Monday 6 April: If idiots outside cluster too close, deal with them – don’t take it out on the law-abiding majority

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/04/05/lettersif-idiots-outside-cluster-close-deal-dont-take-law/

960 thoughts on “Monday 6 April: If idiots outside cluster too close, deal with them – don’t take it out on the law-abiding majority”

  1. Boris Johnson admitted to hospital for tests as coronavirus symptoms persist. 6 April 2020.

    Boris Johnson was admitted to hospital on Sunday night after failing to shake off coronavirus after two weeks.
    Number 10 said that the Prime Minister was taken to hospital by private car for tests after he continued to report a high temperature. Aides insisted that he remained in charge of the Government.

    Morning everyone. They are lying as per normal. If he’s gone to hospital he must be worse than he was last week. He’s on life support!

    Sick Transit Glorious Monday!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/05/boris-johnson-admitted-hospital-tests-coronavirus-symptoms-persist/

      1. Good Morning, hope it’s sunnier where you are . It’s as miserable as sin here.

          1. Indeed. I have found a sinfully delicious chocolate croissant
            In my freezer and will defrost it for later 😉

            Good Morning .

      1. I actually agree – in part – with the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.
        Only in part, because she then goes on to spout the usual blibble.

  5. SIR – Yesterday morning, God was seen walking around Yorkshire. “What are you doing?” he was asked. “Working from home,” he replied.

    Tony Service
    Selby, North Yorkshire

    1. SIR – It would be helpful for people wanting to leave their homes and anxious about the behaviour of some policemen to be aware of the terms of the Health Protection Regulations under which the police purport to act.

      They provide that “no person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse … A reasonable excuse includes the need (a) to obtain basic necessities, including food and medical supplies for those in the same household … or for vulnerable persons, and supplies for the essential upkeep, maintenance and functioning of the household or the household of a vulnerable person … (b) to take exercise either alone or with other members of their household (c) to seek medical assistance … (d) to provide care or assistance … to a vulnerable person … (e) to donate blood (f) to travel for the purposes of work or to provide voluntary or charitable services, where it is not reasonably possible to for that person to work, or to provide those services, from the place where they are living (g) to attend funerals [with restrictions].”

      There are several more.

      Vulnerable persons are those over 70, or pregnant, or with an “underlying health condition”.

      It is important to appreciate that there may be other “reasonable excuses” besides those listed, that the regulations do not forbid travel to provide voluntary services, and do not prohibit travelling a reasonable distance by car to take exercise.

      A person in a car is, of course, excellently isolated from other people.

      His Honour Charles Harris QC
      Retired Senior Circuit Judge
      Westcott Barton, Oxfordshire

      1. Police across the country are wielding powers they do not have – with vanishingly little public scrutiny
        FRANCIS HOAR – 5 APRIL 2020 • 11:32AM

        A public health crisis must not lead to a crisis of confidence in those who enforce the law

        Last Saturday morning Marie Dinou was arrested by officers on the concourse of Newcastle railway station. She was taken to a police station, where she remained, mute, for two days and two nights. On being taken to a magistrates’ court, she was convicted – in her absence and without representation – of a non-existent offence. That offence would have remained on her record were it not for the exposure of this case by the press and its review by Kirsty Brimelow QC, which persuaded the CPS to apply to withdraw the conviction.

        The police officers arrested Ms Dinou for an offence under Schedule 21 of the Coronavirus Act. That applies to people officers have “reasonable grounds to believe” may be infected, whom they may “direct” to go to a place where they may be assessed and treated. Yet they admittedly had no such belief and arrested Ms Dinou simply because she was “loitering” on the platform.

        More concerning still were the actions of the District Judge. Ms Dinou having refused to speak, she ordered her to return to her cell and, after hearing a trial in her absence consisting of police officers reading their statements, convicted her.

        Whatever her reasons for excluding Ms Dinou from the courtroom, the District Judge made a grave error in finding that the officers’ allegations of fact amounted to an offence. They cannot have done, given that the officers did not state their belief that she was infected. While Ms Dinou can be expected to be compensated for her wrongful arrest, how many more such abuses might there be – especially in courts sitting (whether openly or by video link) with limited if any public scrutiny?

        This reveals a wider problem. After limited to non-existent public debate and little if any scrutiny of this legislation by Parliament (which has since decided not to continue to sit) the police have been granted sweeping powers. These also include the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations, through which they may enforce restrictions on people leaving their homes.

        Here, too, police forces around the country have used and declaimed powers they do not have. While officers may stop individuals under the regulations, they may not do on the grounds that their trip was not ‘essential’. Save in respect of a definition of items needed for home maintenance, that word does not feature in the regulations.

        Rather, officers may only question those they reasonably believe did not have a ‘reasonable excuse’ for leaving their residence; and this may be one of a number of listed reasons (which are not comprehensive). The only restriction is on the reason for leaving, not on what is done afterwards. While the word ‘essential’ is used in government guidance, that is not the law and officers do not have the power to enforce compliance with it.

        Policing in this country is through consent and relies upon the fair enforcement of the law, subject to a public and accessible justice system. Never is this more important than where the public are restricted from leaving their homes and the courts sit either online or in empty court buildings.

        While the senior judiciary have actively promoted the ability of journalists to access online court hearings, this will affect only those cases of which they are already aware. It has been suggested that one means of ensuring public justice would be by televising hearings, whether online or in person. The traditional objections to such a course – that it would lead to hearings being treated as ‘theatre’ and that witnesses’ testimony may be affected by the knowledge that they were being televised – are perhaps less important than the need to ensure that justice is not just done but seen to be done.

        More important still is that the judiciary take particular care to scrutinise police actions and allegations in empty courts with often unrepresented defendants. A public health crisis must not lead to a crisis of confidence in those who enforce the law and safeguard justice.

        Francis Hoar is a barrister specialising in public law.

  6. Cheshire police officers slammed as ‘unfit for purpose’ after urging people to stay indoors by performing dance routine to the Bee Gees’ hit Stayin’ Alive. Mail. 5 April 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57aade68135797577adf1dbf8e7d2b2d31d55b3c846280c86744a6c1a561761e.jpg

    Police officers have been slammed for performing a dance routine to the Bee Gees’ hit Stayin’ Alive, as they urged people to stay at home last night during the coronavirus lockdown.

    But the Saturday Night Fever rendition drew huge criticism online, with Twitter users questioning if the dance routine is an ”essential reason’ for being outdoors’

    At least it wasn’t “I can sing a rainbow.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8188957/Police-officers-ridiculed-performing-Bee-Gees-hit-Stayin-Alive.html

    3. Our police are a total embarrassment.
      Talking of which – when will we hear that the Notting Hill carnival has been cancelled?
      (Hollow laugh)

      1. The good news is that Brighton Pride (ugh) has been “postponed”.

        ‘Morning, Annie.

        1. We’re not surprised Hugh.

          Brighton has had a far higher number of Coronavirus sufferers, on a percentage basis, than the rest of Sussex.

          We are surprised that Saint Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton, hasn’t mentioned that fact!

          3. ‘Morning, Hugh, “…and, as usual, hijacked by a minority bunch of weirdos.”

            …who wish to get the majority to say that their practises are not unnatural.

            Why can they not take an example from say the Orthodox Jews (Frummers) who while a minority, don’t rant and parade their differences in marches and shouting from the roof-tops (even if they would have reason so to do if/when we become the Brit Caliphate)?

        3. We’re not surprised Hugh.

          Brighton has had a far higher number of Coronavirus sufferers, on a percentage basis, than the rest of Sussex.

          We are surprised that Saint Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton, hasn’t mentioned that fact!

      2. But Ramadingdong hasn’t. It will be interesting to see how the police enforce distancing.

  8. Good morning, everyone. My dear wife is 70 today. I will be 84 in July. We have had 40 wonderful years together. My plans to celebrate the day have been bu99ered by the shutdown but we will do it later in the year.

    5. Many happy returns to Mrs DB! When you can celebrate properly it will be all the better for waiting.

      Our road of nearly 40 houses is already planning our celebratory street party. It seems we have plenty of time to do so.

    7. Happy birthday and many happy returns to your wife. Happily sharing two lives is one of our greatest gifts.

      There will be a lot to celebrate later. Let’s look forward to that day.

    8. Happy birthday to your beloved.
      It is now 40y since the Dearly Tolerant & I first met, though we did not tie the knot for another 6y.

    9. Raise a glass to each other, assuming you’ve laid in stocks of essential booze 🙂

    1. ‘Morning, Mags, another example of ignoramuses trying to appear ‘woke’ by using a word that they think is new but is, in fact, ancient American from 17th Century Dutch.

      1. Used to be printed on railway tickets issued to service personnel going on leave.

        1. ‘Morning, Bill, must have been a long time ago. I served from 1960 to 1969 and for train travel I was issued with a ‘Rail Warrant’ exchangeable at the Ticket Office for the relevant ticket.

          The only time I heard furlough used, was in the context of American Forces going on leave.

          1. I regularly used it at school in Maffs (© Anne Allan): “Eight furloughs make a mile”.

            :-)) (Btw, good morning all, or rather good afternoon.) After lunch I am off to do some “essential shopping”. Hoped to last until Thursday, but milk has just run out and I must chase it before it gets lost!)

          3. Same here. I had a Rail Warrant which I exchanged for a ticket. Edit – this was early seventies.

        2. Welcome back, Bill!

          How are you doing with your 1938 A-Z jigsaw puzzle? I have to say, it’s one of the hardest I’ve ever attempted.

  11. Morning all.

    SIR – Any further restrictions on exercising (as threatened by Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary) would push many of us too far.

    My outdoor experience is that everyone respects the distancing rules. If idiots meet in groups, they need dealing with, not the majority.

    Mark Osland

    Oxted, Surrey

    SIR – The Health Secretary finds it “unbelievable that people are not staying at home”. Is he also surprised that some people are not starving?

    J F F Sharland

    Stannington, Northumberland

    SIR – It would be helpful for people wanting to leave their homes and anxious about the behaviour of some policemen to be aware of the terms of the Health Protection Regulations under which the police purport to act.

    They provide that “no person may leave the place where they are living without reasonable excuse … A reasonable excuse includes the need (a) to obtain basic necessities, including food and medical supplies for those in the same household … or for vulnerable persons, and supplies for the essential upkeep, maintenance and functioning of the household or the household of a vulnerable person … (b) to take exercise either alone or with other members of their household (c) to seek medical assistance … (d) to provide care or assistance … to a vulnerable person … (e) to donate blood (f) to travel for the purposes of work or to provide voluntary or charitable services, where it is not reasonably possible to for that person to work, or to provide those services, from the place where they are living (g) to attend funerals [with restrictions].”

    There are several more.

    Vulnerable persons are those over 70, or pregnant, or with an “underlying health condition”.

    Advertisement

    It is important to appreciate that there may be other “reasonable excuses” besides those listed, that the regulations do not forbid travel to provide voluntary services, and do not prohibit travelling a reasonable distance by car to take exercise.

    A person in a car is, of course, excellently isolated from other people.

    His Honour Charles Harris QC

    Retired Senior Circuit Judge

    Westcott Barton, Oxfordshire

    SIR – Having serious underlying health issues, I am grateful to every person heeding government advice: “Stay at home, help the NHS and save lives.”

    Lambeth council said of the Covid-idiots in Brockwell Park that “disappointed is the only word”. I could give them several others. These people are risking lives. They are not stupid, simply unutterably selfish.

    Prosecute and fine them hard.

    Heather Erridge

    Weston-super-Mare, Somerset

    SIR – Police receive orders from goodness knows how many chains of command. How on earth are they expected to perform their multifarious duties in exactly the same way? The people criticising them wouldn’t touch their job with a bargepole.

    Peter Wyton

    Longlevens, Gloucestershire

    SIR – I see older people moving out of the way of the young while walking.

    Fiona Wild

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Yesterday morning, God was seen walking around Yorkshire. “What are you doing?” he was asked. “Working from home,” he replied.

    Tony Service

    Selby, North Yorkshire

    SIR – Is now the time for a referendum? Question: In or Out?

    Clare Avery

    Braintree, Essex

    SIR – It was so lovely to come down yesterday morning, the sun just working its way round to my window. And… the silence!

    Christine M Dooley

    Swadlincote, Derbyshire

    1. I find it deeply disturbing that the Health Secretary would consider punishing 67million people when the rules are being flouted by “a tiny minority”. If he goes ahead with such a stupid plan then I predict that the government will lose control of the situation when there is mass disobedience.

      ‘Morning, Epi.

      2. The same thing happens with kow-towing to greens, homosexuals, Muslims and pikeys, all tiny minorities whose actions affect and inconvenience the many.

      3. Even if he does punish 67 million, the flouting minority will continue to flout, because they are untouchable…

    2. Tony Service – like it! So true…
      Christine Dooley – the silence before the death-rattle of the economy.

    3. So true, Fiona Wild. The young don’t seem to have any situational awareness at all – presumably as they are the centre of their universe, nobody else matters.

  12. UK coronavirus deaths could reach 7,000 to 20,000: Ferguson. 6 April 2020.

    LONDON (Reuters) – UK deaths from the coronavirus could rise to between about 7,000 and 20,000 under measures taken to slow the spread of the virus, Neil Ferguson, a professor at Imperial College in London who has helped shape the government’s response, said on Sunday.

    One thing we can be certain of when this ends is that Cochrane will have predicted it!

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-ferguson/uk-coronavirus-deaths-could-reach-7000-to-20000-ferguson-idUSKBN21N0BN

  13. Sam was one of my teachers. Very bright man.

    SIR – Treating the Covid-19 epidemic, instead of its clinical consequences, is turning a tragedy into a disaster. To flatten the epidemic peak by lockdown will destroy the economy and social life, but do nothing for the disease.

    The problem is horrible, but simple. Covid-19 is very contagious: most of us will get it and suffer little, but 1-2 per cent will die, and if the few who respond badly are ill at the same time that would swamp the NHS.

    It is that explosion of serious disease in a minority that we must prevent, not the spread of virus to the remainder who will suffer little.

    And because severe disease occurs in the elderly and immune-compromised, we can prevent that explosion by ensuring their complete, compulsory isolation. This action, and this alone, would control the primary danger of the Covid-19 epidemic.

    There is no reason to isolate the other 80 per cent of the population. The infection will spread to most of them, but few will get other than a temporary, mostly minor disability, and they can continue normal activity.

    However, the severe risk to the isolated susceptible will remain, and a programme of staged, age-based release will be needed to optimise their treatment.

    How rapidly this can be done will depend on availability of NHS facilities, infection rates (which herd immunity could influence) and the development of drugs and vaccines. This will entail a rationalisation of drug-testing procedures, which are as much about legal responsibility as patient harm.

    Controlled release of susceptible people will optimise their treatment.

    Sam Shuster

    Emeritus Professor of Dermatology

    Woodbridge, Suffolk

    1. Much the same sentiment as that expressed by John Ioannis

      https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-fiasco-in-the-making-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-takes-hold-we-are-making-decisions-without-reliable-data/

      He likens the response to that of an elephant that, irritated by a house cat, jumps off a cliff and dies.

      He looked at the Diamond Princess Cruise ship as a control.

      All quarantined on board.

      100% tested

      100% cases closed

      7 deaths in 700 people or a CDR (Critical Death rate) of 1% in a population with a significantly higher proportion of at risk (elderly) than the general population.Thus he can only suggest that the final CDR will be between 0.05% and 1%. Estimates based on the data the Chinese have offered are 0.2% but of course, the Chinese data is much questioned. Claiming it over the CCP Leader was once again seen wearing a face mask…..

      https://www.statnews.com/2018/09/26/cdc-us-flu-deaths-winter/

    2. Here’s a novel idea; how about we test everybody and those who have already had it, regardless of age, can be released back into society?

  14. SIR – Vulnerable elderly folk being unable to secure supermarket delivery slots (Letters, April 4) is dreadful.

    In rural Norfolk, our neighbouring village’s general store is a lifeline. Run by a husband and wife, it has sensibly reduced opening to 8am-1pm. Afternoons are spent restocking.

    The elderly or those self-isolating may order by phone, collect by car and pay when they can enter the shop.

    Kirsty Blunt

    Sedgeford, Norfolk

    SIR – I read with growing concern the letters from vulnerable older people who find it hard to get delivery slots from the main supermarkets.

    Many older people are not on social media, which is awash with volunteer groups offering to shop. Maybe the local doctors’ surgery, which will know who is vulnerable in the area, could liaise with local support groups.

    If the Data Protection Act does not permit this, it is surely better to save a life than worry about data protection.

    Elizabeth Edmunds

    Hassocks, West Sussex

  15. I like it.

    SIR – My wife and I are over 70 and have been self-isolating for the past three weeks.

    For the first week life was difficult, quite claustrophobic with frequent bickering.

    The second week saw an improvement with the introduction of a daily routine, including a sundowner at 6pm.

    This week we have resorted to two sundowners nightly and have discovered we quite like each other.

    Alan Arnaud

    Biggleswade, Bedfordshire

      1. Morning, Maggie.

        The man has never had a proper job in his life. A professional leech if there ever were one.

        1. A bit like the Kinnock family then…(other blood-sucking parasites are available).

          ‘Morning, Grizz.

          1. ‘Afternoon, Hugh.

            I would have strung up the Pillock [sorry: “Kinnock”] family years ago. Think of the savings to the exchequer!

  18. Tiger tests positive for coronavirus at Bronx Zoo, first known case in the world. Natasha Daly. 5 hrs ago

    A tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19, and six other big cats are exhibiting symptoms consistent with the illness, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Sunday afternoon.

    “It’s the first time, to our knowledge, that a [wild] animal has gotten sick from COVID-19 from a person,” says Paul Calle, chief veterinarian for the Bronx Zoo. The Malayan tiger, named Nadia, likely contracted the coronavirus from an infected—but unknown—asymptomatic zookeeper. “It’s the only thing that makes sense,” Calle says. The zoo has been closed to visitors since March 16.

    This is not the first report of this virus infecting animals. Now I am not a virologist but I would have thought this an ominous development since surely the implication is that it is establishing itself in the world as a whole where it can mutate endlessly?

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/coronavirus/tiger-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-at-bronx-zoo-first-known-case-in-the-world/ar-BB12cy5N

    1. Morning, Minty.
      I’m imagining testing a tiger for a virus.
      Did they drive up to one of the more deserted testing stations?

        2. I used to think that was Tony the Tiger moonlighting from his usual Frosties adverts.

      3. ..and good luck to whoever might have the job of fitting a ventilator to it.

    2. I suspect that it has been established in the wild for a long time. Probably many years, if not decades or more.

      1. Quite likely. Which leads us to Chinese eating habits and their traditional medicines.

        1. It will be a turn up for the books if one reason traditional Chinese medicine appeared to work was because people were catching diseases from the medicine which cured other diseases.

          But then again …

    3. Half a dozen other big cats at the zoo also caught the virus. Zoo keeper obviously putting him(her)self about.

      1. Clucking bell. How close do keepers get to the big cats? I thought zoos had an intricate arrangement of cages, doors and tunnels to keep animals and humans apart.
        Is Covid 19 a type of kennel cough?

    6. A report from China said a cat and a dog had died of Corona. My Vet emailed me to say that dogs don’t get the virus.

      Hmmm……..who to believe.

      1. Is that corona virus as in dumped live into boiling water and turned into a stew?

      2. They reported another death “with coronavirus” in a local hospital today. Yes, but that isn’t OF coronavirus, is it?

    7. First known case in the world? How many tigers have they tested then?
      This kind of thing probably happens more often than we realise in the animal kingdom.

    9. Are they making it a priority to find the asymptomatic shedder? If not, why not?

  20. Very odd – must be the virus. Rain Radar shows that we have had (and, indeed, are having right now) heavy rain.

    Not a drop.

    1. I’ve had this Bill. I was once watching the weather report on the BBC where the guy was pontificating about the brand new Rain Radar and how it showed a UK under a cloudless sky. Hearing something outside I stood up and drew the curtain back. It was a cloudburst and the gutters were overflowing!

    2. Morning, Willum.
      Same here, but we’re usually about an hour behind the forecast.
      Spartie appears to have pulled a muscle, so today I will have to miss the joy of watching people leap into the bramble patch as we march along the middle of the paths hereabouts.
      I’ll have to get my exercise by having a housework day. (‘Running’ up and down two flights of stairs and bending exercises as I clear primitive life forms from the fridge.)

      1. Im thinking about taking a bell out with me and shouting “unclean” to amplify the effect of bramble jumping.

        1. It is rather satisfying.
          I make good use of my cripple status (I don’t let on that I can now walk longer distances at a decent clip) and, of course, it is soooooo important for Spartie’s mental health that he is given as long as possible to thoroughly investigate very nettle clump, take a leisurely pee on against a tree and as for that patch of grass ….. well he just has to know whether both Rover and Tyson have passed that way since yesterday …..

          1. Life must be ideal when it involves little more than sniffing rear ends and sleeping. I suppose dogs must have the equivalent of a “like” emoji.

          2. Mine spends ages reading his wee-mails before deciding whether or not to reply 🙂

        2. I’ve found that shouting “unclean” certainly clears the younger generations out of the way. At this rate someone is going to be flattened by a vehicle…

          1. You jest. The number of people jogging down the middle of the road.
            The more they’re obsessed with fitness, the more neurotic they are about bugs.
            “Self-centred? Moi?”

    3. Ditto in this part of yer Sussex, Bill. Weather map yesterday predicted heavy rain here am, radar this morning shows two bands of rain passing either side. Dust bowl conditions continue.

  21. Good morning all. I hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend, whilst of course adhering strictly to government guidelines, which are only in place for your own good.

    Can I recommend this article, the quote which stuck with me was:

    “I hope we don’t become a nasty little island where neighbours snoop on each other and compete to be holier than thou, where the authorities are feared and dissent leads to social ostracism – and a surreptitious walk to the post box becomes a police matter.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/06/legitimacy-coronavirus-lockdown-already-beginning-fray/

    I am truly shocked at how quickly and (in some cases) enthusiastically we have descended into a police state, with neighbours informing on each other for the heinous crime of going out for a run more than once a day. And when the hell did the police get the power to check my shopping for ‘non-essential items?’ What business is it of the law what I have in my shopping basket as long as I have paid for it?

    This can’t go on much longer or our “self-discipline and good-humoured resolve” which Her Majesty spoke of will begin to break down.

    1. Like you, I’m appalled at how readily the British have adapted to a police state.
      Two attempts in the C20. Third time lucky?
      Quite frankly, Brenda was talking bollards; this is not 1940. A lot has changed on these islands, and not necessarily for the better.
      Morning, JK.

      2. Sadly, we are now the snowflake generation, unused to any real hardship or deprivation. Coupled with a need to signature virtue and demonstrate moral superiority over others. Heaven forbid we face a real existential threat such as an invasion, this weak populace would roll over and beg for more.

        1. Totally off topic – last night we watched an old episode of ‘Friday Night Dinners’ (previous week?).
          I didn’t realise that telly still produced genuine comedy.
          As I have two grown-up (?!?) sons, extra enjoyment came from trying to picture one of them being pushed into saying “I love you, Mum”.

          1. I haven’t watched it in a while. I agree with you about it being funny.

            The best episode i remember is when the neighbour (Mark Heap) came round. They had been painting the sitting room. Ladder….Paint. Guess what happens next. I almost peed myself laughing it was so funny.

            Another really funny one was the piano tuner.

            I met Mark Heap a few weeks ago. He is as manic in real life as he is in the show.

        2. Ahem…point of order JK – if I may say so, your “we” is a touch too sweeping…those of us at or close to the three score and ten have no intention of removing our backbones!

        3. It’s interesting that the Welfare State, established with such high ideals, has turned out a complete generation of snowflakes, lacking all resilience to any setback.

          1. I do suspect that this was rather the point. Create a lazy, entitled, benefit-dependent generation which won’t notice that it is being replaced by a more dynamic (and much cheaper and more compliant) immigrant workforce.

          2. I’m not sure that was the original idea JK, but certainly it holds merit.

            As for a “more dynamic workforce” it would be interesting to discover what proportion of illiterate goat herders hold down any job, let alone a dynamic one.

          3. At 50% unemployment (75% for the women), I’d hardly call that cohort a workforce.

          4. I’m not sure that was the original idea JK, but certainly it holds merit.

            As for a “more dynamic workforce” it would be interesting to discover what proportion of illiterate goat herders hold down any job, let alone a dynamic one.

      3. 317885+ up ticks,
        Morning Anne,
        Agreed, the war years brought out the spirit of the nation against a common enemy, today the
        enemy is within and was welcomed in via mass uncontrolled immigration.
        The enemy them days at least, in the main,were ID by a uniform unlike today many will never be ID owing to the mode of head to toe dress this is with the governance parties & supporting fools blessings.
        Liz knows in her heart that you don’t have to travel far in today’s UK to die
        violently / prematurely society has changed most definitely for the worst since the 40s &
        most decidedly so these past four decades.

      4. ‘Morning, Anne, Brenda was only saying what she was told to say on pain of another 93 year-old succumbing to WuFlu.

          2. Does he not? Oh well, in that case, it looks as if his wish will be granted.
            But he’d be p!ssed off if that was due to government diktat.

      5. I thought it was almost insulting to compare the wartime generation with today’s.

    3. 317885+ up ticks,
      Morning JK,
      A tad late methinks the usage of PCism, Appeasement
      has seen to that, as for submissiveness that has sucked much of the moral fibre from the electorate
      especially.
      A very sad state of affairs all round.

    4. We haven’t bought Easter eggs for years now, but I feel an act of defiance coming on…

    5. I am irritated by social meeja posts often from NHS staff which rant and rave with the language of a Sargent major. Its amazing how judgemental these people are. In normal times, if I was to criticise the behaviour of a group or individual on moral grounds (are there any left), I would be slated. But now its ok if you are protecting the sacred cow.

      1. Agreed. I find these 8pm claps for ‘Our NHS’ to be embarassing and Orwellian. Why was the NHS not better prepared for this pandemic, when the government was informed four years ago that it was not? We have to stop treating the NHS like some perfect deity and recognise that, whilst many good people work there, it is costly, wasteful and inefficient.

        1. ‘Morning, JK, “… it is costly, wasteful and inefficient.”

          …and badly in need of reform over the heads of Union objections.

        2. 29th. July, 1981.
          The date when the rot set in.
          31st. August, 1997.
          The date when the rot established itself irretrievably in the core of the British character.
          Well done, Queen Mother. You achieved the very opposite of what you spent your life railing against.

    1. Yes, unless you have been retired long enough to find the way of peace and reconciliation through established routines, and a garden shed for him, then one wife might be too many for any extended period of enforced lockdown. Not helped by the alck of imagination on the part of the TV people or government.
      In the war there was “Dig for Victory”, scrap drives and all sorts of activities but what activities are there suggested, reasonably (i.e. ignore the Hollywood luvies who feel the deprivation more than anyone) to help people survive their enforced home domiciled leisure?

      1. During the war you could go to the pub and the cinemas, after an initial panic, were still left open. Edit – racing continued as well, albeit in a slightly different form. The Grand National was held at Gatwick, for instance and the Derby at Newmarket.

  24. Huw Edwards reveals he’s been in hospital with pneumonia and warns everyone to ‘keep safe and follow the guidelines’ as he says he’ll back on BBC News this week. 6 April 2020.

    The BBC newsreader, 58, was treated at Kings College Hospital in Camberwell, London, but is set to return to screens in the coming days.

    Mr Edwards uploaded a post to Twitter that read: ‘Big thanks to @KingsCollegeNHS for superb care #pneumonia I’ll be back at @BBCNews this week — keep safe everyone and follow the guidelines #StayHomeSaveLives.’

    Just when I was beginning to cheer up!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8190325/Huw-Edwards-reveals-hes-hospital-pneumonia.html

    1. Not a doctor, but have had a nasty bout of pneumonia and pleurisy years ago and it occurred at the time when doctors were under pressure not to give antibiotics until people were really sick, I’m wondering now that they are now doing that again whether this is playing a part in why so many people are getting pneumonia

        1. At one point we called out a doctor, got a locum, nice young woman, listened to my chest, couldn’t hear anything untoward, despite having a temperature, she told me to eat more fresh fruit and veg before leaving.
          I beleive now that doctors cannot tell if you have pneumonia by listening to your chest.

          1. I suspect younger ones can’t. They are used to filling in a form and shuffling the responsibility onto a path lab.

      3. Morning all. 😕
        Our neighbour opposite died of pneumonia last week. He was 88, not a bad innings.
        Still road cycling around 6 months ago. Of course none of us will be able to attend his funeral.
        But even without the virus unlike most who end up in hospital, I expect Huw Edwards has private medical insurance and had a private room and all the attention he needed. I’m pleased he is better.
        I suffered from single pneumonia about 5 years ago but after x-ray confirmation i stayed at home taking antibiotics. But last December I had an upper respiratory infection, and still have a slight cough. Border line COPD, I’m not really allowed out. But I did take our dog for a walk last evening.
        Now my over enthusiastic wife has hurt her back gardening.
        We will have to contact one of our sons for some shopping.
        The earliest on line delivery slot we could get was June !
        Many people’s world’s have been turned upside down.

    2. Should have had his pneumonia jab with his ‘flu jab…oh, hang on, he isn’t 60 (but looks it).

  25. Time again for a sense of perspective.

    There are over 1,200 hospitals in the UK.

    I know averages are misleading and many hospitals will be a lot busier than others but does the death toll of one per hospital, every other day justify killing the economy for a decade or more?

    1. Heard a report on the radio earlier that people are dying in care homes because they cannot get treatment basically because the NHS is now a one trick pony ( those are my words ).

      1. 15 in one week in a Glasgow care home – my wife is in one a lot further north but it’s still worrying

      2. In The clip posted further up it is explained that “those over 75 will not be treated in hospital”. They are expendable.

      3. I think we should bear in mind who is in a care home – and why.
        In the days before we went metric and became hysterical, March was a clear-out month. Landmarks like Christmas and New Year were well past (never underestimate the determination of the human soul to achieve certain goals) and the winter just went on that bit too long – especially in Britain, where we get false promises of spring and then there is a bitter cold and damp month where the daffodils seem to mock us.

      4. Is that purely Covid related or deaths from other causes too? If they are CV they will be appearing in the daily figures.

          1. Certainly anything that looks even remotely related will be, even if the patient had a cold and died of a heart attack.

          2. Few, if any, post mortems being carried out. So no matter the cause of death it can be recorded as CV19, even if the individual has not been tested.

          3. I imagine that they are all being put down.

            How a simple edit changes the whole meaning. Are there any vacancies for me at the Guardian, Al-Beeb, Sky News…?😎

        2. “With” or “of”?
          It suits the PTB to conflate the figures when the population starts getting antsy.

    2. What is the capacity in the UK for treating coronavirus patients: ordinary beds, and special beds, and ICU beds, and how many are currently occupied?
      These are surely the key figures when considering capacity and ability to cope.
      I’ve not seen these figures mentioned.
      If we have 10,000 beds ready and 3000 are occupied we are maybe a long way off being overwhelmed. I have no problem with having lots of unused capacity ongoing. Over-provision is the correct course.

      1. I doubt we’ll see pictures of empty or largely unoccupied Nightingale hospitals.
        The first ambulance rocking up to the Excel centre will be splashed across papers and TV screens ad nauseam.
        Anything else doesn’t fit in with the narrative to keep the British population cowed and compliant.

      2. Figures that I suspect will be very difficult to obtain.

        “Beds” covers a multitude of sins and I think that to get a true picture one would also need to see how much equipment (ventilators and the like) and trained personnel is available.

        The King’s Fund figures are here:

        https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/nhs-hospital-bed-numbers?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyKTyqrjT6AIVA4bVCh0v0g5XEAAYASAAEgIJiPD_BwE

        Taking the Excel and Birmingham centres as examples, getting beds in place is relatively strightforwd, it’s equipping them and staffing them and supporting them that will be a logistical challenge.

        1. Let’s hope the staff at these hospitals are all Forces trained.
          There was a very good reason why Colchester patients would practically kill to be admitted to our (now defunct) military hospital.

    1. Should this not be introduced in the training manual of those responsible for dealing with illegal immigration substituting the Italian and Spanish flags for those of countries in Africa and Asia Minor?

        1. I wonder how many of these boats have been sunk without trace and where the bodies are washing ashore? It seems extremely unlikely that all of them are getting across.

          Unless they are being released from larger, faster boats. © Bill Jackson

          1. Surely the corpses would be washed up the beaches.
            The MSM would think all their Christmasses had come at once.

          3. Quite, which is why I think these so-called crossings are nothing of the kind.

          4. Strange that it’s only the dinghies that are picked up, never the ‘mother ships’.

  27. A couple of TCW articles to while away the 23 hours locked in your cell.

    https://conservativewoman.co.uk/the-tories-let-in-trans-mania-now-they-must-drive-it-out/?utm_source=TCW+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=de8247a0b3-Mailchimp+Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a63cca1cc5-de8247a0b3-559682581

    https://conservativewoman.co.uk/your-updated-guide-to-hancocks-half-cocked-crisis/?utm_source=TCW+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=de8247a0b3-Mailchimp+Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a63cca1cc5-de8247a0b3-559682581

  28. I think we all need to just be careful, because people are going crazy from being in lock down!

    Actually I’ve just been talking about this with the microwave and toaster while drinking coffee and we all agreed that things are getting bad. I didn’t mention anything to the washing machine as she puts a different spin on everything.

    Certainly not to the fridge as he is acting cold and distant. In the end the iron straightened me out as she said everything will be fine, no situation is too pressing.

    The vacuum cleaner was very unsympathetic… told me to just suck it up, but the fan was more optimistic and hoped it would all soon blow over! The toilet looked a bit flushed when I asked its opinion and didn’t say anything but the door knob told me to get a grip. The front door said I was unhinged and so the curtains told me to …yes, you guessed it …pull myself together

  30. ‘Morning, all.

    Now that the foam-flecked, swivel-eyed Che Guevara wannabe from Islington has been kicked into touch to be replaced by the supposedly more acceptable Sir Max Headroom, I note that the idea of inviting Labour – and others – to join the Tories in a “Government of National Unity” has resurfaced in the MSM.

    The advantages for the Labour Party are obvious. After its worst electoral defeat since 1935, an undeserved place in Government would be a wet-dream come true, and some Tories might welcome this move because it would effectively neuter the Opposition. It’s much harder to snipe at Government decisions when you’re represented in that Government.

    Momentum hasn’t gone away, it’s just biding its time. I just hope the Boris doesn’t fall for it.

    1. Would that government of National unity replace the current Government of World Unity?

      1. 317885+ up ticks,
        Morning Atg,
        It would most certainly do the submissive, PC, appeasement cause, a power of good.

    2. 317885+ up ticks,
      Morning DM,
      so what’s new ? they are joined at the political hip by
      treachery & mass uncontrolled immigration and seen
      by many as a coalition and an anti GB coalition at that.
      We have not got to be and would not have got to be such a nation as we are today, without their continuing input

    3. Please don’t denigrate the great Max Headroom. Smart, handsome, sensible, clean , decent, and honest Max

        1. Yes, kind of. In a smoothed back craggy way. If you like that sort of thing. (I’d definitely want him in my gang, if I had a gang and wasn’t the one who was always left out when teams were chosen. But enough about me.)

          1. I suspect that most people who post on here were the last to be chosen when they were picking teams…I certainly was…unless the teacher took pity on me and let me be the team picker…

    4. ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’
      .
      Some Chinese bloke.

    5. Starmer is arguably worse than Momentum. Like Blair, he will present a competent and reasonable front, behind which unlimited destruction can take place.

  31. 317885+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Nothing much changed in so far as the lab party has a new leader, one who see’s the purveyors of paedophilia in a different light than most & seemingly an eu asset.
    As for these so called tories and their actions especially over the last two decades treachery is never far away.
    Give credit where due their stay at home advice is sound, don’t make a home for the virus in crowds.
    By the same token they are using this issue IMO in showing how far they can go in crowd control regarding a nation.
    I have a strong feeling that there is a war game department ie an
    envelope stretching office that is probing just how much they can get away with before the sh!te collides with the fan.

    2. I am very lucky to live in a quiet, rural area where I can walk from the door – the field paths are wide enough to stay well clear of the few people I meet, and the views are great. How people get on in a possibly crowded flat, maybe with kids, and probably no outside space at all is beyond me – why they can’t drive a little or go to a large park is beyond me – surely the police could enforce separation while letting people get some fresh air and exercise?

      1. It’s absolute overkill. We are lucky too – rural area, no police and we can walk in any direction from home. I can’t imagine how it must be to be cooped up in a city flat with kids home from school.

      2. Same with me and for that reason I refuse to condemn any urban dweller who does not have their own garden to relax in who wishes to walk or drive to an open space to relax.
        Just so long as they keep their safe distance.

      3. That would require the police use initiative and common sense……

        Nothing further to add….{:¬((

          1. If anybody stops me (highly unlikely as we rarely see plod in these parts) I shall ask him/her/it if they have grounds to believe I am infected. If the answer is no (and if it’s yes, I’d want to know what evidence they base it on), then they have no powers to detain me.

        1. I’d like someone to do a survey, and see how those who want the stricter measures voted recently. I wonder about those who are busily condemning everyone else, what their political affiliations are.

    5. Having just written a couple of eye watering cheques to make up for the NHS’ deficiencies, don’t bother to save it for me. I can’t afford to support it.

  35. Today is the anniversary of the Task Force setting off for the Falklands. No media attention I’ve noticed.

      1. I was down at Southsea when it went off, it must have been Easter holiday time I guess.

        1. I was on the round tower waving them off. I was there again when they came back. Quite an atmosphere.

          1. Followed a coachload of Bootnecks on the M5 just after they’d come home. The whole motorway was hooting & flashing their lights, waving half out of the window… Amazing! Went on past our turnoff.

    2. The media are probably in eternal shame that this country ever stood up for itself and, horror of horrors, defeated an enemy who’d invaded one of its territories, especially as it was under Mrs.Thatcher’s premiership.

    4. Out the Army 2 years and I was devastated because my mates were heading down there and I wasn’t.

  36. By the way, what was the plant that the Queen had on her desk during her broadcast?

      1. I thought she was reserving the deadly nightshade for if HMG ever try to force her to give Tony Blair a peerage?

      2. Hiya! Good to hear from you. How are you and where are you? (She says, with all the subtlety of a flying mallet!)

    4. The Queen (gawd bless ‘er) looks very wooden in her broadcasts these days. You don’t think that she is actually a hologram or maybe she is bored witless addressing the Nation!

      1. Doesn’t she always?
        She’s probably not comfortable giving public speeches, even if it’s just to a camera. She’s much better and happier in more informal settings, from what I’ve seen of her.

    5. I think it was some form of ‘patio’ rose.
      The sort of thing children give their mothers on Mothering Sunday.
      We had an argument over whether they were silk; I doubted Brenda would countenance such things.

      2. It looks artificial, but I think you’re right. Just looks wrong to have a shrubby looking thing with deep red flowers in April!

        1. I thought it was a cut flower arrangement but I didn’t give it much attention.

        2. With her bright green (emerald?) dress, and the red flowers with green leaves in a white vase decorated with a dark blue design I was most impressed.

  37. Ah first !

    Good Morning from a dark ages Queen and daughter of Alfred of Wessex.

    A grey miserable day but mild. It’s going to rain heavily .

  38. Well, the good news is that one shop – a small village farm shop – HAD wholemeal flour and was not rationing it. So we snaffled two bags.

    None of the supermarkets had an ounce of flour…..

    2. Snaffled? This does not sound to be a constructive approach in these difficult times ‘when we are all here for each other’. Did the staff not spot your exit, or did you have one of those poacher’s overcoats?

  39. SIR – Let’s applaud the Premier League footballers who are declining a 30 per cent pay cut in order to pay more tax to the Treasury at this time. Such altruism.

    Iain Colquhoun
    Swansea

  40. I ‘ve two potatoes baking in the oven for later.

    Btw I mentioned earlier that a Tiger and zoo keeper in New York have the Chinese Virus.
    It’s also reported somewhere, forgot where that in South Korea there have been 10
    Tigers who have the virus too. An interesting turn of events.

    2. The DT has done her usual mix of mashed leftover potato, chopped tinned tomatoes and topped with cheese, with bacon replacing the usual corned beef.

        1. It’s not bad, though she sometimes forgets to shove a chopped onion into the mix!

    3. Good idea; I was wondering what to have for supper. I have plenty of Cheddar.

      1. Mr Viking don’t eat Tigers 😉 Saturday, we had Greek lamb
        with Orzo ( lamb, Parmesian cheese, tomatoes, fresh oregano,
        greek olives and red onions ) served with crusty bread.
        Tonight it’s pasta with a sauce.

    4. Depends on whether it’s a one-way infection, i.e. the tigers catch it but don’t/can’t pass it on, or whether it’s a two-way infection, i.e. the tigers can pass it on to people…

    1. “By doing things remotely we might find out that schools are a waste of money”. What about universities? I think they’re a prime example of a waste of space. However, there is a social and human interaction to consider. And also it might be some bright spark suggests we can accommodate many many more gimmegrants. On second thoughts we need to keep schools and universities!

      1. ‘Afternoon, Vouvray, considering that both our schools and universities are heavily impregnated with the Common Purpose virus, I think that any form of alternative education has to be better

        The problem is, who will be willing to undertake at least 15 more years of home-schooling to countermand the virus?

        1. I think I must have had home schooling because every day my mother used to clip me round the ear and say “That’ll teach you”

        2. Many years ago we had a conversation with the head of our son’s school. We couldn’t understand why they didn’t chant times table. Theory was “they have to work it out and make sure they understand it”. We said, surely it doesn’t need “working out”, it’s never going to change and to learn by rote was much quicker. And ingrained for life. The leftish leaning education system has worsened ineffably since then and morphed into CP. standards all round have dropped.

          I’m not sure we can ever row back to previous standards, there simply isn’t the will.

    2. Home schooling is all well and good if you have willing parents and willing children.

      I would think that the currently unemployable underclasses will expand exponentially.

      The thought of tens of thousands of impressionable Muslim children being schooled exclusively in madrassas and at home in the ways of Sharia and Jihad fills me with horror.

      2. Deport the lot of ’em. We don’t need that type of education in our midst – we have enough of a problem with brain-cleansing after the effects of Common Purpose education.

      3. They are getting the superiority complex directly from home anyway. And what are the schools giving them? lefty appeasement, filth and nonsense – nothing good and strong to counter the sharia training. How can they get any idea other than that people who leave Islam only do so because they are attracted to sin and decadence? Our school system sure doesn’t give any other impression!

        1. Call it out like that and you’re branded a racist Islamophobe (and I know Islam is not a race.)

          Yet if you said it was white privilege, home schooling doing well, the MSM and the Left would be praising you to the skies.

  42. The Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Scotland is Dr Gregor Smith. His recent claim to fame is posting the photo of a soldier carrying a donkey across a minefield. He is also a friend of the SNP, as was Dr Calderwood. He does not yet rate a Wikipedia entry.
    However, he is a Salzburg Global Fellow. I now deeply distrust anything that uses the word “global” so looked up Salzburg Global Seminar. Not at all reassuring. No source of funding mentioned. Their mission statement,”The mission of Salzburg Global Seminar is to challenge current and future leaders to shape a better world.” Naturally I suspect that they are fellow travellers of Mr G. Soros.
    Links:
    https://www.salzburgglobal.org/about/who-we-are/our-mission.html
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52181633

    1. Quick appointment – maybe he is the only senior medic without a holiday home in Fife or Gullane /North Berwick

      1. I think things were much better when the wealthy spent their money on building a cathedral or a public library.

          1. I know, I made a similar comment then.

            It was difficult to guess the size from the picture, but it didn’t look much more than a young pet/mascot.

            If it was posted nowadays I’d have thought it was a photoshopped picture.

          2. If it’s the picture I recall, it was a WW2 picture and the donkey looked very young – perhaps it was just rations on the hoof.

    4. Quick appointment – maybe he is the only senior medic without a holiday home in Fife or Gullane /North Berwick

      1. SNP supporter like his predecessor. Lucky to get the job apparently, as he is not female.

        1. Retirement Paradise near Edinburgh with Championship Golf courses all around.
          Gullane & North Berwick attracts well healed Scots + English retirees.
          The richest retiree in the last 20 years was the owner of Weetabix who sold out for megabucks in 2003/4 – he died in the last couple of years
          Weetabix sold again since for £1,400m fairly recently

      1. Oh this is bad. Get well soon Boris!
        He should have given up being PM to fight the virus!

      1. It’s been many years since I had flu, but I remember one bout in the 80s, shortly after I’d come back up ‘T North from the South east, I thought I’d beaten it until I realised I had zero energy. Not a lot of lung capacity was doing anything useful. The doc looked and listened, and then said ‘you are very ill’ and bunged me on to antibiotics which sorted it fortunately. I supposed we’ve all had these issues at one time or another. But it’s a reminder that Real Flu (and similar viruses) is very different from the worst sort of cold.

          1. What are all those viruses that are worse than a cold but not as bad as real flu?
            Are they just when you get flu lightly? I’m never sure how to describe them.

        2. Yes – I’ve had three bouts of “real flu”, many years apart, and the last one 25 years ago – I remember them all clearly. It really does knock you for six.

  45. The view from where I live.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/swedes-tackling-coronavirus-differently/

    Yesterday we went out to a restaurant to celebrate Bertil’s 60th birthday: it was the same buffet-style restaurant we’ve been to on numerous occasions; however, the difference yesterday was stark. Very few couples had turned up making the place almost empty. Our grouping was seventeen strong spread over two long tables.

    The food had been ordered in advanced and was served, restaurant-style, by waiters, on plates. Three courses were served and it was delicious (I didn’t have dessert).

    We were seated with a large gap between us and bottles of antiseptic lotion were available on a side counter.

    A lot of people are keeping themselves isolated by personal choice, however, no one present knew of anyone else who had contracted the virus, such is the sense of natural isolation in our sparsely-populated neck of the woods.

    If this situation changes in the next few weeks, I’ll let you know.

      1. One may buy ‘en stor stark’ in a pub and it’s way over the 3.5% max allowed from the Supermarket.

        1. Also from Systembolaget.
          Norwegian supermarkets can sell up to 5%, thereafter you need to go to Vinmonopolet.

      2. Morning, Paul.

        You’re not wrong on the whole, but a few micro-breweries have opened in the past few years and some of their output is of much higher quality than the usual bilge. Still a country mile, though, from a decent English cask-conditioned ale.

        1. We can get microbrewery IPA, usually US-style (way over-hopped), but a few do good English IPA. Big breweries also make good IPA, and Hansa do an intrresting IPA-Dutch witbier fusion that’s both interesting & good.

    2. ‘Morning, George, although it could be any street in Sweden, it looks like Drottninggata in Stockholm.

  46. It’s just been reported on Classic FM that a zoo keeper and also a Tiger in
    New York have the Chinese Virus. So animals can catch it too , so therefore
    dogs etc

          1. Indeed so, will the tests on humans and animals be the same, regardless of
            us being not the same disease. It is a Zooilogical disease, apparently.
            Scientists said it passed on from bats and other exotic animals to humans
            due to the eating habits of those in Southern China . But they were speaking
            of bats of which can carry SARS type viruses. No one mentioned Tigers
            of which I assume are not eaten. I know if a dog has a disease and bites
            you, or a mosquito bites you then you can catch a disease. But I assume
            there was no such contact between the zoo keeper and lion.

          2. The Chinese seem to eat anything Ethel, and the more disgusting it is, the better.

          3. I think Chinese ‘traditional’ medicine includes tiger bits and bobs.
            Particularly those to do with virility.

          4. Don’t know what they wanted virility for. They used to be limited to one child per couple in any case.

            Killing a tiger for its Chinese medicine virility purpose and then killing the product of that virility really seems to be very…um… Chinese.

  48. Good Morning Folks,

    Cloudy damp start here, thought we were in for a week of nice weather

  49. Hmm, I wonder how many Scottish lives will be lost because of hypocritical actions of the Scottish CMO leading to a public breakdown in self-isolation?

    1. She’s quit – rather than take the bottle of scotch and the Service Revolver.

    1. On the BBC a doctor claimed that Chloroquinine was dangerous, and should not be administered except under strict medical control.

      Yet many hundreds of thousands of servicemen were issued Chloroquinine as an anti-malarial drug, and survived.

  52. Ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele behind the ‘dirty dossier’ on Donald Trump is being sued by three Russian oligarchs who were named in his ‘kopromat’ file. 6 April 2020.

    Before a hearing last month, father of three Mr Steele suggested he would barely answer any questions, claiming it would identify his sources.

    He argued his dossier was reporting what he was told and was not definitive truth.

    But the judge, Mr Justice Warby, warned he expected Mr Steele to give answers and failure to do so could count against him.

    I see. It’s become hearsay and rumour now!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8189913/Ex-MI6-spy-dirty-dossier-Donald-Trump-sued-three-Russian-oligarchs.html

    1. Couldn’t happen to a nicer person.
      Popcorn time – provided Plod thinks it’s an essential item.

    1. M Hancock & co should listen to this dissertation and consider the damage they are doing to our country and people with their CVID-19 policies

    2. Thanks JBF. (And have just looked at ‘Health news and tips’ on his website – interesting stuff.)

  54. Just watching Sky News. They’ve got a crew outside No.10 with reporters saying nothing they couldn’t say inside a studio. Unnecessary travel anyone? Also, the people going in behind them were not “social distancing” till one of them looked at the camera and they hurriedly got themselves into a spaced line.

    1. Good morning Sue

      I was just wondering how bug free the lecterns are that the experts use when they give their afternoon Covid updates .

      I do hope they ( the lecterns ) are wiped down with antiseptic cleanser.

      1. Good morning, Lovely Truthfulness

        I have not left the premises for over three weeks but we are very busy at home and remaining cheerful. As I write this Caroline is running our second week of Skype French courses and has a group of students from England and one from Madrid with us!

        We are so lucky to have such a large garden. With the good weather the lawn is mowed and I have sawed enough logs to keep us going for a couple of years. As I do not like chain saws I have done all the sawing with a tenon saw so my arms and upper body are almost in good shape.
        It is the legs that get so tired.

        1. Heyup Richard.
          Glad to hear that the on-line course is going well.
          Student son has come home as his lectures are all on-line with Derby “University” being shut down so is now referred to as the Back @ home student son. He seems to be coping with the work quite well.

          Because the DT has a parcel to post, I’m excused picking up the paper this morning, so I’ve just dragged the B@HSS down the road for an hour to drop a couple of dead elms that were in danger of falling into the road and cut them up into carryable logs. All using a 24″ bushsaw.
          Carried a couple of them back with us and am now enjoying my 3rd pint of tea.

          There is one more tree in the elm stand to fell, but it will need strapping and pulling to one side to stop it dropping onto the road.

          I also have a large number of plastic mushroom trays up by the sheds to bring down and stack at the back of the house so will probably get started on them this afternoon.

        2. I suspect that those that are going to be worse affected are those whose days are normally spent outside the home. Pensioners are probably the ones best equipped especially where both are retired and have been for a while because they will already have the experience and little routines of day to day close proximity well established.
          One of the most notable failures of the lockdown, it seems to me, is that of the TV channels who still seem to pump up the usual rubbish all day long and fill the rest of the time prattling on about CCP Virus…. which Channels ave taken a look at the fact their day time audiences will have changed? How many are indulging their stay at homes with wall to wall Sopranos, or other popular TV or being imaginative……. none, I suspect.

          1. Um, I’m a pensioner, but I was rarely at home during the day as I had a very active social life, now vanished like the dew in the morn. I have never, however, got the TV habit. Thankfully, my library of unread books and piles of new jigsaws should keep me going until Christmas. I shall have to replenish the drinks cabinet, though 🙂

      2. Dammit, Belle.
        I’m now imagining Matt Handycock and a couple of ‘experts’ being cleaned down with Tea Tree Oil hand wipes prior to the 5.0pm doomcast.

    2. It takes them 10 minutes to say what could have been said in 30 seconds…and then someone comes along to tell us what to think, just in case we are too stupid to get it the first time. I do hope that the news media will take a very big hit when this is all over.

      Meanwhile, news blackout remains in place here.

      ‘Morning, Sue.

      1. Same here. We watched Boris Johnson’s address and HM’s yesterday but deliberately avoid all other news. Except Nottl, of course!

    3. Why outside No 10? Er in doors won’t be answering and he is in the hospital….. oh, perhaps they are looking for the real, unelected leader, Cummings who does more than simply “advise”. But didn’t he bolt the moment he realised Bojo had the lurgy, CCP Virus and his faux sig other?

        2. Thanks for the heads up.

          Found a link (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/mar/30/dominic-cummings-self-isolates-after-experiencing-coronavirus-symptoms) which refers to his apparent alleged (It was the Times) comment:
          Last week, Downing Street rejected as “a highly defamatory fabrication” a claim that Cummings initially argued against strict measures to contain
          coronavirus in a view summarised as “if that means some pensioners die,
          too bad”.

          Hmm. sound like something he would say…… but deny and now we don’t know….
          But would the Times invent stuff? maybe today., None of the MSM is trustworthy anymore. A bit sad.It spoils the following story:

          An elderly peer was in his smoking room sipping a brandy and lamenting the problems of youth, specifically some sort of scandal his daughter was currently embroiled in, when his butler entered.
          “Beg pardon my lord”
          “Yes, Blenkinsop?”
          “There are some reporters at the door asking to speak with you regarding, herhem, her ladyship. And a Gentleman from the times.”

    4. That’s been a hobby horse of mine for years.

      The weather person isn’t suspended over the UK to read the weather so why can’t the news lot stand in front of picture of Number 10 to spill the beans? It’s not as though the door gets painted a different colour every few years.

  57. Ahem
    “But why, given we

    have expanded our critical care capacity and not yet seen our hospitals

    overwhelmed, are we seeing so many deaths in the UK? Surely, with all

    those new ventilators, we should be doing better.” (link)

    So ‘Our NHS’ isn’t ‘overwhelmed’?

    How interesting! Why didn’t that reporter follow this up? Could it be

    that in their hunt for ever more screaming headlines, be they ever so

    ridiculous, ‘Our MSM’ are losing the plot? Could it be that their aim is

    to discredit the government and the PM any which way they can? It’s not

    as if the government has been covering itself in glory, but surely ‘Our

    MSM’ ought to recognise that the PM and the rest have been faithfully

    doing what the MSM have demanded? There’s more, showing the magical

    thinking and the pernicious comparisons with other countries that our

    MSM love:

    “Confirmed cases are

    even less reliable and really only reflect a country’s testing capacity

    rather than the incidence of the virus. The reason Germany’s death rate

    appears so much lower is likely to be explained by the fact it is doing

    so much more testing – Germany has conducted more than 11,000 tests per

    million people versus Britain’s 2,580.” (link)

    The numbers of ‘confirmed cases’ are ‘unreliable’ –

    even though Our MSM have been using them constantly in their

    competition to show how bad we are doing, how gruesome things are in

    Italy and Spain (no mention of France)? Well, shouldn’t that have made

    at least some in Our MSM sit up? No, it’s: ‘Germany wins’: fewer

    Germans die because the Germans have done more tests …

    That also applies to Norway which has been testing many more people than we did, and because of that there’s only a small number of deaths (link). It’s the number of tests that count, not actual case numbers or mortality rates. Here is a fascinating graph

    from the USA, the CDC no less. Shouldn’t at least some in ‘Our MSM’ ask

    about general mortality rates and if they’ve risen due to COVID-19 or

    not?

    Doesn’t it occur to at least some reporters

    that both Germany and Norway might be more stringent in how they define

    who did and didn’t die of the virus? Didn’t we read last week that here

    even just the mention of coronavirus on the death certificate is

    sufficient, regardless of all other preexisting illnesses who did cause

    the death, to add to the number of ‘death by virus’?

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-betrayal-monday-6th-april-2020-18th-covid-19-pandemic-special-day-14-of-lockdown-britain/

    1. Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics!

      The MSM can have a field day because the public is gullible enough to swallow whatever figures they are given without questioning or understanding how these figures were obtained.

      Our son’s girlfriend is studying for a Ph.D in Epidemiology. She will be the first to tell you that unreliable information in yields unreliable information out.

      2. 317885+ up ticks,
        Afternoon N,
        Because currently “hate speech” is only used for the likes of Gerard Batten, Richard Braine, Tommy Robinson, as in decent people.
        Treat anything coming from the political establishment with great caution, each man,woman,thing, are their own safety officer,reverse any MsM article for the truth.
        Beware of anyone who buys a newspaper to read ( fire lighting material only).
        If you have an urge to purchase one get an immediate canister check up from the neck up.

  59. Urgent appeal amid fears Swanage Railway could collapse

    AN URGENT appeal has been launched to help the Swanage Railway stay on track in the wake of the economic effects of the coronavirus.

    The popular heritage line, which contributes more than £15 million to the Purbeck economy every year, is facing the most “potentially devastating challenge in its history” and risks going out of business.

    The ‘Save Our Service’ (S.O.S.) appeal aims to plug a financial hole after trains were halted in mid-March until further notice.

    https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/18359776.coronavirus-urgent-appeal-amid-fears-swanage-railway-collapse/

    1. They are all struggling. Ongoing costs with a sudden and immediate choking off of income.

      https://www.nymr.co.uk/Appeal/nymr-crisis-fund

      ‘Due to this WE NEED YOUR HELP. The NYMR is a registered charity (501388) and without operating this would have a substantial impact on its future. Please help by donating to give the railway a fighting chance to be able to ‘steam on’ in its current form once the pandemic is over.

      The NYMR can’t claim insurance compensation for business interruption.
      The government has not offered monetary aid to charities yet.
      The only government help currently available would put the railway into significant debt, which may take years to pay off.      ‘

  62. All this ‘home’ stuff is producing some real gems – even on Ar$ebook:

    1) Half of us are going to come out of this quarantine as amazing cooks. The other half will come out with a drinking problem.
    2) I used to spin that toilet paper like I was on Wheel of Fortune. Now I turn it like I’m cracking a safe.
    3) I need to practice social-distancing from the refrigerator.
    4) Still haven’t decided where to go for Easter —– The Living Room or The Bedroom
    5) Every few days try your jeans on just to make sure they fit. Pyjamas will have you believe all is well in the kingdom.
    6) Homeschooling is going well. 2 students suspended for fighting and 1 teacher fired for drinking on the job.
    7) I don’t think anyone expected that when we changed the clocks we’d go from Standard Time to the Twilight Zone
    8) This morning I saw a neighbour talking to her cat. It was obvious she thought her cat understood her. I came into my house, told my dog… we laughed a lot.
    9) So, after this quarantine…..will the producers of My 600 Pound Life just find me or do I find them?
    10) Quarantine Day 5: Went to this restaurant called THE KITCHEN. You have to gather all the ingredients and make your own meal. I have no clue how this place is still in business.
    11) My body has absorbed so much soap and disinfectant lately that when I pee it cleans the toilet.
    12) Day 5 of Homeschooling: One of these little monsters called in a bomb threat.
    13) I’m so excited — it’s time to take out the garbage. What should I wear?
    14) I hope the weather is good tomorrow for my trip to Puerto Backyarda. I’m getting tired of Los Livingroom.
    15) Classified Ad: Single man with toilet paper seeks woman with hand sanitiser for good clean fun.
    16) Day 6 of Homeschooling: My child just said “I hope I don’t have the same teacher next year”…. I’m offended.
    17) Better 6 feet apart than 6 feet under

  63. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LLGQLKNBS-o
    SCOOP: FISH TANK CLEANER LADY BOMBSHELL! | Louder with Crowder

    Was this discussed on here, about the Texas couple who drank fish-tank cleaner after watching a press conference given by Donald Trump, who recommended trying chloroquine for treating Covid-19? The couple were said to be Trump supporters by the media, I believe.
    Apparently, not so much. According to Steven Crowder, the wife was a Democrat supporter, hated Trump, donated to Hillary, and wanted to divorce her husband….

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/arizona-woman-fish-tank-cleaner-trump-democrat
    Woman who said she drank fish-tank cleaner because of president’s advice is not a Trump supporter
    https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/woman-who-ingested-fish-tank-cleaner-was-prolific-donor-to-democratic-causes/
    Woman Who Ingested Fish Tank Cleaner Is Prolific Donor to Democratic Causes

    Lies, damned lies, and the mainstream media.

  64. I’ve got terminal boredom.

    Too bored to go out for a walk and too bored to do anything in the house.

      3. Thomas Round’s son was at school with me. His dad came and gave us free song recitals.

        1. Respect !

          When i saw HMS Pinafore in Birmingham, the lead was Nicholas Grace. Very camp and very funny.

          2. Relatively speaking.

            I also liked his characterisation of Anthony Blanche in Brideshead. Camp and mischievous once again.

    3. I’ve moved over 80 mushroom trays full of sawn sticks from up the garden down to behind the house to use on the sitting room fire next winter and now feel more than a bit lethargic.

    2. Given the madness of the world around us, nothing surprises me.
      Sadly, there are no caffs open for him to choke on a bacon butty.

    3. And then it gets even worse:

      Meanwhile, defeated leadership contender Rebecca Long-Bailey has been made shadow education secretary, the Labour Party announced.
      David Lammy, who practised as a barrister and was a leading voice against the Windrush scandal, was named as shadow justice secretary.
      Emily Thornberry, who also ran in the leadership race, becomes shadow international trade secretary,
      John Healey will be shadow defence secretary
      Jonathan Reynolds shadow work and pensions secretary.

      What a shit-studded midden of mediocrity.

      3. I agree – but are there any other people in the Parliamentary Labour Party who would be any better? The only one I would have wanted anywhere near government is Kate Hoey and she has retired.

        1. Parliament on all sides is jam-packed with people I would not trust to put the rubbish out.

    2. I’m not saying that you were wrong, Bill, just saying it was a long time ago (17th Century Dutch word).

      If we bought our own tickets, on production of our 1250 (ID card) the ticket would e stamped “Forces Return” but that was 20th Century – 1960s.

      I do remember going to London – when I met my first wife – with £5, out of which I bought a Forces Return Ticket for 24/-. We went to the Pub on the Friday night and dancing at the Lyceum on the Saturday night and I still hadn’t spent all of that £5 on return late Sunday night – not far from your current abode, RAF West Raynham. This must have been 1962.

  67. Reporting from Stalag17
    After cleaning the oven three times this morning I was up for a gentle jog to the Co-op.
    Standing in the queue I did a few squats and running on the spot until ushered in by a
    shop assistant with a charming smile.
    I purchased hot cross buns for my bacon sarnie and 6 eggs, I gave the long life milk a miss!

      1. ‘Afternoon, Johnny, if that’s the case, it’ll mightily pi$$ of both the NYT and CNN in the US.

        I do, so sincerely, hope so!

    3. Me. Extraordinary story but where from Belle? Sounds eminently plausible and physiologically sound especially the comments on the “pneumonia”. Fits with the remarkable results of antimalarial therapy which as you know I have thought obligatory.

      1. 6 Apr 2020 2:45PM
        @Isabella Maeer

        Thanks Isabella. Yes I agree wholeheartedly. He thinks the problem is lack of oxygen another commenter on you tube seems to think the virus attacks haemoglobin so they get the symptoms of altitude sickness. Anyway I can’t say more because it may end up getting deleted.

        Flag2Unlike
        Reply
        Anne Sceptic
        6 Apr 2020 3:07PM
        More on the haemoglobin connection:

        Covid-19 had us all fooled, but now we might have finally found its secret.

        https://archive.is/ONUm

      3. I hope the story is correct, and not wishing to put a huge down on it there are some caveats:
        Anyone can publish on Medium per our Policies, but we don’t fact-check every story. For more info about the coronavirus, see cdc.gov.
        And when you try to link to the poster “libertymavenstock” you get a message:

        Error 410, this account is suspended,
        This account is under investigation or was found in violation of the Medium Rules.

      4. I wonder if any research has been done re sickle-cell anaemia & the covid virus? Probably not, as too .recondite

      1. It is consistent with my thinking. I’ll go with it. There is also the evidence from New York that two-thirds of those put on ventilators die.

          1. Will our medical people try it widely? Will it become the standard treatment before thousands more die” Or will our Government sponsored medical quangos decide that six months of double blind trials are required?

          3. Who knows?
            My view is that we should try controlled tests across a wide spectrum of the population.

    5. Well, I have little medical knowledge, but I think.
      As I’ve posted here already;
      1. Ventilators drive the virus into the lungs. (If they are not correctly adjusted, too high a pressure will cause actual physical damage.)
      2. Blood transfusions with antibodies will work, that is blood donations from recovered coronavirus sufferers, of the same blood type.
      If I get sick I’m not going to hospital as I cannot overcome the rigidly intransigent mindset of medicos as regards the treatment they will likely impose..

  70. At least 20 UK phone masts vandalised over false 5G coronavirus claims. Mon 6 Apr 2020 15.08 BST.

    At least 20 mobile phone masts across the UK are believed to have been torched or otherwise vandalised since Thursday, according to government and industry sources who are increasingly concerned about the impact of baseless theories linking coronavirus to 5G networks.

    Despite the accusations against Social Media which are Red Herrings this is quite obviously an intelligence led operation to impact the UK government’s decision to use Huawei.

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/apr/06/at-least-20-uk-phone-masts-vandalised-over-false-5g-coronavirus-claims

    2. I doubt it is to do with 5G and/or Huwei but probably more to do with the notion that plod is tracking your illicit (according to their remit) journeys to the supermarket and dog-walking spots.

      1. Naaan! Do you really think twenty individuals have suddenly taken umbrage at being tracked via their mobiles on illicit visits to the supermarket? It is quite obviously coordinated. It is also a very serious offence destroying national communications equipment but official silence reigns supreme. Once long ago, in the sixties the CIA sank a cargo ship in the Port of London that was delivering buses to Cuba in denial of American objections. The UK government kept schtum as they say!

        1. It rings a bell that the row about the shipload of British buses bound for Cuba was all over the news at the time.

          1. We always thought it was no accident at the time. They were Leylands so we had a bit of a giggle at AEC.

        2. Could be the druggies and their suppliers have finally twigged how they’re being followed?

  71. So let’s close all of the parks because a couple of muppets decide to have a picnic and punish everyone else as a consequence!

    How about getting the Police to do their bloody job instead? After all what else have they got to do all day? Solve burglaries?

    1. Interesting that in Greece, or on Rhodes to be more exact, the popular response to the Government advice has been very good. Apart from the very first morning when they were stopping cars at random for a chat, they have kept a low profile. I don’t know of anyone who has been stopped by them. I have seen them parked up admiring the view at a couple of usual lookouts but nothing aggressive.

      But then, this is where democracy thrives at street level because of a basically anarchic population. Centuries of being ruled by foreign invaders has lead to pretty much any law being tested to its limits and the authorities seem only to enforce those laws that are popularly supported and then with discretion.

      Clearly most seem to think the advice reasonable and the streets are empty. The supermarkets are a joy to visit because of the space and there is no shortage of toilet paper (is their come causative correlation between the extent of the outbreak and a lack of toilet paper perhaps?)

    2. Thought for the day.

      Perhaps the Government is testing to see just how far it can go before there is a major backlash?
      The ratchet is being tightened daily, for no reason other than that they can.

      1. Is this a dummy run or our lives into infinity (70 years if the USSR is any guide).
        What are we bequeathing to our grandchildren?

        1. High taxes, high unemployment, reduced quality of life, smaller pensions, more years in work, etc etc. depressing, isn’t it.

          4. It’s the lack of imagination; the inability to think beyond next day’s headlines that worries me.

          5. I agree. The government seems to have allowed itself to be pressured into these measures by the MSM and other influencers when I thought Boris started off well, with the “herd immunity”. It has now morphed into “herd mentality”. I can only think this is suiting the globalists right down to the ground. Public, certainly western world wide, cowed as never before. What will happen when the next virus comes along? They certainly are not thinking of the future in more ways than one.

        2. I grew up on my parents’ stories of the war, so the restrictions in freedom don’t seem so bad to me, because I have faith that they will disappear when this is over, just as the wartime ones did.
          I am repeating myself, but what worries me are the abortion change, and the heavy push against cash, because I don’t think either of these changes will be reversed.
          Also, the Tories stealthily brought in their marriage-wrecking bill recently – the final nail in the coffin that does reduce marriage to the meaningless bit of paper that the left have always claimed it to be. Possibly the worst social catastrophe of my lifetime – brought in by the Tories!

          1. You can tweak it easily Belle.
            Write a codicil then go for a walk and when you’re stopped by a policeman get him to witness it for you. 🙂

          3. Good morning, HL.

            I am trying to get in touch with my solicitor, to do
            as you suggest, the only time the ‘phone is answered
            it immediately cuts off!!
            I am going to try a letter.

        4. I grew up on my parents’ stories of the war, so the restrictions in freedom don’t seem so bad to me, because I have faith that they will disappear when this is over, just as the wartime ones did.
          I am repeating myself, but what worries me are the abortion change, and the heavy push against cash, because I don’t think either of these changes will be reversed.
          Also, the Tories stealthily brought in their marriage-wrecking bill recently – the final nail in the coffin that does reduce marriage to the meaningless bit of paper that the left have always claimed it to be. Possibly the worst social catastrophe of my lifetime – brought in by the Tories!

          1. Have you looked at the first of the two Conservative Woman links Anne posted?

          2. Which one, the Matt Hancock one?
            I’ve got to go back to work now (in the other room) 🙁

          5. OK, just read the trans one.
            Actually, I am not so bothered by the trans nonsense as by the destruction of marriage.
            Reason is that marriage is the bedrock of a stable society – effects of destroying it will be felt some ten to fifteen years in the future, but will be brutal.
            The trans stuff is just more of the same propaganda telling us not to believe the evidence of our lying eyes, that has been pushed all my life.
            Moreover, the trans lobby have a LOT of enemies, something which Caroline ffiske doesn’t really highlight in her otherwise excellent article.
            Trans is a fashion among kids, and too many opponents are gathering together against it.
            Not just people who don’t believe in gender theory, but also gays and feminists.
            The former, because they think that trans people are mutilated gays who have been conditioned to think of themselves as heterosexual, when in fact they are gay, and the latter because they resent men taking over womens’ spaces.
            Here, I declare an interest: I have a sibling who is trans.
            If you ask me if my sibling is ill, I would unhesitatingly reply yes.
            I have seen at first hand, the psychological sufferings of my sibling. The trans people that I have come across (a small number, so may not be a representative sample) all have loads of diagnoses (example: depression, hoarding, PTSD, insomnia, phantom pains with seemingly no physical reason, narcissism). At the same time, gender dysphoria (i.e. being unhappy about being trans) is denied. But when someone is this ill, it’s hard to see being trans as the unrelated and purely physical condition that the trans lobby would have us believe.
            Anyway, I believe the trans political lobby will get stuffed sooner or later, with a left-right alliance against them.

      2. They are testing us.

        We need to be very, very clear – you sort out the problem people and don’t you dare try to punish the rest of us because you can’t get the Police to do their job.

        You need our good will, you are going to lose it quite quickly.

        Oh – and dump that authoritarian twat Hancock and put someone in his place that won’t over reach himself.

        1. I can’t help thinking that unless the authorities are vey careful the inner city housing estates are going blow and that the results will make the Brixton, Broadwater Farm and Duggan riots look like a back garden fireworks party.

          2. Yes.
            But then I tend to believe that there are extremely few justifications for rioting and robbery.

          9. Don’t forget Ramadanading dong coming soon. I can’t see plod enforcing social distancing too much. I wouldn’t put it past the authorities to relax the rules by then but I’m being cynical.

          10. I made a similar observation a few days ago, say around w/c Monday 20th of April.

      1. Actually I was thinking

        Oh no, no more pussy.

        Let’s see how Mrs Slocum takes that.

      2. Sad news, a very versatile actress. But a good innings at 94 years. Gruaniad says her death was not coronavirus related.

  74. The side of our house looks down over local graves. Not many funerals these days as the cemetery “is full”.
    Funeral today – Hearse & funeral cars, 11/12 private cars. Goodly number, say 12+ and many others standing well back (+ Funeral & ground staff say 8). The relatives & friends huddled around the grave whilst the minister led the burial service.

    Total of say 12 in close proximity and another 16 nearby

    Much greater danger from what I witnessed than many of the publicised events of the lockdown.

  76. Afternoon, all. It’s been a lovely day here, apart from rain overnight and a few sporadic light showers this afternoon. Not enough to stop me lazing around in the sunshine and reading. After yesterday’s tussles with the mower my joints are suffering (quiet in the cheap seats!), so the garden will be put on hold until tomorrow.

          1. It will take a few more weeks for that to reach these outlying parts, Bill. We live near the place marked “here be dragons” (dreich coch).

          3. Indeed; one of my early introductions to the way Welsh adjectives were put in the wrong place 🙂

        2. I doubt the govt would approve of this; it’s “Right of the Line” and details the mistakes made by governments in the thirties, lessons from WW1 failing to have been learned and political interference that nearly lost us the war. It’s a salutary lesson (which has clearly passed this lot in Whitehall by).

    3. Breast enhancement with no medical condition should be paid for by the individual because it is a lifestyle choice.

      I would be in favour of the lady on the right to have breast reduction surgery on the NHS because she will suffer serious medical conditions in the future which will end up costing a lot more.

  79. Moh has just gone off for a gentle cycle ride..

    Golf is off, football is off. I have been gathering together all the free seeds that gardening magazines stick on the front of their covers, I have a collection so I will start to scatter .

    My replacement telegraph pole , which stinks of creosote , looks so bare. The old pole hosted Maquerade rose which grew to over 12 feet, and also honesuckle and lots of ivy which the birds hid in https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/abd8e8b2e5bd0d0bc08e1151c85b882129e2f33df8c787b1b30a9f70735362ab.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6144f27494eef90d5c25dfe5a9e7b9ae7eafc4a1acdc6cad511eaf01b295f51b.jpg

    2. When I saw the first pic I wondered if you were in a different weather zone from the rest of us………. I do see what you mean about the pole. You should get some things trained up it – a clematis Montana Rubens would grow quickly if you can find one these days.

      1. A Russian vine perhaps? Plant it now and it will be up there by about bedtime.

      3. Belle said yes’day that her old man insisted on a C. montana rubens, but didn’t specify the variety. They are all scented, usually of vanilla but some of chocolate, some more strongly than others.

          1. Rubens means pink in yer actual Latin, as opposed to ‘alba’, which means white.

            But rubens isn’t just any old rubens; there are a number of sub-varieties & that is what I was getting at.

      4. A Russian vine perhaps? Plant it now and it will be up there by about bedtime.

        2. Trouble is, only the supermarkets can sell plants now. Ridiculous, forcing garden centres to close.

          1. Yes, that really is bonkers. At what should have been the busiest time of the year for them, too. They will soon have to throw away millions of plants…along with the business.

          4. There may be some at Morrisons – they usually have some. Or I could shovel some out of the bottom of the garden conpost bin.

          6. Yes, that really is bonkers. At what should have been the busiest time of the year for them, too. They will soon have to throw away millions of plants…along with the business.

          7. I read something from a reporter that it wasOK for horticultural sales to continue in Scotland. But I cannot verify this. The Scottish Government website is mostly useless. Obviously I cannot drive around checking them out…

          8. Our local nursery is closed but they will deliver to your door.The only things they don’t have are vegetable plants/onion sets as they buy them in.

          9. ‘Afternoon, J, Can you not buy on line? Google this <buy nursery plants online> and there seem to be several but, without knowing your location, I cannot (and will not) advise.

          10. I had dozens of catalogues from T & M but I wasn’t going to bother with them this year.

          11. Absolutely. As long as they controlled the numbers of visitors, as the supermarkets are currently doing, it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s having hundreds all turn up, as they sometimes do around Easter weekend, that would be a problem.
            So no special offers to entice too many people, with most people off work, so no sudden weekend rush, etc, it should be manageable.

  80. Leave the sunbathers and picnickers alone. Spiked. 6 April 2020.

    Public compliance with social distancing has been good up to now because people have understood and accepted the rationale for drastic restrictions on their social and economic activities. There is understandably a high level of public anxiety about the prospect of the next few months. This is an unprecedented global medical, social and economic crisis. There remain many unanswered questions about the virus and the disease it causes and a high level of uncertainty about the likely scale and duration of the pandemic. Resorting to ill-considered coercive measures is likely to damage both public confidence in the government’s strategy and compliance with a policy that, for many, simply does not make sense.

    Yeaaah! Leave them sunbathers alone ‘Ancock!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/04/06/leave-the-sunbathers-and-picnickers-alone/

    1. We’ve already got rid of gun ownership in the UK. Some prisoners will be released early, so the UK is following the Democrats’ playbook.

    3. The photo of the Covid victim has been removed from news reports. They’ve put in generic views of ambulance bays, or a covid-19 test stick. I’m guessing that they’ve used a stock photo of a dead 13-year-old boy from a previous news story without checking first.
      But the internet sleuths will track them down and expose them, just as they did with the supposed photo of a NYC hospital which was actually Italian.

        1. Not all shits are Muslims, nor are all Muslims shits; a classic correlation isn’t cause.

    5. I’m sure I saw that pic on a story about a boy who’d recovered. I guess he recovered twice. Or should that be resurrected.

    2. Looks very nice and tasty.

      I’m useless. I don’t make my own bread. I buy it, mainly because I don’t really eat that much of it. MOH does, but with type 2 diabetes, shouldn’t.

      1. I normally stay away as bread and cakes are not my forte but this was simple to follow.

        1. It’s the starch and carbohydrates that also need to be avoided.

          I make a cake that’s mostly carrots, coconut, and ground almonds, minimal coconut sugar. I use sucralose, and not too much of that.

    3. I normally use spelt flour 50/50 with wholemeal for my ‘brown’ loaves. What was the spelt like on it’s own?

      1. The crumb comes out a bit more dense. But i’m not making sandwiches with it. Tear off a chunk for soup or cheese.

    4. That looks scrumptious! But I’d probably attack it in one go and get terrible indigestion.

      1. Thanks.

        A friend on here gave me a whole roundel of nutty cheddar and one of stilton for Christmas. Lucky it’s freezable.

        It will go perfect with cheese and pickles.

    6. That looks absolutely wonderful.
      I hope it tastes as good as it looks.
      Even if it tasted half as good as it looks it would be delicious.

  85. Anneliese Dodds isn’t the woman to steer Labour back to economic sanity
    Matthew Lynn – 6 April 2020, 12:26pm

    In some ways we will miss John McDonnell. His reheated 1970s student union Trotskyism was always an easy target for a column. From free broadband, to nationalising great swathes of industry, to raising taxes to punitive levels, and banning just abut anything he disapproved of, he managed to come up with a constant stream of terrible ideas. But, hey, never mind. Now there is Anneliese Dodds.

    The new shadow chancellor may be painted in some places as representing a shift back towards the moderate centre. And yet while she may have endeared herself to working parents on lockdown everywhere with her daughter’s impromptu appearance on Sky News this morning, we should also get real about her very limited abilities.

    In truth, she is no Gordon Brown who, whatever his faults, was the economic architect of New Labour, overhauled its thinking from the bottom up, and came up with a set of credible policies that won three election victories. From what we have seen so far, all Dodds has to offer is some waffly academic wonkery and that is not quite the same thing.

    Dodds faces two big problems in establishing herself in her new role, and in providing any kind of opposition to the super-smooth Rishi Sunak.

    First, her record both as an MEP and as MP suggests she is a fierce opponent of our departure from the EU. She was a big supporter of a second referendum, and steadfastly against a ‘No Deal’ departure. Towards the end of the year, if the timetable remains in place, she will no doubt be arguing for the UK to remain as closely aligned to the EU as possible.

    Of course, right now no one has any idea what sort of economy will emerge from the coronavirus crisis. There will inevitably be a deep recession, both here, and across all the developed world. But the early indications are that the inflexibility of the single currency means most of the EU will suffer even worse than we do. Italy and Spain certainly won’t be allowed to spend their way out of trouble. Die-hard Remainers are going to look even more irrelevant than ever.

    Next, a glance through the archives on her website make it clear Dodds is a champion of fashionable liberal causes such as a green new deal, clamping down on offshore tax centres, increasing workers’ rights, and general wokeness.

    That is very popular with the FT and the Economist, and gets some support on Twitter. But there is very little evidence it actually connects with voters. If it did, Ed Miliband would be into his second term as prime minister and Elizabeth Warren would be cruising towards the White House. And as we face a genuine recession, and people are worrying about their jobs and the survival of the companies they work for, it will be even less relevant than ever.

    True, Dodds will be far less of a threat than McDonnell. Investors won’t be losing any sleep over the thought of her as chancellor. Nor will they be getting out of sterling every time she opens her mouth. But at the same time, there is nothing to suggest she can challenge the government either intellectually or politically or make any kind of mark whatsoever.

    ***********************************************************************************
    Ken • 2 minutes ago
    I expect we will see a shadow cabinet stuffed with remainers, itching to get us back into the EU. That won’t sit well with the electorate.

  86. Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Lofven warns citizens to prepare for thousands of deaths after global amazement at officials’ refusal to order a lockdown amid coronavirus pandemic. 1:05, 6 April 2020

    Sweden’s prime minister has told his country to prepare for thousands of deaths as the country faces a backlash over its light-touch response to the coronavirus crisis.

    Stefan Löfven admitted that ‘we will have more seriously ill people who need intensive care’, but played down the distinctiveness of Sweden’s approach.

    Swedes have been advised to practise social distancing, but schools, bars and restaurants remain open – to the amazement of neighbouring countries which are enforcing strict lockdowns.

    I don’t really know what’s going on in Sweden. What with the Muslims and CV. Perhaps they’ve been crossed with Lemmings? Better tell Grizz to lock himself in!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8190397/Swedens-Prime-Minister-Stefan-Lofven-warns-citizens-prepare-thousands-deaths.html

    1. I’m tending to go for Bill Thomas’s theory: a Chinese-inspired biological weapon designed to neutralise western economies. The more I think about it the more I believe it.

      This current virus may also be just a dummy run — to test the water, as it were — prior to releasing a far more potent biological weapon, one which will revert the world’s human population back to mediaeval levels.

      As I’ve postulated for a number of years now, if humans do not possess the basic sense to keep their population in check (at the expense of other life forms, thereby trashing the necessary biodiversity that is essential for the chain of life), then mother nature will do it for them.

      On the topic of locking myself in, I went shopping this morning and bought some food supplies for freezing. The rest of the day I am locked into my studio.

    2. Spoke to one of my Swedish friends last night. She seems to be unaffected. She didn’t mention a huge death toll as a result of most places being open.

      1. I thought numbers of death were about normal for the time of year, though I haven’t checked comparisons in recent days.

    1. Why has she gone public with this story now? It obviously happened some time ago. Publicity? A comeback?

  88. Just heard the Ed Milipede is the shadow business and energy secretary, the ed stone returns..Oh My God!

    1. (Bangs own head repeatedly on the table)

      They presumably think that going back to previous failed Labour MPs is a winning strategy, perhaps because there are a lot of new (brainwashed) voters who don’t remember Ed Milipede.

      1. I thought we’d never see that strange dark eyes stare again * screams * it’s spooky
        that they think the zombie leftie masses wouldn’t remember Milipede.

          2. Dead?
            Like the brains in the Labour party…
            What brains you may ask…
            And answer came there:
            NONE!

    1. Thanks for that; I have been looking for one that had a drone in a policeman’s helmet over-flying a walker and his dog camouflaged as bushes – made me laugh – but I can’t remember who did it (it’s polychrome) and haven’t been able to track it down.

    1. Ramadan starts on the evening of 23 Apr, anyone fancy a punt on when the lockdown on religious establishments will be lifted. I have my date penciled in!

      1. “when the lockdown on some religious establishments will be lifted”

        There, fixed it for you KP.

      2. St. George’s Day.
        No services will be allowed to celebrate England’s Turkish saint.
        H’mmm – Turkish …. (Ponders deeply)

    2. UK Police Break Up ‘Prayer Meeting’ In Birmingham Park.

      Really? Odd because..

      Police investigate UK far-right groups over anti-Muslim coronavirus claim. Guardian.

      The monitoring group Tell Mama said that in March it recorded dozens of incidents of far-right groups allegedly trying to put blame on British Muslims for the spread of the virus.

      The group said it had had to debunk numerous claims made on social media that Muslims were breaching the lockdown by continuing to attend mosques to pray. There were also incidents where Muslims were attacked, it said.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/police-investigate-uk-far-right-groups-over-anti-muslim-coronavirus-claims

      1. Presumably Tell Mama considers Majid Nawaaz is far right, as he was saying more or less just that on his LBC radio show.
        6% of the population, 21% of the virus victims….

        1. Where does the 21% of victims figure come from and is it genuine?
          Are they trying to get special treatment/favour I wonder?

          One would have thought the burquas and niquabs would have acted like surgical masks preventing spread.

          1. Perhaps that is what they believe. Or that cv was introduced by the British government to target muslims.
            Sounds stupid (!) but I was on the muslim grapevine in the UK about twenty years ago, and that’s the sort of thing that cropped up regularly.

          2. Perpetual victimhood excuses an awful lot in the eyes of the Left and the Muslim community.

      1. I would cheerfully have decapitated the one that swooped past me this morning. Separation was supposed to be 2 METRES, not 2 FEET!

        1. A family of 5 of them did that to me on a narrow pavement yesterday, next to an absolutely empty road. I heard a ‘ting’ behind me. At first I thought it was a message on my phone. It wasn’t. It was the vanguard warning me to step off the kerb so they could get past.

          1. This one didn’t appear to have a bell. As it was on a downward slope, I didn’t even get the warning of huffing and puffing!

          3. If I’d had warning I’d have made him swerve into the hedge. Unfortunately, it being downhill and he pedalling for all he was worth, he was too quick for me.

          5. A couple of years back, when boating single handed I was trying to moor against the bank of a towpath adjacent to an open field in very windy conditions . It was all I could do to hold the boat on its centre line and impossible to go to either the bow or the stern to knock in mooring pins as the wind simply forced the boat across the canal. In the end I decided to tie the centre line to the fence across the towpath, which meant I could head for the bow and hammer in a mooring pin. Less than twenty seconds into this task I was met with a torrent of abuse from a young female cyclist who had been creaming down the towpath at top speed and had only just been able to stop in time before meeting my centre line strung across the towpath. She was off before I could point out the primary purpose of a towpath…

          7. Funny how they can spend hundreds on a bike but can’t afford an audible warning system. BOBS eh !

          9. Having No brakes is part of the cycling asset that leads to an over developed sense of self entitlement.

        2. Riding bloody bikes on public footpaths should be completely banned. The roads now contain far less traffic.

          1. To be fair, it was a shared footway and he was on the cycle part of it, but only just. His handlebars were over the footpath side of it.

      2. That whizzed me back many centuries, Bill, to when, as lads, we used to ride our bikes past a neighbour’s house. That is until he stretched a line between his back-yard wall and an adjacent wall.

        Took me off my bike and left a marvelous welt across my neck. Luckily, the line snapped before my head came off.

          1. Being about 11 or 12, I struggled to lift a brick. His missus was smashing lady but he was a bit of tyrant.

    1. Maria von Trapp dragged off for re-education by the Lonely Goatherd – an early example of Social Distancing.

  93. That’s me for the day – first day out of quarantine for the MR – I stay locked away until Christmas, of course.

    AND we found some flour. So a glass of fizz rounds off the day nicely.

    Have a groovy evening being essential.

    1. Well won’t we be surprised when we open our Christmas presents and you pop out.

    1. If the schools are closed much longer, children will start thinking for themselves.

      1. I wonder how many people have resisted the flu vacine, for what its worth, but something they say…. well someone has to justify splurging all that money each year on flu vacines that never seem to matche the variety that comes round ….

      2. I wonder how many people have resisted the flu vacine, for what its worth, but something they say…. well someone has to justify splurging all that money each year on flu vacines that never seem to matche the variety that comes round ….

      1. Just checked the cellar for sherry ……………………Jeez have I really drank that much!

        2. One of the little-known effect of coronavirus is that it causes severe leakage of volatile liquids from bottles. Being volatile, the liquids evaporate quickly, leaving no sign.

          1. It is called “The Angel’s share” (from an article on Tequila and the 40% loss from the bourbon barrels they mature in….. nothing to do with the workers being a bit unsteady on their feet, of course.)

          2. It is called “The Angel’s share” (from an article on Tequila and the 40% loss from the bourbon barrels they mature in….. nothing to do with the workers being a bit unsteady on their feet, of course.)

      2. Just checked the cellar for sherry ……………………Jeez have I really drank that much!

    1. We got ours too.

      Didn’t read it.

      If it had been a journey it would have been ‘not essential’.

      1. Runner with the cleft stick still puffing up from Whitehall here. They have barely cleared Watford Gap, I reckon, bearing in mind they have to negotiate those mysterious lands with their own law, the Marches.

        1. I have now.

          Thanks.

          Funny that they should use an early 1960s shot of St Simon to illustrate a 1946 film, mind. It didn’t get those blinkers until late 1962. Withdrawn for scrap at the end of 1964.

          1. Yes, I was wondering where the Gresley was, but didn’t pick up on the Jerry Blinkers.

        2. I love these old documentaries. There must have been whole orchestras dedicated to composing and recording the background themes just for these films.

    2. The Northern Ireland Police Service is, for a similar reason, known as the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

  99. ‘8:14pm – Prime Minister moved to intensive care after condition worsens

    Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care after his span class”red”coronavirus symptoms worsened, Downing Street has confirmed’

    DT, just now.

    1. FFS, I’m not that convinced about the bloke but we don’t have anyone else with his push. Come on Boris.

      1. I also have reservations about Boris but he and his government are doing a pretty good job right now – not perfect but there’s no-one else currently available who would do better and there’s plenty that woukd do worse.

    2. Bloody Hell
      The Leftards will be creaming their jeans
      Get him the Hydroxy/Zinc NOW

      1. I hope Boris is given the option of whole blood transfusions and/or Hydroxychloroquine with Azithromicin treatment.

        Personally – based on what I have read – I would not opt for intensive ventilator therapy. At best, it is ‘Non-Proven’.

      2. Plus blood transfusions plus those experimental vaccines and a squish of recovered plasma, basically every treatment no matter how cranky and bother about double blind tests later.

  100. Boris Johnson is in Intensive Care.
    Maybe more people online will take it seriously.
    This Chinese Virus Kills .

    Please get better Prime Minister.

    1. Are they seriously saying or trying to say that radio waves cause an infectious virus? I’m not bothering to read it, but at first glance that’s what it looks like.

      They need banned if that’s the case. The world has plenty of nutters to be going on with as it is.

      1. This info has been circulating for a few days. Instantly removed by any website on which it appears.
        It says something about the nature of the “radio spectrum”. It vanished from the website I was looking at just as I was starting to read it.

      3. I think the idea is that there is a link between rhythmic radio transmissions and a weakened immune system.
        People do seem to have latched onto 5G, despite its technologies for reducing the power of transmitted signals compared to earlier radio transmissions.

    2. People have been trying to destroy the towers due to the various nutters who claim that G5 transmissions cause Covid-19. Batten should not be so stupid as to defend such tripe.

      But like a good percentage of the Twitterati, he probably retweets all kinds of c**p. Pity the darned thing was ever invented, it really has become the chosen platform of the mentally challenged.

        1. I was saying Twitter is full of conspiracy shite, not TV. Everything from flat earthers to antivaxxers to conspiracy theorists all playing the “look at me” game.

          And under the present circumstances, as Rik says (above), no-one should be giving them the “oxygen of publicity” – which is exactly what a Batten tweet does.

          1. 317885+ up ticks,
            Jtl,
            Denying them the right to speak is what you are saying is it not, I bet you do not see that as being a touch ironical, funny old world, regardless of what Rik says & I agree with him on most issues.

      2. 317885+ up ticks,
        Jtl,
        “he “probably” re-tweets all kinds of crap”
        A not certain post surely.

        “All kinds of tripe” funny take on his defence of freedom of speech.

  102. The Leftwaffe is out in force wishing death on our Prime Minister
    I’m not going to post any links I wont give the utter scum the oxygen of publicity

    2. Keep the names handy, Rik.

      We will deal with the feiffers at a later date.

      Edited.

    3. Since they removed Christianity from education and public life, we have a generation that has grown up with moral relativity and the idea that their almighty Self is the great arbiter of right and wrong. This is the result.

  103. Sky News are already speaking of Boris Johnson’s successor,
    the cold immoral scumbags.

    1. After a life-threatening experience, most people are changed, and that which drove them to their success is gone. See it all over. Happened to my Father.
      Boris may never return as PM, I’m afraid.

      1. A life-threatening experience can change people but most of us have had hundreds if not thousands of life-threatening experiences. Which driver has never thought “phew, that was a close one”, which of us has never said “shit, I could have killed myself doing that” and who has never taken physical risks that could have ended in death? Statistically, Boris is not in a great threat to his life; he might get that way but let’s hope that he recovers soon and returns to work unaffected by the experience.

  104. My daughter reassured my grandson that she had loads of experience in cutting hair as she prepared to give him a haircut for the first time.
    Afterwards she admitted that it was her horse that she had been using her clippers on.

  105. Get well soon Boris, remember you have achieved so much others said you couldn’t,
    remember that tough Churchill spirit you so admire. Get better for your family, friends
    and country. You may be a big blond pest at times but your our one.

    Gods blessings and prayers

    1. I heard in interview on NPR this morning. The speaker was suggesting that many who have shot their partners have said that immediately after pulling the trigger, they felt remorse but by then it was too late. Supposedly some of the killers also said if they had not had a gun, their partners would still be alive.

  107. Papers reporting virus related deaths down: ‘a glimmer of hope’ etc. Except it’s Monday and the stats don’t seem to be collected in some places over the weekend….I hope to be proved wrong…

  108. I’ll take my leave folks, good night and stay safe.
    The parlour guitar is coming on nicely.
    I have spent a lot of time making jigs and patterns and round sanding aides to fit a drill. I’ve spent the whole afternoon making a one off sound hole Rossett. And I have to cut the grass in the morning…… again !

  110. Hoots mon, there’s a ……………

    Looking through the kitchen window this morning, I saw a magpie land on one of the bins with something in its beak – a mouse, as it turned out.

    Sat sitting at my computer shortly afterwards, I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. I did a double take and saw a tiny thing scurrying under a chair. A mouse. It vanished and I couldn’t find it anywhere.

    Late this afternoon, Mickey reappeared and I shut the door to keep him in the room. He must have been related to Usain Bolt and catching him was a job and a half. I did, though, and gave him his marching orders.

    In all my many years, I’ve never ever seen a moose in the hoose.

    P.S. you know things are grim when such things are the highlight of the day.

      1. They reckon there’s been a lot of additional fly-tipping since the council closed their tips. The vermin must be having a field day.

    3. In my ‘humane’ rat trap, at the bottom of the garden where the ducks live and are fed, I’ve caught a robin, a wren, 2 mice, a vole and best of all, a large female toad. No rats, they seem too canny. I shot one last month with me trusty .177 Webley air rifle as it was guzzling bird food. Unfortunately, poison appears to be the best thing to kill them. Just got to be careful where it’s put.

      1. Being suburban, we don’t get much wildlife. There are few dells nearby with streams so I suspect that’s where most creatures gravitate to. Even the birds are limited to pigeons and magpies.

        Whether a lack of humans around has emboldened the vermin, I don’t know, and still have no idea of how Mickey got in.

        1. I think even in the ‘suburbs’ you’d be surprised at what stalks the night.

      2. I have squirrels raiding the nut feeders, needless to say the odd rodent turns up. I’m afraid to put down rat poison
        because of the squirrels.

        Should I invest in a blunderbuss?

        1. I look for rat’s tunnels, put some poison blocks in, so I can see it, but as Anne says, something like a pallet is good to stop larger animals’ access. If the next day the poison’s gone, you put more down until it’s not taken.
          For squirrels I use a catapult and small ball bearings, they’re not SS, but I don’t try to kill them. I just pull back halfway so that it gives ’em a nasty sting.

        2. If the squirrels are grey don’t fret about poisoning them – they are vermin and kill our native red squirrels.

          1. In the North East a “bait box” is what they call a “snap tin” in Yorkshire or a “sandwich box” in the South; i.e. a food container you take to work.

    2. That’ll do it. To be honest, I’d like to catch it and (hopefully) survive it. Who wants to live the rest of their lives looking over their shoulder?

      1. Could be left with scarred lungs that will carry you off next year though! Sorry to be such a ray of sunshine 🙁 I feel the same way, especially as there are some high risk loved ones that I can’t go near while this thing is floating round.

  114. The disgusting killer spores that have been spawned by the most polluting over populated , maniacally clever breed of tiny underendowed tiger bone bat eating communists who are bringing the free West to it’s knees , is an unimaginable horror.

    They are trying to kill us all .. We should all be afraid ..

    I wish it was last year and not the Chinese year of the RAT

    1. As the old Chinese curse goes: “May you live in interesting times”.

    3. Some of our nastiest acquaintances were born in the Chinese Year of the Rat. My wife tells me that I am a Water Dragon and she is a Fire Monkey.

    1. The point is do they register death due to flu if someone already has a serious illness or has had a heart attack like they are doing with Covid?

      1. Seems to me all the figures being bandied about need to be taken with a humungous pinch of salt. Once again who knows what to believe.

        1. It’s still too early to tell but there must be far more to this than we are being told for the measures they are taking.

          1. It’s either a storm in a teacup (Apologies Stormy) or as you say there is something we are not being told. And the other interesting thing is that it seems to be very nearly world wide and so many countries are taking these same draconian measures.

            Weird times.

      2. This is another problem with the figures. We’re not told how many die of Covid19 as opposed to with it. At the beginning it was the vast majority with underlying health issues. And comparing figures world wide is hopeless because it’s not comparing like with like.

      3. Lots of people aren’t being tested so they don’t even know if they’ve got coronavirus or not. Maybe cv was a contributory factor in the deaths of some of these people, but because they aren’t being tested, it won’t be on the certificate.

  116. BREAKING

    I know I have signed orf – but as I was going to the fridge to get the bottle of fizz, my French TV told me that yer Orstrians have announced a partial “déconfinement” starting 14 April — with much greater re-opening come the 1st of May.

    Rejoice – Austria often produces imaginative leaders…..

    A demain (really)

      1. Funnily enough while the Ostriches would have liked the house painter to be German and the Ode to Joy chappie an Ostrich, i met a Georgian (not the USA one, the one in the Caucasus) in the park yesterday (dog walking… me and sig other….. them I don’t know. Just hanging lose I guess.). He was very much a lover of his home country and seemed most proud of their most famous son…. Stalin.
        The Ostriches had the house painter, Georgia Mr STalin and we get…. Bliar, Heath, Cameron, May, Brown and a few besides. None perhaps quite as reprehensible individually (except Blair of course. And Heath) but collectively we seem to have a gift of getting bad leaders. It makes one wonder if we shouldn’t formalise the position of PM and make it separately electable….. trusting MPs to choose a leader has proven a bad idea time and again. Looks as if we dodged a bullet with Corbyn, mind, so it can’t be all bad.

    1. I’m sorry to hear that she has died. I hope that no-one writes “how boring” about you, when you pass away, Plum-Tart.

      1. …and i hope so too … God forbid. i intend to go with a bang rather than a whimper…

        Do not go gentle into that good night,
        Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
        Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

        1. “Let me die a young man’s death
          Not a clean, in between the sheets, holy water death
          Not a tip-toe in, free from sin, ……”

          I think I’ve forgotten the exact words, but it was written by Roger McGough, one of the Liverpool poets, who was in The Scaffold with John Gorman and Mike McGear (Paul McCartney’s brother).

        2. My erstwhile (now late) M-i-L’s (second, late in life) husband of a week died “on the job”!

      2. Elsie, I think Plum’s reference was to the apparent fact that Corvid wasn’t involved in other words her passing wasn’t sensationalised with what passes for News these days…

        1. Well, in that case I was unduly harsh. But what she wrote (or perhaps the way she phrased it) suggested to me that it was in bad taste.

    3. Also a nice portrayal of a very English (at the time) gal in Green Grow the Rushes (1951), with Richard Burton. Probably her first “starring” role.

    4. Aged 93 actually. edit: 94, sorry, I should have double checked. Telegraph saysthat Ms Blackman was born in 1926, but wiki reckons it was a year earlier.

  120. Up to 80 migrants in eight boats risked their lives to cross the Channel during the weekend’s sunny weather despite lockdown in both UK and France
    Eight boats were intercepted in the Channel despite hefty movement restriction
    Sunny weather in the South East of England may have contributed to the spike
    It came after first cases of Covid-19 confirmed in migrant camps in north France

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8191595/Up-80-migrants-eight-boats-risked-lives-cross-Channel-weekend.html

      1. We have traditionally been a welcoming nation, but recent attempts to impose diversity at all costs have made us reconsider.

        1. But Her Majesty The Queen says it makes us stronger. Do you mean the Queen is wrong ?

          3. No, it doesn’t make her wrong. Food makes us strong…. but only if you eat in moderation. Lots of things make us stronger, healthier, more content etc but excesses have the opposite effect.

          4. Okkaay, she’s talking about different departments in Fortnum’s….

            Got it now !

          5. The poison is in the dose….. and never more appropriate than when referring to diversity. And some things are more toxic than others.

      2. I believe she was referring to the Commonwealth, not those who come to the Motherland.

    3. Thank goodness they didn’t land in a seaside carpark.
      Kerchinggg ….. £60, mate. £30 if you brass up NOW!

    2. In times of crisis you get to know who your real friends are.

      French government allows thousands of illegals to set sail to our shores and evidently facilitates this since the French are supposedly in lockdown. The French government also impounds vehicles and supplies of essential medical equipment destined for the NHS.

      The Germans could not give a toss about the UK as long as they are alright. Ditto the Dutch, another nation saved by our brave ancestors on several occasions and grown rich by their association with us.

      There are few truly great statesmen around but Trump is top of the list.

    3. Great ideals meet socialism…the TDS in the NHS will prevent any help offered by Trump being used.

      1. Very likely.
        Plus, I suspect many would be happy if Boris didn’t make it.
        Look at the celebration and cheering from the psychotic Left when Margaret Thatcher died.

  123. Good night all. A busy day today doing a three-week shop. And still I forgot my orange juice!

  127. All those that took drugs in their Uni days must be wondering now if it was worth it.

        1. No, I didn’t have to, but I did feel that I wasn’t stunned by the death of an 82 year old lady, unless of course, she was still playing for the first team.

    2. Yo LD

      I have this question

      Did she die with the Virus

      or

      Of the Virus

      Until that question is answered we are in Cloud Cuckoo Land, aka Lockdown

Comments are closed.