 23 Mar 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b61aa43866ed7a5845140434d7531d76692cc342a648c3a07e1ee4a0ee0ece03.jpg

    Two cash machines were wrenched off the wall and loaded on to a flat-bed truck during the raid, at about 12.30am on Monday. It is not yet known how much cash was in the ATMs.

    The truck carrying them was driven away in convoy with two Mitsubishi Shoguns. Officers tried to stop the group but two police vehicles were rammed and damaged in Old Park Hill, Dover, during the getaway.

    This incident speaks of an almost military precision and commitment; an outcome inevitable in a country where Law and Order has almost ceased to exist.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/23/ram-raiders-use-digger-to-steal-atms-from-tesco-extra-in-kent

    2. Law and order has ceased to exist, and we have been cruising on its remnants for some time now.
      Coronavirus is only going to show this up.
      I don’t see how we can go further as a country without massive investment in the police. But the police aren’t what they used to be. Who wants to invest in a rainbow-dancing, twitter-watching stasi?

    4. If the ATMs lacked a dye spray to render the banknotes unusable then TESCO should bear the cost themselves. It is a fairly simple matter to fit a device that would be sensitive to sudden movements of the ATM, triggering the spray.

  79. Enforced social distancing ‘likely to come soon’

    Enforced social distancing is likely to be introduced soon, Northern Ireland’s health minister has said.

    Robin Swann told the BBC he expected it would be discussed at the government’s Cobra committee meeting later today.

    He added it was likely to include the closure of “non-essential shops” in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus.

      2. A market for a little device that put a circular beam around you at 2M. anyone that encroach s that get s a message ATTENTION ATTENTION You are too Close step back

    4. Everywhere is like a ghost town except for the supermarkets (packed with shoppers filling trolleys). I don’t see what else they can shut – cafés, restaurants and pubs are closed, the Civic Centre and library are shut, the market has to take place outdoors (it’s normally an indoor market), the bookshop is closed (but you can order online to have books posted to you). Even the charity shops have shut!

  80. Latest News – Scientists have realised why old people are getting the corona virus far worse than younger people, they are more likely to use bone china cups and saucers for their tea.

    1. ”
      Gordon Jackson QC, Salmond’s advocate, rejected Prentice’s claims in
      his final address to the jury. He said there were no direct witnesses to
      the alleged assaults, and that inconsistencies and contradictions
      repeatedly cropped up in the testimonies and evidence. And, he alleged,
      there were signs some of the charges were orchestrated.

      “This comes out of a political bubble with no real independent
      support of any kind. I said already it smelt and I don’t apologise for
      that one bit,” he said. “It’s the same pattern all of the time. All the
      time – I can’t say that strongly enough – it is the same pattern over
      and over and over again. It’s scary.”

      He meant, ” They made it up “.

      1. My thoughts from day 1. Planned to take AS out of the reckoning for good. I trust that the police will investigate the likelihood of perjury and collusion by the gaggle of accusers.

        1. Honestly I don’t know what to think. It’s all such a cess-pit. I hate modern, pc rules.

        2. I’m no admirer of AS, but when a witness – one of the local civil servants, I believe – started talking about a bed and AS having the strength and skill to strip both of them off before taking matters further; I thought “really?”

        3. Quite so, H. I don’t like Salmond one little bit, but when he was arrested and charged – shortly after he’d announced that he was thinking of returning to the political scene – I said I suspected he was the victim of a stitch-up by the Sturgeonista faction of the SNP.

          Wee Krankie dreaded his return, fearing he would take back control of the party and she would be sidelined.

      2. There seldom are any direct witnesses to sexual assaults, except in the case of gang ones.

        1. If the women keep quiet and don’t react until 30 years later, it is a weeny bit suspicious. The first one was the Kavanaugh case in the States, which was an obvious political fraud.

      3. ‘Afternoon, Tony, and wasn’t Weinstein convicted on similar evidence? One accuser’s word against his – and it happened a longtime ago.

        Is Salmond now tweeting #MeToo ‘ cos he didn’t get 23 years?

        1. Weinstein was the poster boy of the #metoo brigade. In the wrong place at the wrong time. Salmond was acquitted to get rid of the case while the coronavirus was top news. They didn’t want to have to spare the time for an appeal.

        1. 317349+ up ticks,
          Afternoon R,
          The picture is there to be seen, join the dots, Gerard Batten took on Tommy Robinson as a personal advisory,” nige”
          put the knife into the Batten / Tommy link, Richard Braine wanted Gerard Batten as deputy, ersatz Nec UKIp triggers the put down, Braine,Batten, etc.
          There was no way UKIP was to be allowed to make headway that is the truth that many cannot face.
          A multitude of political skunks and peoples castigated the likes of Tommy Robinson when the likes of ogga & co were saying many more Tommy Robinson’s as with Tommy Atkins, were going to be sorely needed in the near future…… and so it came to pass.

          1. …and, Ogga, what is to become of UKIP?

            They won’t get my vote and/or membership again, until they become a sensible, orderly and well-run party, free of all the infiltrators and free-loaders. Their future is in their own hands.

          2. 317349+ up ticks,
            Evening NtN,
            Old Markus got it right you have a hard fight on your hands with treachery from within, the
            Gerard Batten chap showed out to be a leader in the true sense of the word, membership gaining daily, party finances in the black.
            On taking leadership he asked the members for £100,000 & received in reply £300,000.
            That triggered the sleepers within the ersatz
            Nec.
            ben walker, leader candidate, got form, pat mountain interim leader about as inspiring as a clog, showing high potential in the party destroyer department.
            The enemas in opposition knew that the party had, as it had had before, winning potential, it could never be allowed to progress.
            I am saying in no uncertain manner that without the likes of Batten/Braine/ Robinson
            these Isles WILL sink deeper into the sh!te it has been led into and kept in for years by the lab/lib/con coalition.

  82. “Three teenagers were arrested after an elderly couple were allegedly coughed at in the street.

    The couple were approached by three people in Hitchin, one of whom is said to have coughed in their faces.

    A passer-by intervened and there was “an altercation” which left a woman in her 70s with a black eye, police said.

    Three
    males aged 16, 18 and 19 were questioned on suspicion of actual bodily
    harm, affray and criminal damage after the incident on Friday afternoon.”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52003543
    These are the thugs confronted by Tommy Robinson who stepped in to help the pensioners,not that the filth at the Al-Beeb would give him credit,the miracle is they arrested the thugs this time,not Tommy

      1. But Tommy Robinson needs to remember that he is more of a law breaker than a law enforcer.

        No doubt bemoaning this loss of opportunity!

        1. The treatment of Tommy Robinson is a blot on the British system of justice and makes me ashamed of being British. Caroline is Dutch rather than British but she and I are seriously thinking of applying for French nationality.

          1. That country that you and I grew up in Richard with it’s beliefs and virtues has been destroyed. It is now a Third World financial ghetto!

          2. It took Jack and I some 35yrs to take the step of applying and getting US citizenship.

        1. His diary was probably difficult to read and, as it should be, it would read Hif Majefty

          1. I believe it was written in the equivalent of shorthand, so might not have been translated/converted correctly.

          2. Off Topic: I am gutted to see that Anchovy Effence is now called Anchovy Sauce (not even fauce).

        1. ‘Afternoon, J (and Sue) I didn’t write the bluddy thing – it’s probably a spoof anyway but hey, why ruin a good story for a lack of fact checking, either by Pepys or his co-author.

          1. I wondered if there was anything similar to lockdown in 1665 and from the piece I found on the National Archive site, below, it seems that there was.

          3. Well – if you’re going to write a spoof, make sure it’s credible. (Not aimed at you, Nanners).

        2. Yes. From the National Archives…

          This was the worst outbreak of plague in England since the black death of 1348. London lost roughly 15% of its population. While 68,596 deaths were recorded in the city, the true number was probably over 100,000. Other parts of the country also suffered.

          The earliest cases of disease occurred in the spring of 1665 in a parish outside the city walls called St Giles-in-the-Fields. The death rate began to rise during the hot summer months and peaked in September when 7,165 Londoners died in one week.

          Rats carried the fleas that caused the plague. They were attracted by city streets filled with rubbish and waste, especially in the poorest areas.

          Those who could, including most doctors, lawyers and merchants, fled the city. Charles II and his courtiers left in July for Hampton Court and then Oxford. Parliament was postponed and had to sit in October at Oxford, the increase of the plague being so dreadful. Court cases were also moved from Westminster to Oxford.

          The Lord Mayor and aldermen (town councillors) remained to enforce the King’s orders to try and stop the spread of the disease. The poorest people remained in London with the rats and those people who had the plague. Watchmen locked and kept guard over infected houses. Parish officials provided food. Searchers looked for dead bodies and took them at night to plague pits for burial.

          All trade with London and other plague towns was stopped. The Council of Scotland declared that the border with England would be closed. There were to be no fairs or trade with other countries. This meant many people lost their jobs – from servants to shoemakers to those who worked on the River Thames.

          1. Colchester lost about 2/3 of its population.
            The fleas are believed to have arrived in a consignment of cloth from London.

  83. Never seen Eastboune Gen. Hospital so quiet. Called in at Waitrose on the way back home and very civilised it was, but no loo paper.

    1. Try going early in the morning?
      Ours were empty in the afternoons, but they do get a delivery every morning, so you can nab a pack then.

  85. I am thinking that all deaths from coronavirus are now tagged with “underlying causes” which may be hangnails, athletes foot, bunions, acne…
    Some deaths may be tagged as not being coronavirus. I now think that all in the “vulnerable” population will die.

    3. I have a horrible feeling that if an elderly person who is relatively fit turns up at the hospital, they will be classed as “extremely frail” and denied a bed…
      The only thing to do is avoid hospitals, or one will surely die!

  86. A little gossip …

    Chloroquine is being tested to treat COVID-19 and prevent people from catching it

    As a simple pill, chloroquine could prevent some COVID-19 patients from worsening to the point of needing hospitalization.

    China has found that chloroquine is effective against COVID-19, the state-owned Xinhua news agency reported on February 17. Countries including China, South Korea, and Belgium have added chloroquine to their treatment guidelines.

    US

    physicians don’t appear to be waiting for data either. Prescriptions

    for chloroquine have surged, according to recent tracking data from

    IQVIA cited by Raymond James. For the weeks of February 21, February 28,

    and March 6, weekly prescriptions grew from 531 to 957 to 1,290.

    Doctors

    in the US have broad authority to prescribe approved medications for

    so-called off-label uses, or conditions that the drug isn’t approved to

    treat.

    In the past month, the UK has added both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to a list of drugs that drug wholesalers cannot export because UK patients need them and exporting them may lead to a shortage in the UK.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/malaria-pill-chloroquine-tested-as-coronavirus-treatment-2020-3?r=US&IR=T

    2. 317349+ up ticks,
      Afternoon I,
      Stick a dollop in the reservoir then, we do have reservoir still do we not ?

  88. A further 46 deaths

    If my memory is holding up it does seem to be leveling out

    1. A further 46 people have died after testing positive for corona virus
      If only they never had the test.

      2. How does that compare with flu deaths amongst the most vulnerable in a ‘normal’ year?
        Thinking back to my nursing days, winter always went on just that bit too long; as the daffodils blossomed, the deaths peaked amongst the very old and sick who had just about managed to limp through the winter.

  89. MPs to review coronavirus emergency laws every six months. 23 March 2020.

    “However we recognise the importance of parliamentary scrutiny and have heard concerns about the need for periodic reviews of the powers in the bill. We have therefore this morning tabled a government amendment to the bill to require the House of Commons to renew the legislation every six months.

    “Should the Commons decline to renew the temporary provisions, the government will be required to bring forward regulations to ensure that they expire. The two-year time limit for the act overall remains in place, and not all of the measures will come into force immediately.”

    Hmmm. Cummings has been reading Nottl!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/23/mps-to-review-coronavirus-emergency-laws-every-six-months

      1. When the medical emergency is over an economic one of massive impact will take its place which will call for further measures.

          2. Although it will quickly become apparent that some of us are “in it” somewhat deeper than others…

  90. COBRA Meeting started late and going on so the 5pm press briefing will not take place then. It may be much later or tomorrow

  91. I note that the children of the GP who lives in the next house to mine has all her children, primary school age, home and playing in the garden. I assume they have been withdrawn to lessen the chance of their being infected and passing the virus on to her.

  92. Hotel giants in talks over COVID-19 bed capacity

    Some of the world’s biggest hotel operators are holding talks with the government about providing vacant beds to the NHS as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates across Britain.

    Sky News has learnt that hotel groups are in discussions on Thursday afternoon with ministers and Whitehall officials to offer “huge” additional capacity to help the NHS cope with an anticipated spike in medical demand.

    City sources said that companies including Best Western Hotels, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Travelodge and Whitbread’s Premier Inn chain were among those involved in the talks.

  93. NHS Evaluation for NHS Executive; Senior Civil Servants at DoH; NHS Senior Managers; Ministers of Heath 1997-2020:

    Ventilators – 1 out of 10

    Personal Protection Equipment – 0.5 out of 10

    Equality and Diversity Managers – 95 out of 0

  94. TV tonight: a deep dive into Vladimir Putin, the man and the myth. Mon 23 Mar 2020.

    Putin: A Russian Spy Story. 9pm, Channel 4.

    This year marks Vladimir Putin’s 20th in power and, after his recent dramatic overhaul of the Russian constitution, he could be president for much longer than the supposed end of his term in 2024. This three-part documentary sets out to expose the man behind the villainous myth. It features revealing interviews with the likes of Marina Litvinenko, the wife of the poisoned spy Alexander, as well as Boris Yeltsin’s daughter, Tatyana Yumasheva. It starts by charting Putin’s route from KGB agent to political fixer.

    This is on Channel 4 so as one can see from the title and experience it will not be a model of analytical neutrality. Much is made of Putin’s KGB affiliations where he was in fact not a spy but an administrator. One of the oddities of his career is the lack of actual evidence for villainy. He seems unlike his western counterparts to have no propensity for profligate sexual activities or deviation. Accusations, misinformation, propaganda abound but hard facts are rare. His main fault in the eyes of the Intelligence organisations that produce enormous quantities of Fake News against him seems to lie in his devotion to the interests of Russia and the Russian people which of course makes him unreliable as a partner.

    In passing it is worth noting that no other world leader is worth three episodes on TV! Blair for example who is without doubt a Traitor and War Criminal and who has personally enriched himself on a vast scale from his activities would never receive such attention.

    https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/mar/23/tv-tonight-vladimir-putin-made-in-chelsea

    1. ” Much is made of Putin’s KGB affiliations where he was in fact not a
      spy but an administrator. One of the oddities of his career is the
      lack of actual evidence for villainy.”
      Hilarious!.
      I had you blocked but I’d forgotten why. Now I realise that selling you my bridge would be like taking candy from a baby and thus beneath me….

        1. No, it’s the one I have for sale in central London with 2 large towers. You are welcome to view it. We can of course, negotiate terms of payment once you have signed the contract but the price is binding. You can pay in roubles, though dollars would be better. We do NOT want any more tractors in payment thank you. They proved to be lacking in reliability for our Western needs.

          1. It’s always the little things. “Our Western needs” which speaks of hierarchy and plurality is a giveaway and if you had me blocked how could you have read my posts? Also why is there no actual rebuttal of my views but instead, juvenile abuse?

          2. Periodically I log out and have a look to see if there is anything amusing. You are privileged, yours was the amusing post of the day today. But now I’ll reblock you!

          3. Periodically I log out and have a look to see if there is anything amusing.

            I’ll give you the same advice I gave Cochrane.

            When you’re in a hole stop digging!

          4. Nah. Let him keep going. He clearly needs a deeper hole, and with luck it’ll collapse…

          5. Nah. Let him keep going. He clearly needs a deeper hole, and with luck it’ll collapse…

  95. Afternoon, all. The dog is getting longer walks because I’m having to include shopping trips in them. It’s often difficult to keep a yard apart from people because some, particularly the younger generation, seem to have no idea. I had one woman, riding her bicycle on the pavement, tell me to move away – I was on my way home or I would have pointed out that had she been using the cycle track, as she should have been, she would have been several yards away from me since I was on foot on the footpath.

  96. Is this a fair summary of the present situation;

    The Cure is much worse than the Disease

    1. With the greatest respect to you, pop into an ICU at your nearest major hospital for a few hours, you should be then able to answer your own question.
      From a personal point of view, with what my youngest daughter who is working in such a hospital is telling me, my answer is NO.
      Economic recovery will be undertaken, however long and painful that may be, civil liberties will be reclaimed by whatever means is necessary, but as far as I know, dying gasping for breath, there is no way back from that.

    2. Trump: ‘We can’t let the cure be worse than the problem itself. BY BRETT SAMUELS AND REBECCA KLAR – 03/23/20.

      WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF. AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!

      — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020

      I assume that this is what you are referring to Lewis. Trump is probably correct. At the moment we are going to save lives in the short run and in the process destroy the World Economy and usher in an age of conflict.

      Thankfully I am not the President of the United States!

      https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/488965-trump-hints-at-changes-to-restrictions-we-cant-let-the-cure-be-worse

      1. Trump needs to let his immunologist expert, Dr Fauci, set the pace. Trump still sees the whole thing as an impediment to getting re-elected. He has described the spread of corona virus as “fake news” spread by Democrats and said “We have it well under control”. Trouble is, his dimwit followers believe him.

        The answer of course, is that it is still spreading exponentially, and it is far from under control. The good news is that the various state governors are taking action – someone has to.

  97. At the risk of turning into BJ, I read today that the Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, which not only does pioneering surgery on dogs, cats and horses but also innovative research into animal diseases, needs urgent funding because its sources of income have dried up. That would be a terrible loss.

    1. “pioneering surgery” does sound a little bit like animal experimentation, but I’m sure they do well.

      1. I think it’s more they are at the forefront of techniques – at one time, heart transplants were “pioneering surgery” now they are relatively commonplace.

          2. I was living in SA at the time of his first successful transplant. He was at pains to ensure that he didn’t transplant an organ from a non-white into a white. I read somewhere that he initially turned down a perfectly good donor (such as could be determined at the time) because they weren’t of the white persuasion. He subsequently relaxed his guidelines in this respect which caused no end of a fuss from the more verkramp elements of white South African society.

    2. A good friend worked there. His expertise was cancer in cats.

      He was constantly being abused by animal rights people and eventually moved to Edinburgh, the swine having discovered where he lived.

      The stupid bastards hounding (ho ho) him had no idea how much suffereing his research stopped in the domestic cat population. I have no time whatsoever for the likes of PETA maniacs.

      1. I’ve thought the same thing when getting medication for my dogs.
        Apparently the NHS actually finance the Supervet because his cutting edge technology can be adapted for human beings.

    1. The chap in the queue in front of me was told he could only have three lemons. His G&Ts will be suffering.

        1. A twist of lime is better. You get the perfumed flavour and ……you still have the lime.

      4. I was shocked to discover that I have only half a lemon left in clingfilm this evening after a session in the garden. This three items at a time is all very well, but it does have the effect of bringing people back into the supermarket more frequently and into a ‘germ’ ridden atmosphere.

        1. Mum, you don’t need a slice of lemon. Use a twist of lemon instead. Each lemon (unwaxed) will provide lot’s for the G&T’s.

          1. I am obviously a novice….. er, (shhhhh, no-one else read this….) er Phizzee, what is a twist and how do I do it??

          2. Just take a knife and cut a piece of peel from the skin. Avoid the pith, it tends to be bitter. about half inch long and give it a twist to release the oils. then pop it into your drink.

    2. Kind of you Plum. What a shame she didn’t accept. It’s these small acts of kindness that make life worth living…….and Tennis of course. :o)

      1. Yeah…she denied me the pleasure of feeling a warm glow…….. how bluddy selfish is that!

    3. I did that here, where a woman didn’t have enough to pay for disposable nappies and baby formula.

      She intially refused and wanted to leave the stuff on the counter, food was her higher priority; but I claimed ignorance of French and she eventually accepted with a smile and thanked me.

      The cashier was very gracious and thanked me profusely on the woman’s behalf too, once she realised my French is not as bad as I was pretending.

    2. At a school at which I once taught it was deemed to be no accident that the careers department was in a section in the library adjacent to the Fiction section.

      1. “At a school at which I once was deemed to be no accident

        Umm, are you suggesting that they initially thought that you were a child of the unwed?”
        };-))

          1. I doubt it.

            RT and I have been around the block on the DT and here for many years, and I suspect he might raise a wry smile.

  100. It will be no surprise to members of the forum that there are some half-wits on the Tory back benches. Steve Double, member for St Austell and Newquay, spoke today in the HoC asking the Home Sec to review the immigration bill because the virus panic has shown how important low-paid, low-skilled workers are to the economy.

    You haven’t thought it through, Steve…

    1. I didn’t see it but i hope he clarified his position. That part of the country has some of the richest fishing grounds in the world. The trawlers and fishermen need crew. Not enough young people are entering the industry because of the uncertainty of a regular wage. They need those foreign workers to keep the industry alive.

      A bit pointless to get our fishing grounds back when most of the fleet is near or past retirement age.

      I believe he is representing his constituents and not trying to score political points as Labour continues to do.

      1. His reference was presumably to food supply and retail. There are plenty of native British shelf-stackers in our Sainsbury’s. They just don’t have much to stack at the moment!

    2. Plus they are always going on about the high levels of unemployment in Cornwall

    3. I sometimes wish MPs were obliged to wear their sponsors logos on their shirts.

  101. PM to address nation after emergency COBRA meeting on coronavirus

    The normal press briefing is Cancelled instead he will be addressing the Nation

    1. I’ll wait until you tell us all about it, Bill. The TV will remain firmly switched off.

  102. Greggs to close all branches due to coronavirus

    High street bakery chain Greggs will close its 2,050 branches across the UK due to coronavirus.

    The company said its stores will close at the end of the day tomorrow.

      1. Perhaps they will donate all the unsold food to food banks and homeless hostels

    1. Percentage wise of population most of those countries have been only mildly effected.
      Watch the YouTube clip I posted above.

    2. One person’ exhalations are another person’s inhalations. What could possible go wrong?

      1. Exhalation from both ends… Weird when breathing other people’s farts is to be preferred…

  104. Coronavirus: Pizza Express closes all restaurants for takeaway and delivery

    Pizza Express will close its doors for takeaway and delivery as well as eat-in customers in an attempt to slow the coronavirus outbreak.

  105. Just discovered that I do know someone who’s tested positive for the virus. A bloke in the village about 300 yards away Late 30s and fit so should do OK. Unfortunately, he’s pretty much a regular at me local. We shall see.

    1. He decided that the virus, rather than hearing you sing, was the lesser of two evils?

      };-))

      1. Probably, he is quite a good singer, especially if you like Elvis, Little Richard, Duane Eddy type fast paced songs.

        1. I do.

          Sadly, from my own singing perspective, I was a very good chorister until my voice broke.

          It was broken beyond repair, a foghorn with tonsilitis sounds better.

          I still love to sing, but even the bath empties spontaneously if I do.

          {:-((

  106. Coronavirus: Caravan parks, campsites and tourist hotspots to be closed in Wales

    Campsites, caravan parks and tourist hotspots are to be closed in Wales by the Welsh Government.

    First Minister Mark Drakeford confirmed he would shut the sites “to keep people safe and to reduce the pressure on our NHS”.

    Caravan and second home owners have been urged to stay at their main homes to not add pressure to rural services.

    It comes after crowds headed to tourist hotspots at the weekend despite advice against non-essential travel.

    Amid reports that some pubs are ignoring the ban introduced on Saturday, the Welsh Government warned those that continue to trade risk losing their licence.

    Under the plans people camping or staying in caravans on holiday will be asked to return home from Monday.

    Routes to both Sugar Loaf and Pen-y-Fan mountains will be closed, and access to key hotspots such as Snowdon will be prevented.

  107. BREAKING NEWS

    All UK National strongly advised to return to the UK Now whilst transport is still available

    All UK Nations are strongly advised NOT to Leave the UK. Should they do so NO UK government assistance will be available to assist them to return

  108. ICELAND

    Hello,
    We wanted to let you know that starting today, we are introducing NHS shopping hour, with the last hour of store trading dedicated exclusively to NHS workers. For details of opening hours by store please check our Store Finder.
    We are introducing this to allow NHS workers to more easily access the food and groceries they need.
    To keep each other, our colleagues and customers as safe as possible we are taking the following steps during NHS shopping hour:
    • We will be asking for NHS photo ID at the store entrance, we’re sorry but if you haven’t got ID you won’t be able to shop during exclusive hours
    • We will only be accepting chip & PIN payment, and ideally contactless where possible
    • We will not be accepting cash payments
    • Please only pick up products you are going to buy. If you do touch a product we’d ask that you please purchase it
    We will be working diligently to keep surfaces clean, that means we will be cleaning while customers are shopping in store.
    We’re in this together and we want to do what we can to help. We ask all of our customers to support us in making this possible, and thank our colleagues for their continued commitment during this challenging time.
    Your Iceland Team

          3. Inquisitive. Wondered if Theo whatsit was someone I should’ve heard of. Possibly not.

          7. Being a great lover of films, not just the Hollywood and British ones, I had long known about this film but had never seen it. Now having clicked on your Wikipedia link and read the film’s plot, I am glad I never bothered had been able to.

          9. It’s one of a pair and should be watched as a pair. The other is I am curious (Blue).

    2. Whoopy bloody do! My pub is shut and that’s going to affect me in many more ways than missing an over-hyped 4 yearly event.

  112. Why C-19 has been so successful………..

    https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/03/biography-new-coronavirus/608338/?utm_source=msn

    Then line up that explanation with the research outlined in The Lancet……….

    Human pathogenic coronaviruses (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus [SARS-CoV] and SARS-CoV-2) bind to their target cells through angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which is expressed by epithelial cells of the lung, intestine, kidney, and blood vessels.4 The expression of ACE2 is substantially increased in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, who are treated with ACE inhibitors and angiotensin II type-I receptor blockers (ARBs).4 Hypertension is also treated with ACE inhibitors and ARBs, which results in an upregulation of ACE2.5 ACE2 can also be increased by thiazolidinediones and ibuprofen. These data suggest that ACE2 expression is increased in diabetes and treatment with ACE inhibitors and ARBs increases ACE2 expression. Consequently, the increased expression of ACE2 would facilitate infection with COVID-19. We therefore hypothesise that diabetes and hypertension treatment with ACE2-stimulating drugs increases the risk of developing severe and fatal COVID-19.

    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30116-8/fulltext

    ….and there’s likely a part answer, or even a full answer, to the crisis. Along with ibuprofen, smoking and vaping.

  115. 335 dead now.

    To two decimal places, that’s still 0.00% of the total population…

    1. Yep and if there was no CV around we wouldn’t comment on the 1650 people who would have died today.

        1. ‘In 2018, there were 541,589 deaths registered in England and Wales, an increase of 1.6% compared with 2017 (533,253); this is the highest annual number of deaths since 1999.’

          1. When we get to the end of 2020 the number of deaths will probably fit in well with a graph of the average number, perhaps a very small spike.

      2. The average weekly deaths in 2020, so far, is of the order of 11,000+

        https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales

        It’s time people everywhere got a sense of perspective about this thing.

        Yes, I know it’s highly contagious, yes, I know that people, mainly with bad underlying health conditions, will die of it, but really!

        Roughly 12 weeks of average deaths, approximately the time it’s been spreading, amount to ~ 125,000. Thus of total deaths CV amounts to ~ 0.25 of 1 % AND of that 0.25 many might well have died of their underlying conditions anyway.

          1. The fact remains, T_B, that we will all die eventually. Le soleil de nos jours pâlit dès son aurore.

          3. Mine was a quote from Lamartine. Incidentally, it is continuer à faire quelquechose.

          5. I agree with Woody Allen’s take: I’m not afraid of dying, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

          6. It is not death I am frightened of, but the manner in which I go. Mostly it seems to be either a very uncomfortable and undignified process and/or a very painful process. Lucky are those who go suddenly from a heart attack or in their sleep. My father died from a heart attack in the centre of Leeds, it was thought he was dead before he hit the ground.

            ‘ Evening, Hl. I love the Wood Allen quote.

          7. ‘Evening poppiesmum. The whole thing is ridiculous. I hope the people who are delivering my new door tomorrow weren’t watching Boris…

          10. Indeed not.
            But perhaps CV is a merciful release, in the same way that pneumonia was “the old man’s friend”?

    2. What I find extremely annoying is that parks and other public open spaces have been closed down, because people were seen to be too close to each other.
      Well excuse me for being pedantic but 2 metres from a person in an open space where it’s breezy is surely akin to half a mile compared to 2 meters in a TV studio, or any where else inside. WTF is actually going on here, I can’t quite work it out, but it’s something extremely suspicious, untoward and very sinister, indeed.

      2. It was a trick of the camera where taking the shot at low level along a path makes it look that everyone is close to each other. Many groups would be family.

      3. I think that they are lying. They are certainly seizing the reins of despotism with energy and enthusiasm.

    1. I had already thought about that happening. We are at the point of rationing….again. Spivs, tricksters, muggers and thieving from allotments were the only jobs being offered at the JobCenter this morning.

  118. Update in case you were worrying about them –

    ”

    Gaza: Virus fears in crowded strip

    Yolande Knell

    BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem

    In
    Gaza, police patrol the beachfront to check coffee shops are closed and
    drive around with loudspeakers ordering people to stay home after the
    first two coronavirus cases were announced on Sunday.

    Since
    the start of the pandemic, health officials have worried about it
    reaching this impoverished coastal enclave – one of the world’s most
    densely populated places.

    Social
    distancing is almost impossible among large families living in Gaza’s
    crowded refugee camps and built-up neighbourhoods, raising fears that
    infection could spread fast and that overstretched hospitals could be
    overwhelmed.

    “It’s
    a very difficult and challenging environment,” says Gerald
    Rockenschaub, the head of the World Health Organization in the
    Palestinian Territories. He rushed to Gaza after two men returning from
    Pakistan tested positive for coronavirus.

    “The
    good thing is that they were in quarantine all the time. They are
    isolated now so that the risk that this spreads further is minimised,”
    Dr Rockenschaub says.”

    There are unconfirmed rumours that production of rockets has ceased for the time being.

    1. The Hamas Authority has said that anybody who has been in contact with the two men should make their way to Europe, where they can self-immolate without delay.

    2. The author, Yolande Knell, has an unfortunate name. If she were to marry her Chinese partner, Wang Fu, she would become Yolande Fu-Knell’

    1. Deport? Don’t be ridiculous. Provide him with a tastefully-furnished home, an income, and an endless supply of concubines. It’s only fair.

      1. 317349+ up ticks,
        Evening GG,
        The political users of submissive, PCism & Appeasement parties & party supporters would totally agree with you.
        Personally I find it as fair as lammys arse.

  121. My nephew-in-law was a GP but like many GPs he retired four years ago at the age of 58 because of the mammoth cock up ‘Odius’ Osborne made of doctors’ pension schemes.

    If Odius had had any common sense he would have foreseen that his ill-thought-out actions would lead to a mass exodus of doctors for ‘early retirement’ from the NHS and the problem caused by a shortage of doctors would now be considerably less grave than it is.

    1. A politician acknowledging the existence of the Law of Unintended Consequences? Never happen.

  122. All the indication coming from the Government is the number of people going out has not come down to anywhere near they want it to so a Lock down is looking to be on the cards..

    2. Will this finally include incoming aircraft from China, Iran, Italy, etc I wonder? If not, what is the point?

  123. So we may basically not leave our homes unless it is essential. Who decides what is essential – the police, who have extraordinary powers now? Your employer? You?

    1. Listening to what Boris just said, carefully worded, I can’t see what the police can do.

      1. That’s never stopped them. They act outside or beyond their remit/powers all the time nowadays.

  124. After watching the PMs announcement to the nation.

    1. I am grateful there were no press to reel off their usual concerned, virtuesignalling nitpicking, head-slapping questions …. never BTW about why there was never a plan about dealing with such a pandemic, nor any stocks or quickly stockable respirators, PPE uniforms, or test kits.

    2. I am able to go for only one walk per day

    3. This will be enforced by WHO?

    4. If I see a policemen, I shall write to the newspapers to report the sighting and comment that they are as rare in these parts as Siberian Storks.

    1. There’s loads of Siberian Storks round here. Where do you think all those new babies are coming from ?

  125. A £30 fine for breaking the rules? Oh come on make it meaningful. Are flights from Iran still coming into Heathrow?

    As it stands, I will get out of curfew before you

          1. There are places that the police dare not go, community areas in Birmingham for example. No one in authority will ever acknowledge that.

          2. The Police are shit scared of the Pikeys in these parts. The ‘Travellers’ specialise in ripping cash points from Co-ops (Clare, Halstead and Sible Hedingham) leaving dangerous structures in the aftermath, sometimes with folk living over the shop (Earls Colne).

            The Police must know who these thieves are but evidently choose to do nothing, presumably for reasons of ‘social cohesion’, a formula repeated with Pakistani rape gangs.

      2. That legislation has not yet been passed in Scotland. Although a police spokesman looks forward with relish to bullying citizens.

      3. Nova Scotia just introduced similar restrictions with a $1,000 fine.
        £30 on the off chance that there is a policeman in sight is not a deterrent, a thousand dollars might make someone think.

  126. Just wondered. Will the Post Offices be closed? The mail including international has been going fine so far.

  127. BBC Midlands showed lots of footage of people being too close in Kings Norton parks and skateboarding = two youngsters were even sitting right next to each other on a bench** and the countryside. No sign of any such problems in Sparkhill, Ward End, or Handsworth.

    ** Scandalously I saw two youngsters (boy-girl) snogging in Cotteridge Park this morning

        1. Interesting. Would a trans woman (ie a man really) find a trans man (ie a woman really) attractive?

  128. Local council is closing children’s playgrounds,
    Alas there are always swings and roundabouts to every decision

      1. Quelle surprise. The Broken Biscuit Corporation reported the reduction of trains and the need for key workers to travel in the same sentence, a few days ago. I remember thinking at the time that there was a total failure of logic and common sense here.

  130. Reality Check
    No one knows when this will end. This is not flu. This is new. How did the Chinese bring it to a close (if indeed they have)? Did we send a medical specialist to China to review what they did? If not, why not? Have they used a drug?
    Have Government “experts” determined how long this can go on for before everything breaks down, with looting and rioting. Have they visited suppliers in foreign countries to determine how long the supply chains can be kept viable? What is to stop the U-boats sinking our convoys? Ah, no…I’m getting carried away.
    But seriously…

    1. The Chinese did everything right! Think on that! One can only wonder at this uncanny prescience since they had no guide to how things might develop!

      1. Gosh, that’s true. It’s not as if they knew in advance the particulars and nature of the new laboratory-made virus, is it?

    3. How did the Chinese bring it to close? I have a feeling all those who showed even the slightest symptoms of cv were shot. I remember the terror of people who were dragged from their homes by the army on very brief news shots in the early stages, back in mid- January. It is most definitely not about the individual in China.

      2. Pol. I actually agree with you. As a diabetic, I understand that ACE2 is an issue. And I’m on Ramipril (an ACE inhibitor). But there eff all I can do about it, but self isolate. Gov.uk says there’s no problem. So that’s all right then. Yeah, right…

        1. Sorry to hear this. I wonder if a calcium channel blocker is a suitable alternative as suggested at the end of The Lancet report ?

  132. To be honest these restrictions are pretty much our life style now. We love our home and gardens and that is where we like to be. Went out today to go to hospital then shopped for essentials that we could not find and will have to out again and again till we can find them.

        2. I left my rented flat in Clapham Common in 1982 following the riots of 1981 after which my wife was robbed at knifepoint by a bunch of feral black youths.

          I have no desire whatsoever to return to that area. It was lost to humanity back then and I can only imagine the shithole that it has since become.

    2. We love our garden too and spend much time in it watching the plants we have tended grow and the birds we have encouraged over many years flitting about the bird feeders.

      We must move in the next year to a place without steep stairs with winders but will regret having to leave our home for nigh on thirty years. We are presently attending to the more dilapidated parts of the house and garden with a view to selling up next year. Tricky judgements when the house is mediaeval in its origin and extended and modified time and again in its history.

      1. We have just completed what you intend to do. We sold out farmhouse in Norfolk and moved to a 2 bed bungalow in the south downs on the coast. We love it, little snow or v cold weather. best of luck with it all.

  133. The Emergency Powers Bill is now law and on the statute book. It gives wide ranging powers such as arresting any one not complying with social distancing. IT also give the powers to close down any premises

  134. When are the media going to be stopped making up scare stories.?

    If the supermarkets were under proper control we would not have to search for essentials

  138. An NHS hospital trust has become the first in the country to announce the postponement of all routine cancer surgery and chemotherapy due to a surge in coronavirus patients.

    https://youtu.be/vxRBaX8f9oA

    Equivalents

    Because of pressure from Greta the Bleata. ‘Petrol’ Stations will stop dispensing diesel, petrol LPG fuel: they will just charge up the batteries of electric cars

    Since theft, burgalry, crimes against the person, stabbings, child grooming etc are endemic in our community, the police will now concentrate the Service on investigating those who commit ‘Hate’ crimes against:

    “incomers”, non christians, LGBTsdfgers, Gender changeists, people who limp, etc

    Goodbye UK

    Question:

    Are we going to throw all Non Brits out of UK. I have just been evicted from Spain and France

    Today’s drive was from sarth(e) of Le Mans, to Calais, Submarine run to Folkstone and 6 hour drive home.

    And there was me thinking, that PM Boris was there to protect Uk anf its; citizens

    He has yet failed to stop the prosecution of our Vetrans for things done in Northern Ireland. When will we see him holdind a placard that says

    Protect our Sevice folk

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/23/hospital-trust-becomes-first-uk-cancel-routine-cancer-surgery/

    1. From the DT article:

      Hospitals across the country have since begun telling individual cancer
      sufferers that their planned surgery or chemotherapy appointments have
      been cancelled until further notice….

      That’s our amazing NHS. It’ll mean a certain death sentence for many unfortunate cancer sufferers …… but at least they won’t die of the Kung ‘flu.
      :¬(

      1. I had my bowel cancer operation 15 years ago,,,, followed by one to remove the need for the ‘doggy bag’
        We need to protect UK, as a whole, not just the NHS………….. which is larely non-Brit

    2. Thank goodness my cancer medication is taken orally at home. Thank you NHS and medical science.

  140. If all the newsagents will be closed, it could be good adverising for the Telegraph and the Times to remove the online paywall.

    2. The Telegraph should have already removed its paywall. It is after all reporting on matters of national significance and interest. By limiting its readership to those who are willing and able to pay it is deserting the basic principles of a free press.

      1. Surely the expression ‘free press’ relates to the publisher having the freedom to print what he/she wants, not the ability to access said publication free of charge!

  141. Reflecting that many deaths are extremely painful, the last few weeks/months/years of life are undignified and/or painful for many. Few are those who pass away comfortably in their sleep,

    Strangely a large group – over 200 – who did have comfortable exits were clustered in the town of Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester. Credit for this goes to a local doctor, name of Harold Shipman …..

    1. I’m planning on taking my camera with me on my walks, provided that the light is good.

      The weight of the big lens in particular (9 lb including camera body) provides extra excercise and fitness opportunities.

    1. What terrible brick work ! Did you do it yourself? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>runs away very fast.. 🙂

      1. We are selling up next year so I wanted something a bit rough and rustic and frankly imperfect to suit our mediaeval property.

        I am an expert on brickwork and the projects with which I have been involved would probably make you weep.

    3. Dear Bill.

      Enough is enough.

      I enjoy your typos/faux pas,’
      but I am giving you a lifeline
      I will release your suspension at
      Mid-day tomorrow.

      2. How kind of you, Flower, to enforce Bill’s isolation for his own safety in a safe space. I hope you provided a teddy. 🙂

  146. Teenagers held for allegedly coughing at and assaulting elderly couple. 23 March 2020.

    One of the alleged victims, a woman in her 70s, sustained a black eye and was taken to hospital for a checkup before being released, according to a spokesman for Hertfordshire constabulary.

    A man in his 30s who tried to intervene to help the couple also sustained bruising to his face, police said, and his vehicle was attacked.

    Three males, aged 16, 18 and 19, were arrested and interviewed under caution before being released under investigation.

    You have to laugh! The “man in his thirties” is Tommy Robinson. Obviously the instructions to the press must be that not only must he be castigated and vilified at every opportunity but no good deed should be attributed to him.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/23/three-teenagers-held-for-allegedly-coughing-at-elderly-couple-hertfordshire

      1. The British press eh,…………. the implication was the guy who intervened gave some one a black eye.

        1. They tried that with ex-Navy personnel when they realised they couldn’t manage to man (or woman) our dwindling fleet. The offer was pitiful.

          Any retired copper would be out of his mind to go back and work under the present shower of shit.

      1. No surely not. Is Boris going to exile me to a Caribbean Island. Then again it sounds like a nice idea

    1. “Lord God, what are you saying to us?”
      Well, He obviously has the vicar down for eternal Hellfire, Belle.

    2. He was lucky that the light of the Lord did not shine upon him and burn his bush…

      3. The government are advising UK Nationals to return from overseas urgently whilst they can. I read this as a signal that our borders are about to close.

        3. So, we are confined to our houses while jet planes still swan in and out of the airports?

  152. Our amazing NHS would be more amazing were it not carrying vast numbers of useless managers.

    We presently need competent medical practitioners, not armies of wretched diversity and inclusion officers for chrissake.

  153. Well you cannot fault the MSM this time, they might have failed with climate change but they have played a blinder this time, people are now screaming, nay begging for Boris to Please Lock Us Up And Throw Away The Key!

    1. No can do. All the prison places have been taken up and Bill Jackson just took the last safe space. I wonder if i should mention the prepper bunker below my nissan hut………..probably not….

    2. For our society to keep firmly on it’s tracks, they all really needed topping.
      And the MC of Britain should have grovelled and uttered at least ten words of apology.

  156. “Well I need to lose a few pounds” (see AndyC below)

    Some of us have lost hundreds of thousands of those already

  157. Heard a Doctor on TV say to get through the boredom of self isolation we should finish things we start and thus have more calm in our lives. So I looked through the house to find all the things I’ve started but hadn’t finished…so I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of Chardonnay, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of wum, tha mainder of Valiumun srciptuns, an a box a chocletz. Yu haf no idr how feckin fablus I feel rite now. Sned this to all who need inner piss. An telum u luvum.

  158. Borrocks!!! I’ve fallen through a wormhole where the Germans captured all our troops at Dunkirk. An almighty cock-up with knobs on. The classic failure of crisis management for all time coming!
    Crisis management success needs full on instant action at ten times the level you think you need, and then double it. Crisis management failure is the result of fiddling a little, worrying about the cost, running around in circles, asking experts, doing a little more tweaking it until you recognise that the sky has indeed fallen in…and then doing what you should have done months ago, and bolt the stable door.

    1. Recently posted below by HC

      Just posted this on Farcebook:
      Some facts.
      Number of deaths per year in the UK: 600,000.
      Number of deaths per week in the UK: 11,540.
      Number of deaths per day in the UK: 1645
      Number of deaths so far from coronavirus: 335
      I’m expecting some abuse.

      Does Boris know any of this ? It’s quite embarrassing to hear all the SHoneT coming out of the mouths of our political classes and the British media.
      Do they actually know anything at all about anything ?

        1. Quite a lot I suspect, when the collapse of the economy leads to family strife and bills unable to be paid. This is not going to be your normal market correction, some big players are going to be gone.

      2. 317349+ up ticks,
        Evening RE,
        They ALL have treachery down to a fine art that is a proven fact.

      3. They know nothing, they are all following the same script, I am sure that the parrot will tell you who is writing the script.

        The shutters are coming down in Canada as well, they are copying the Boris approach. Provinces are now closing their borders, not just national borders affected.

        1. We came home from Canada after just 2 days. Managed to change our flight at short notice and returned on one of Air Canada’s extra flights last weekend. Canada was far more sensible! All schools shut too – have they made any special provisions for children of essential workers?

    2. Have incoming flights from China, Iran and Italy been stopped? Why the heck weren’t they stopped ages go? Nobody seems to have asked Boris that.

      1. I am just about to ask our MP that. I am hoping he will ask Boris.

        Why do we all call him Boris as if he is a friend or relative? We never refer to him as Johnson. For as long as I can remember it has been Cameron, Clegg, Brown, Blair, Major, Thatcher, Callaghan, Wilson etc etc. Odd. I am not criticising – he is Boris in our household too.

        3. 317349+ up ticks,
          Evening PM.
          They are ALL to me sir names with a
          small case spelling,the johnson occasionally gets AKA turkish delight / amnesty R me, & cameron always the wretch.

        1. Hello Thay,

          My question was somewhat rhetorical, given the next sentence. The Govt. says that cancelling flights doesn’t makes any difference.

          Why should people staying at home make a difference, then? Apart from that there is evidence that countries such as Russia, which clamped down its borders quickly, have got off mildly.

          I believe it was the old “let’s get as many people infected as we can, in order to achieve some kind of mass immunity” thinking. That hasn’t worked with the diseases that had been eradicated here which are apparently now with us again, through the immigration of a minority of people.

          1. They put business above people but forgot business needs people, they are the workers and the customers.

            Herd immunity is a real thing but is best achieved with vaccinations. Without vaccinations the death toll would be far too high to be called acceptable, not to mention the poor NHS having to deal with so many infections at the same time.

      1. I was just going to say, can I touch you for a few quid, guv, but Boris said I’m not allowed to touch you.

  161. If you’re forgetful, can you go for a walk in the evening if you’ve already been for a walk in the morning?

    1. Does a round of golf count as a good walk?

      I can easily manage two rounds in a day, so I could be out exercising all day.

      2. Maud for hire –
        £20 per hour plus a tin of Chappie and a Bonio

        More details – Stalag17

        1. In better spirits, Minty. My paper losses are not as bad as first reported though still very annoying. But given what is going on for many people i consider myself lucky.

          I still have to contend with the shakes though.

          Jules suggested it was the DT’s but there could be another reason.

          As i say. I am in a good position and i thank you for your concern.

          3. Oh I am the cheerful type.

            Big problems coming in about two weeks when frustrations reach breaking point.

          5. I have received words of wisdom via email from some Nottlers that have put things back in perspective for me. It did help as i was feeling adrift. And a bit manic.

          6. I know. But in a falling market the best advice was/is to sit tight if you could.

            Crispin Odey, Hedge Fund Pirate made about 115 million out of this latest crash. And not just him.

      4. When I took my dog shopping with me, there were quite a few others doing the same thing with their pooches.

        1. These dogs are probably going to be ‘borrowed’ and walked off their poor little feet.

        2. Probably spent less than my wife would in a shop.

          OK spoil checker failed again. Edited

  162. email from my dentist!

    Dear patient,
    At {my}dentist, your safety, and that of our team, is our top priority.

    During the outbreak of COVID-19, we have taken extensive additional measures to ensure you are looked after, including increasing the frequency of cleaning across our practices and restricting certain treatments as advised by official NHS guidance.

    To ensure we continue to protect our colleagues and patients, we have now taken the decision to suspend all non-emergency dental treatments across all of our practices until further notice.

    This means that if you have a routine appointment in the coming weeks, such as a check-up or a non-urgent dental treatment, your appointment will need to be cancelled and we will contact you to find an alternative date.

    If you are in need of emergency care, for example if you are suffering from severe tooth pain, then you should phone your practice and someone will get back to you as soon as possible with further advice. If you are in need of urgent care but have any symptoms of coronavirus, such as a new, constant cough and/or a high temperature, or if someone in your household has these symptoms, please stay at home and call NHS 111 for further guidance.

    I want to reassure you that we are taking the outbreak of COVID-19 extremely seriously and are taking the necessary precautions to protect our patients and colleagues. We will continue to closely monitor the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and follow the advice provided by UK health authorities. As soon as we can begin providing routine dental care for our patients, we will contact you again and let you know.

    Thank you,

    Dr Nyree Whitley
    Clinical Director, {my}dentist

      1. I went to see them a couple of weeks ago Phizzee. They told me to come back next year!

        1. Is that because your teeth are wonderful or because they consider you a pain in the arse?

          Just kidding………… .>>>>>>runs and hides. :-((

          2. Whoops !

            The majority of mine are crowns. I have three spaces where i should have molars and they need implants because of the sinus gaps at the back….that rock in at about £2000 a tooth.

            I’m going to have to do it because i can’t eat shoop all my life. 🙁

        2. Next year!!! Once upon a time, before implants, I used to say that I was never at the doctor’s surgery but I almost needed a personal monthly slot at the dentist’s. Fortunately three implants and 15 years later, the story is very different.

    2. Wow! I was thinking about that book earlier in the day. Although the Decameron is more fun.

  164. The deaths so far are of people who tested positive for CV, who subsequently died. That doesn’t mean CV killed them.

    2. We knew from the start that it’s not CV that kills people – its pneumonia.

      Pneumonia is often acquired in hospital during treatment for other conditions and ventilators are a known risk factor.
      This NHS web link below shows that CV symptoms are no different from the multiplicity of other pneumonia inducing conditions.

      The irony is that ventilators used in hospital to alleviate the symptoms are actually a risk factor in making it worse.

      https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pneumonia/

      1. Having twice had bilateral pulmonary embolisms and latterly time a double dose of pneumonia I can categorically state that I would wish neither on anybody.

        There is nothing worse than aching lungs and the concomitant inability to sleep on your side or the Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) that results if not treated soon enough. The veins in your legs are damaged irreparably and you are required to wear compression hose and take blood thinners for the rest of your life.

        My wife suffers from asthma and is also prone to viruses such as this latest Corona virus. If anyone thinks that having to gasp for breath is not a serious concern I can only conclude that they are complete arseholes.

        1. I know the feelling – it’s indescribable.
          Although my lungs were clear it was my heart that had gone into atrial flutter and my blood oygen saturation was falling.
          I walked into A&E and in triage was diagnosed as having SVT and immediately wheeled into resus.
          Spent over a week being stabilised on the cardiac ward and was told by consultant that when I referred myself to A&E I only has 48 hrs to live.
          Now really on borrowed time with five drugs.

      2. My father had cancer, but it was pneumonia that killed him according to the death certificate.

        1. That was what was on George Vi’s death certificate. An injection from his physician however was more likely the cause. Pneumonia seemed for years to be an NHS catchall – “the old man’s friend”.

    3. I think the reason why C-19 is serious for some individuals but not others lies in the use of ACE/ARB medications for other illnesses and Ibuprofen particularly if it’s been taken long term for general aches and pains. Along with smoking, vaping, obesity, pregnancy.

      The reason being because it looks likely that in non ACE/ARB/Ibuprofen medicated healthy individuals the immune system will deal with C-19 before it reaches the pneumonia stage.

      I also think the World Health Organization got it wrong two months ago and is still getting it wrong because they don’t recognize the above.

      Consequently we’re in close down when the response could have been far better targeted, and with far better long term results for everyone.

  166. If, we have to self isolate for months, will we be able to claim a rebate for th3 amounts paid for car tax/insurance in those times

    3. You are not being stopped from driving. And you had better save up for your TV licence as well.
      “Only two things are certain in life. Death and Taxes”. And we are not offered a choice.

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