Saturday 14 March: With its stable majority Government, Britain can make calm decisions about coronavirus

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/03/14/letterswith-stable-majority-government-britain-can-make-calm/

817 thoughts on “Saturday 14 March: With its stable majority Government, Britain can make calm decisions about coronavirus”

  1. The Dark Side Of Women……………………………

    A woman was in town on a shopping trip.

    She began her day finding the most perfect shoes in the first shop and a beautiful dress on sale in the second.

    In the third, everything had just been reduced by 50 percent when her mobile phone rang.

    It was a female doctor notifying her that her husband had just been in a terrible car accident and was in critical condition and in the ICU..

    The woman told the doctor to inform her husband where she was and that she’d be there as soon as possible.

    As she hung up she realized she was leaving what was shaping up to be her best day ever in the boutiques. She decided to get in a couple of more shops before heading to the hospital.

    She ended up shopping the rest of the morning, finishing her trip with a cup of coffee and a beautiful chocolate cake slice, compliments of the last shop. She was jubilant.

    Then she remembered her husband. Feeling guilty, she dashed to the hospital.

    She saw the doctor in the corridor and asked about her husband’s condition. The lady doctor glared at her and shouted, ‘You went ahead and finished your shopping trip didn’t you! I hope you’re proud of yourself!

    While you were out for the past four hours enjoying yourself in town, your husband has been languishing in the Intensive Care Unit! It’s just as well you went ahead and finished, because it will more than likely be the last shopping trip you ever take!

    For the rest of his life he will require round-the-clock care. And YOU will now be his carer!’

    The woman was feeling so guilty she broke down and sobbed.

    The lady doctor then chuckled and said, ‘I’m just pulling your leg. He’s dead. Show me what you bought.’

    1. Me too, after watching a documentary on the making of A Hard Day’s Night. (Memo to self: must watch that film again soon.) So goodnight all and God bless.

      1. I’ve been in bet since twelve. Cant sleep. I’ve had a pretty lazy day tbf.

  3. Good morning, all.
    Staying up, as want to be out early in the morning to try and stock up on toilet paper.

    1. …which is a good thing in my case, ‘cos yesterday I applied the weed and feed and moss killer to the lawn. Like the creators of TV ads, the moss killer has turned the whole thing blik…

  5. SIR – Those attacking the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, for abandoning fiscal conservatism, aping New Labour and discarding Thatcherite supply-side tax cuts have short memories.

    As a percentage of GDP, public-sector borrowing in 2023-24 is forecast to rise to 2.8 per cent; at the end of Margaret Thatcher’s first term, it was 3.3 per cent.

    Moreover, public spending averaged 44 per cent of GDP between 1979 and 1983. Mr Sunak’s budget proposes a modest rise from today’s 38 per cent.

    This Chancellor is delivering the Conservatives’ manifesto pledges to reduce National Insurance for the working population and reduce the burden of rates on small and medium-sized business.

    He is retaining the lowest rate of corporation tax in the G7 at 19 per cent. It was at 34 per cent when Mrs Thatcher left office in 1990.

    Philip Duly
    Haslemere, Surrey

  6. The worst thing that can happen in the situation we are in now with corona virus is for the mainstream media and opposition to try to bully the government into making rash decisions by playing to the crowd.
    Yet they cannot resist it, everything is an opportunity for them no matter the consequences and they know that no blame will be placed on them when it is all over, a win win for them, a lose lose for people, the country and the economy.

    1. The most dangerous element over a pandemic is irrational behaviour.

      If you’re not well, stay at home and in bed. It’s a virus, you’ll get better.

      The press, however, want to sell adverts and papers so make this out to be far worse than it really is. It is their hysteria that causes the blasted problems.

    2. Well said, B3. When this is all over and the inevitable enquiry into the handling of coronavirus in the United Kingdom takes place, I trust that the media will be found seriously wanting for its endless scaremongering and deliberate mis-reporting. “Killer virus” – Sky News, “Deadly virus” – BBC. Mind you, these pale into insignificance when considering the print media…

      1. There was a crime in WW2 called something like “spreading gloom & despondency” – can’t recall it now. It applies, though.

    1. A model of lucidity. If I can condense its conclusions into advice. Stay home! Better for you. Better for everybody!

      1. No. Staying at home when the risk is small, will lead to job losses very quickly. That will lead to a recession and recessions kill people.

        1. Our son has already expressed concern over the cancellation of orders for printwork. They do printing of leaflets for events and suchlike – which are now being cancelled.

          It’s worrying for small and medium businesses, well, business in general really. The country is slowly grinding to a halt.

          1. There’s an article in the Guardian about cafes and bars being likely to be out of business by May. My daughter met a friend in a normally busy pub last night; it was almost deserted. Businesses will start to fail very soon if this stupidity carries on. The resulting recession will then kill .

    2. A model of lucidity. If I can condense its conclusions into advice. Stay home! Better for you. Better for everybody!

        1. It’s well written using data about a subject the author has no knowledge of. Listen to the experts.

          1. That explains why most countries in Europe (according to today’s news on the Beeb) are closing their borders to restrict the spread.

          5. Yes as most of them are the large European countries and not the small islands and tax havens. The exception might be Russia

          6. You have repeated the mantra about experts quite a few times. Experts know a lot about very little. In this case though, they know rather less. Everything is based on the known characteristics of similar, known, previously experienced, viruses. This virus is unknown.
            Consider the societal factors. Most people do whatever pleases them. Their lives and activities are more important than anyone or anything else. Easily observed. Consider car parking. People park anywhere – OK some are considerate enough to put on their hazard light while obstructing a main road to pop into a newsagents. Consider mobile phones. Have a look at drivers anywhere, possible at traffic lights. How many use their mobile phones?
            We are where we are. The experts did not predict it. What we are doing now should have been done over a month ago. The experts did not say that, nor did they insist on it.

    4. It does clarify the British Government strategy well.

      They seem to be acknowledging that the NHS is incapable of handling an emergency of this sort. My own local hospital trust admitted this, and Boris’s body language suggests that many people would be left to die, and only those with a promising prognosis treated. There would also be a breakdown of doctors and nurses, making the situation even worse as untrained and even amateur reserves are brought in.

      Therefore, the main aim is to keep the rate of treatment requiring expert medical attention down to a level where the NHS can cope, even if this means extending the danger period over many months. The alternative is the Chinese total approach, where the period is less, but the impact on the medics much greater. I do believe that the Government has thought long and hard about this, and are largely doing the right thing in the circumstances.

      In my own life, I am retired so I can spend nearly all my time at home away from people as I have already done for some years. Little change to my own lifestyle required then. At the last choir rehearsal, numbers were well down, and we were all told to wash our hands before we got started. Two events have already been cancelled. I am getting into a mindset now where I pull my sleeve over my hand to open a door in a public place. This may also mean washing such garments more often. A handkerchief, washed daily, used for this purpose may be more convenient.

      I am just as worried about the pound. It has been tanking against the euro (1.10), the Swiss Franc (1.16) and the U.S. dollar (1.22). Cutting interest rates to 0.25% has not helped the pound, and we may well find that importing staples will become very expensive, and we lack the capacity to be self-sufficient in essentials. This is worrying. He did this, mainly to enable Government to extend its borrowing from the Magic Fairy without being hammered by the creditors, but I don’t know how much longer this can be sustained. I blame the stupidity of dropping Income Tax, especially during a crisis, This was borne of some pretty horrendous “Global Free Market” think tanks and a very successful poster campaign during the 1992 Election. I despair that the Opposition of any party has been incapable of offering any alternative.

      1. I can think of no rational reason for reducing Base Rate – it was so low it was unlikely to make business lending costs much lower than they already were. Perhaps some here can explain the logic of the base rate reduction?

        1. Carney’s last effort at wrecking things to make his Brexit predictions come to life.

        2. I think it comes into the category that they thought it would be a good idea. They did not really think it through though

        5. Encouraging personal debt on a economy-boosting sugar hit seems even crazier. I have long said that interest rates should be Inflation + Growth unless there was a damned good reason for them not to be. Any real money left in the system is better put into gold and stuffed under the mattress, when it should be keeping the cash flow of industry going and productive.

          I can only assume they did this because the Government were about to go on a huge borrowing and spending splurge without raising taxes, and this is the only way to keep these borrowing costs down so that not all councils and national institutions are rendered bankrupt. HS2 Chiltern-trashing and Equality & Diversity don’t fund themselves.

          1. Until they took the daft measure with mortgages things were controlled as Building Societies could only lend up to the money they had on deposit. If demand for mortgaged went up savings rates went up to bring in more money. Some bright spark though decided that was not a good idea so in effect now building societies and banks can in effect just print money and dont really need savers

      2. The PM as much as said that NHS Scotland would be unable to cope. A comment that seems to have passed unnoticed or been ignored by the Scottish Government.

  10. Morning all. Here are the virus letters……

    SIR – We are able to respond to this epidemic in the way we are because, unlike most of the rest of Europe, we have a Government with a strong majority and five years still to run.

    This means that it can make a decision, has ownership of that decision and will pay the penalty if it turns out to be wrong.

    Far better this than to be at the mercy a weak Government that has to pander to all sorts of internal and external pressures.

    Anthony Singlehurst

    London SE11

    SIR – Let’s have a daily briefing from the chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance. Rather like Ian McDonald (the MoD press spokesman) during the Falklands War, he would calm anxieties with reassuring, matter-of-fact bulletins.

    Joanna Whatley

    Charing, Kent

    SIR – Martin Hibberd, professor of emerging infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is quoted saying: “We know from China that aggressive curtailment policies can work to reduce numbers [of those infected]”.

    Advertisement

    How can we trust China’s assurances that its measures were effective, and that those who are now going back to work are truly safe? It is a country of total surveillance and information control, and any figures it publishes are suspect.

    This pandemic started because the Chinese government first attempted to suppress news of the coronavirus outbreak. The rest of the world is now suffering as a result.

    Robert Frazer

    Salford, Lancashire

    SIR – As an 80-year-old with underlying health problems and living on my own, I’m in the most vulnerable bracket.

    I therefore find it really unnerving and disheartening to learn that the only course of action I can take should I contract coronavirus is to self-isolate – and face the prospect of dying alone.

    Jeremy Somers

    Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

    SIR – As a 90-year-old doctor who qualified in 1953, I have been reflecting on how we would have reacted to a coronavirus epidemic in those days. The answer is not at all, for three main reasons.

    The Covid-19 virus could not have been identified rapidly enough, if at all. Most cases would have been too mild to attract attention in this season of coughs and sneezes. And the small proportion of deaths among elderly people with chronic respiratory disease would have remained much as usual for the time of year.

    It follows that there would have been no alarm or countermeasures. International trade and travel would have carried on as usual. World stock markets would not have collapsed. And governments would not have needed to get involved.

    As it is today, we know too much about the coronavirus for our own good, but almost nothing about treating its victims or preventing its spread.

    Dr George Birdwood

    Shipton Moyne, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Nick Rose (Letters, March 13) is right to highlight the deficiencies of train lavatories during the coronavirus pandemic. Last week I travelled from Sheffield to London first class on East Midlands Railway. The soap dispenser was empty and the tap water was cold. Need I say more?

    Dr J H F Smith

    Sheffield, South Yorkshire

    SIR – I am delighted that French politicians have eschewed hand-shaking. I’m not so pleased that the local baker in our ski resort is handling both baguettes and money with the same unprotected, unwashed hands. But the bread is so delicious that it is easy to overcome one’s scruples

    Jane Cullinan

    Padstow, Cornwall

    1. No soap or even no toilet paper on in train toilets is common simply because often they are only replenished overnight. The guard or train conductor should be responsible for checking them before the start of every journey

    1. Who knows, perhaps we shall have, at long last, the White Police Association, without being excoriated by the resulting storm in yer soshal meeja.

    2. My thoughts are divided on this. Good for him for raising the issue of pay equality (Why is it that all these top positions cant have fixed salaries advertised along with the job vacancy?). On the other hand, if Priti Patel says the intention is to bring top salaries down, then I’m all for that.

    3. Hi TB, are either of them worth that amount of salary is the question that should be being asked.

    2. ‘Morning, Mags, it seems that twitter feeds are no longer any use to me, as they (twitter) now demand that I sign up or login – I resolutely refuse to do so as they are another bunch of moderating control-freaks. I prefer to leave them to wallow in it.

    2. Qhite nice for breakfast with a slice of toast and they sill you up for the day. You dont need a big dinner if you have had haddock for breakfast

  15. Five people have tested positive for coronavirus aboard a Fred Olsen ship in the Caribbean as authorities in the Bahamas will not let it dock.

    The Ipswich based cruise line said that four members of crew and one customer on board the Braemar tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday in Curacao.

    1. Many cruise lines now shut down for at least 30 days, including all that operate out of the U.S..

  16. WHO says UK is not taking enough action over Corona Virus and needs to bring in more stringent controls

      1. Statistically they are never more than a 100 there at any one time EXCEPT on budget day and the Queens Speech

  19. 317121+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    You can have the best tool kit in the world you still have to have an able
    skilled operator / operators to use it.

    IMO a 100% trusted leader / party is ( given that much is valued these days via a monetary scale) his / her weight in gold.
    With this issue it is NOT weight of political numbers that count, we have witnessed how they operate it must be in the hands of those dealing in that field ( medically) and NOT with a political overseer.

    My personal opinion is advice given me by a safety man in the construction industry years ago was “you are your own safety man, self asses and common sense ” are the orders of the day.

    1. Police got there quickly. Why are groups dressed like these thugs not just rounded up and put in cells for a couple of nights?

      1. 317121+ up ticks,
        Morning HP,
        Not the right type of in-mode thugs, the authorities / authorities
        employees prefer the better dressed Tommy Robinson types and as is being proved Tommy Robinson personally.

      1. Who remembers Bronco lavatory paper?

        The company should be brought back to life with a special series of rolls with sheets featuring pictures of Verhofstadt, Banier, Tusk, Bercow, and Soubry. The coarsest and roughest quality should bear the face of Ken Clarke

      2. In the words of their anthem Ode To Joy: Alle Menschen werden Brüder or All people become brothers..

        Unless, of course, there’s a major crisis, in which case, it’s I’m All Right, Jacques.

    3. As soon as Italy recovers from the spread of the virus Nigel Farage should go to Rome and organise a campaign to get Italy out of the repulsive EU.

  24. Anyone know how the Colchester Nurse is this morning?
    Did everything go well?

    1. I hope Anne is recovering nicely .. I expect the physios will be pestering her almost straight away.. modern practices are so different these days .

      Morning Bob.

      1. She appears to be communicating BTL on the Letters page:-

        A Allan
        14 Mar 2020 8:21AM
        @J Wilson
        Exactly.
        Years ago, one of our neighbours was absolutely obsessed with cleaning: she had three sons, and there was always at least one off school with snivelly, snotty sort of ailments. Two of them even managed to develop cystitis.

        We have always had pets, and our sons (possibly to their annoyance) were robustly healthy.
        Flag6Unlike
        Reply

        1. I worked with a woman years ago who stated
          ‘I don’t do housework, it makes you ugly!’

          2. “In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris”
            — Gen. 3:19

          7. It was covered in England by Craig Douglas who was formerly a milkman on the Isle of Wight,

          8. Only boring women have immaculately clean houses.

            The dust in our house is more like top soil.

          10. It’s not the “tracks of our tears”, it’s the “tracks of our years”. We always hoover as soon as the footprints in the dust become obliterated by more dust. I am of course referring to the house interior.

        2. It always makes me laugh when I see TV advertising for liquid cleaners.
          Kills 99% of all know germs. Well, it’s got to be the 1 % that’s the most dangerous.

      2. ‘Morning BoB and Belle. Has Anne been under the knife? If so may I join you in wishing her well and a speedy return here.

      3. We all wish her well.

        In France they do not prescribe physiotherapy for hip replacements and as a result I took some time to get fully mobile but an exercise bicycle was a great help.

        1. Morning all, when I had my resurfacing op they linked me up to a morphine line. You couldn’t OD but it made visiting time more fun.
          The surgeon was a member of the golf club.

        2. Here, they get you walking as soon as the anaesthetic has worn off & you can stand.

          1. Many years ago my wife had her first knee replacement and in the same ward was a lady in her early eighties awaiting a hip job. The nurses had the old lady up and about the next day.
            When my wife had her other knee replaced the anaesthetist, because of complications, couldn’t put her out with a general anaesthetic and so went with an epidural: she was awake the whole time the operation went on. She heard everything going on but kept her eyes closed.😲

          2. That possibility was mentioned to me.
            I said I’d like to be asleep and let the experts get on with it.

          4. I had an epidural when they dealt with a miniscus in my right knee done by ‘keyhole’. They put a screen between me and the gore but the whole operation was filmed so I watched it on TV while the surgeon was trimming away with his scalpel.

          5. I found the tv screen when I was having a cystoscopy fascinating. I had no idea the urethra was so complex internally. I asked the surgeon whether had had recorded the trip up it, but sadly he hadn’t, even though I paid!

          6. The meniscus scrape still qualifies for a full anaesthetic in Canada.

            The scary thing was when the surgeon proudly showed me around the less than week old operating theatre and told me that they had no idea how to get a piece of equipment going – before pointing at an iPad.

          7. I found the tv screen when I was having a cystoscopy fascinating. I had no idea the urethra was so complex internally. I asked the surgeon whether he had recorded the trip up it, but sadly he hadn’t, even though I paid!

      4. When I came round after my hip op, I heard the nurses talking in the recovery room and detected a black south Africa accent. When the nurse came to see if I was okay, I greeted her in her own language.
        She was so excited by that.
        She came to see me on the ward a couple of times.

    2. Yoo-hoo.
      Had my breakfast and waiting to go down to X-Ray.
      Physio has popped in and gave me a moderate dose of torture, but I don’t like the gleam in her eyes. She Will Be Back!
      Didn’t sleep too well, but quite frankly, that wasn’t unexpected. It’s not as if I’ve got lots to do today.
      More than anything, I want to get into the bathroom and give myself a good sluice down.

    3. Yoo-hoo.
      Had my breakfast and waiting to go down to X-Ray.
      Physio has popped in and gave me a moderate dose of torture, but I don’t like the gleam in her eyes. She Will Be Back!
      Didn’t sleep too well, but quite frankly, that wasn’t unexpected. It’s not as if I’ve got lots to do today.
      More than anything, I want to get into the bathroom and give myself a good sluice down.

      3. The physios are relentless! We have them in the family and refer to them as physioterrorists. Best of British!!

        1. Physioterrorists.
          Now that is one to treasure. Though possibly after I’ve been discharged.

      7. Good on you Anne. I’m glad to hear you’re (almost) up and about.
        I’ll probably need the op on both hips in a couple of years. As the saying goes,

        “Pain is weakness leaving the body..unless you’ve served, then it’s probably arthritis.”

        1. ‘Morning, Stormy, having also served, my back pain comes from falling off an icy aircraft wing with the navigator’s console in my arms. Like a fool, I automatically held on to it in an attempt to save it.

          The resultant hard meeting with the concrete pan, crush a disc and I still suffer with it.

          Right, I’m away for our lovely old Church warden’s memorial service. I may say a prayer for all my NoTTLer friends.

  26. I’m off opp north for a dew days. I hope I’ll be allowed back. Play nicely!

        2. Why did Lonnie Donegan sing about the Cumberland Gap rather than the Watford Gap?

  27. DT Article

    Farewell Prince Harry, the wokest Royal of them all

    A simple colloquial definition of ‘woke’ is:

    thick as porcine excrement..

    1. Apparently, the word “woke” originated as a slang word used by American blacks. It just means “awake”. They are a simple folk and, clearly, using words of more than one syllable makes talking far too complicated for them.

      The politically correct Left, in its frantīc quest to find the lowest common denominator, won’t be satisfied until we’re all speaking like street nīggers.

      1. Like so many of the adverts on TV. One in particular, Herbal Essences, uses faux East End language. If they are so casual with the use of English it no doubt extends to their product and I wouldn’t buy it if it was the last shampoo on the shelf. And that’s saying something these days.

        1. I didn’t know that, but I run the ads with the sound muted. Not that I ever watch live tv of course, I don’t have a licence. And I wouldn’t like to upset those nice folk at the BBC.

  28. Good morning all
    I woke up with a bunged up nose and a slight headache. Spoke to the doctor who said I have rwhitevirus, a mild form of Coronavirus. 🙂

    1. Yes, the ‘slight headache’ is alarming. I assume it is a variant of a common cold, but my own headache has been intermittent since last Monday. It could be a caffeine withdrawal symptom, but that would not account for the sneezing. Perhaps I should visit the Doctor, high blood pressure or something chronic.

      Corona beer is on special offer at Lidl.

      1. Funnily enough I worked on the launch plans for Dr Pepper back in ‘81 or ‘82. Think its now owned by Coke or Pepsi.

    1. So do the MSM! The Coronavirus is a wonderful find for them!
      Morning Belle and all.
      Edit to say Belle

  30. Toby Young gets a lesson in life from Laurence Fox.

    Two predictions. 1 No film or play will be made about this. 2. The BBC will give this as little airtime as possible and bury it deep in its website

    Today saw an unlikely blow struck in the battle against groupthink and ideological conformity. The actors’ union Equity apologised to Laurence Fox for calling him a “disgrace” and urging its members to “denounce” him. This followed his appearance on Question Time in January in which he described Britain as the “most tolerant, lovely country in Europe” and said that endlessly accusing the British people of racism is “starting to get really boring now”.

    Technically, it was the Equity Minority Ethnic Members Committee which originally condemned Fox. In a bizarre twist, the officers of that Committee publicly resigned en masse this morning after Equity published its apology and at the same time said that it had changed its name to the Race Equality Committee. It was as if the Judean People’s Front had announced its split from the People’s Front of Judea and, in the same furious tone, declared that it should henceforth be referred to as the Judean People’s Alliance.

    None of this would have happened if Laurence Fox hadn’t threatened the union with legal action. Most people do the opposite when an institutional body denounces them for daring to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy in their profession – they issue a grovelling apology themselves, hoping that will draw a line under the affair and they can quietly get on with their lives.

    That’s what I did when the Witchfinder-Generals came for me back in 2018 following my appointment to the Office for Students. After eight days of being hounded by the commissars of political correctness – a petition calling for me to be sacked attracted over 220,000 signatures – I resigned and issued an apology, naively thinking that would satisfy the mob’s bloodlust. That was like tossing a hunk of raw meat to a shoal of piranha fish. I had to step down from a further four positions, including my full-time job running an education charity.

    But Laurence Fox proved a braver man than me. He realised that if you plead for forgiveness you just end up being “cancelled” and that can have a devastating impact on all aspects of your life, not just your career. After he was ex-communicated by the secular priesthood of the acting community, he received death threats on social media and his cousin was spat at in the street. Had he not fought back, it’s unlikely he would have ever worked as an actor again, certainly not for the BBC.

    You think I’m exaggerating? Dissenting from groupthink in the arts is career suicide according to ArtsProfessional, a website that surveyed hundreds of members on censorship and self-censorship in the cultural sector last Autumn. Nearly 80 per cent of the respondents said that “workers in the arts who share controversial opinions risk being professionally ostracised”.

    And by “controversial”, they don’t mean voting for the BNP or sympathising with Tommy Robinson. They mean being pro-Brexit or expressing scepticism about the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Saying the sorts of things Fox said on Question Time – such as declaring that gender should be irrelevant when choosing the next leader of the Labour Party – is completely beyond the pale. The fact that 95 per cent of the public agrees with him is irrelevant.

    It would be nice to think Fox’s victory represents a “turning point” in the battle to defend free speech, but that, too, would be naïve. For every courageous individual that stands up to the mob, there are thousands who get trampled beneath its stampeding feet. I was one of them, which is why I’ve now started the Free Speech Union – a non-partisan, mass membership organisation that stands up for the speech rights of its members – and I’m proud to say Laurence Fox has joined.

    The enemies of free speech hunt in packs; its defenders need to band together too.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/13/laurence-foxs-brave-victory-mob-can-show-us-fight-free-speech2/

    1. Those enemies of free speech should then be mocked, laughed at and ignored.

      They only get their way because the state lets them.

    2. Laurence Fox was absolutely right in threatening Equity with legal action. Apologising does nothing. It’s just the step before the Left-wing mob goes in for the kill, i.e. your ritual humiliation and acceptance of their ideology before they destroy you, as with Winston Smith in 1984.

      1. Nephew actually. Edward was his uncle

        His father, James starred in many films and was quite the matinee idol. For example:

        Thoroughly Modern Millie, Those Maginficent Men in the Flying Machines, Performance, The Servant etc etc.

      2. I remember that the Jackal was “most unkind” to a homosexual towards the end of the book/film.

          2. I thought he was about bend to tie his shoe laces because on the way into the pub they told him it was his shout.

            When my wife and i went with the local U3A ers to the House of commons/lords visit. The guide told us the story of when De Gaul paid a visit, he refused to walk through the adjoining chamber because of the huge paintings depicting the two lost battles Trafalgar and Waterloo.
            They were going to try and cover them, the hooks are still up in the wall. But they took him in the the commons through the side door.
            That sounds fairly appropriate.

      3. No. Nephew of the Jackal. Laurence’s father was James Fox. James’s brother Edward Fox played the Jackal. James has had much more louche parts, opposite Michael Jagger in ‘Performance’ and in ‘The Servant’ with Dirk Bogarde for example!.

        2. Sorry. Posted before seeing yours. Laurence’s brother, Tom, came on one of our French courses many years ago. Indeed quite a few well known thespians have sent their progeny to us over the years.

  31. Do you have coronavirus or a cold? CDC releases graphic to help people tell the difference. 14 March 2020

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d94ebbdc406f4a376989c5fbe39c5d6c2bcbf8592af0aaa374bc7d19a7dbc2ee.jpg

    A flow chart created using information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Health breaks down the symptoms which are most common when suffering from the coronavirus, the flu, a cold or allergies to help identify which you may have.

    For all you hypochondriacs!.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8111219/Do-coronavirus-cold-CDC-releases-graphic-help-people-tell-difference.html

    1. That’s a bit revolutionary isn’t it. It says “Only a doctor can give you a diagnosis”.
      Perhaps all those people who are giving advice on here and elsewhere will take note.

      1. We met our former GP in the supermarket this morning. She thinks everybody is overreacting.

        2. Our GPs are not seeing anyone in their premises – and there are at least 6 of them!

        3. 317121+ up ticks,
          Morning R,
          A multitude of peoples like say, the current lab/lib/con supporter / voters would prefer it if their MPs were all called Simon, as in Simon say’s.
          Many I am sure are incapable of self assessment in regards to risk assessment & common sense.

      2. If they qualified via the post 80s syllabus, they only know how to look stuff up on the internet anyway.

    3. According to that, what I’ve been suffering from for the past three weeks has been a mild bout of flu and its aftermath.

      I’m not surprised, though for the first couple of weeks I put it down to being ‘a bad chest’.

        1. Flu and pneumonia jabs on the same day. I’m thinking I might have picked up a dose of something closely related to the strain the jab was designed for, so it wasn’t as bad as the full on variety.

          1. Nice and fresh pneumonia jab then, that’s encouraging for you! Mine must be 10 years old or so!!!

          2. They seem to be doing them automatically at our surgery this year, if the ten years is up. They must keep good records.
            Never had any problems from the flu jab, but the two together knocked me out for a couple of days.

  32. We may be living in a simulation, but the truth still matters. The New York Times – 13 March 2020.

    I do not believe in the simulation hypothesis, which he is joking about here. For those not familiar, it posits that what we think of as reality is not actually real. Instead, we are living in a complex simulation that was probably created by a supercomputer, invented by an obviously superior being.

    Crazy, right?

    But while most people think they actually do exist, wouldn’t it be nice to have a blame-free explanation to cope with the freak show that has become our country and the world? (I vote yes, even if some quantum computer just made me type that.)

    Morning everyone. Simulation theory is not inherently absurd. It does for example explain several anomalies about existence. The problem with it, as Neo observed in the Matrix, is that we are condemned to treat it as reality. It does hurt if you transgress its rules, and yes it is eventually seemingly fatal. That it is a game seems unlikely if only because most of the players lead lives of, “quiet desperation” as Thoreau described it and not a few undiluted misery. They would hardly volunteer for this. Much more likely is that it is an instant public research tool. Feed in your problem, “What happens if we ban smoking” or “Virus goes rogue” then just sit back and watch the screen.

    Has the program gone haywire as in the quote? There certainly seems to be some degradation in the system in the form of truth telling, a requirement which is essential for rationality to rule! Then again perhaps the Central Computer like Skynet has decided to jettison its human controllers and strike out on its own!

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/opinion/simulation-hypothesis-coronavirus.html

    1. “A lie goes round the world before the truth has got its boots on.” I don’t know when that was first said, but it was long before we spoke of “fake news”. People lie. Always have, probably always will.

      1. ‘Morning, JBF. I don’t know for certain where your quotation came from, but something in the back of my mind says it was Churchill.

        I quite like this version:

        “Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it.”

      2. I try my very best to tell the truth every day, but at night I always lie in bed.

        :-))

      3. There is an excellent description of ‘rumour’ flying around the world like some winged beast in Virgil’s Aeneid, which is probably the ancient world equivalent of fake news.

  33. It’s not panic buying.
    If we self-isolate – as we have been ordered to do – we will need food and toilet rolls to last for months. It is not merely prudent to stock up, but essential.
    It is somewhat ironic that supermarket groups are still running promotions, offering cut prices on items. We have just stocked up with ground coffee from Lidl.

  34. Meanwhile, the rugby match between Wales and Scotland has been cancelled. Thousands of Scots have arrived in Cardiff in the last two days. Apparently they are all going to get together with the Welsh supporters to have a sing-song instead.

  35. I received this yesterday from my friend whose granddaughter has come down with cv. I have changed their names. ‘Jane’ works in the same field as ‘Peter’, same place. They are both physios.

    “I was really shocked when Jane rang last night to say that Helen had coronavirus. She was very poorly yesterday with a severe headache, high temperature and dry cough but had not lost her appetite. Today she has improved steadily and is playing video games and able to get up and move around. The school initially would not allow Jake to go in and Peter was told not to go to work. However believe it or not the Government guidelines are that you do not have to stay at home if one of your family has it, you can go to work and school and maybe spread it around. I think that’s awful, Peter is working on intensive care at the xxxxx in xxxxxxxxx! Jane has to pick Jake up a little earlier than the other children and he is not allowed on the school bus but can sit with everyone in class as normal. Jane is staying at home with Helen. Jane has developed a dry cough today. I feel that they should all be self isolating for a week but no, though the Government may recommend that over the next week. I am speechless. No wonder everyone is getting it.”

    1. I know others have said it, but how does one ‘self isolate’? You are either isolated, or someone else is, in which case you’re in prison.

      1. I believe the “self” refers to who makes the decision to isolate rather than the act itself. Just my £0.02 worth…

        1. In which case it should be ‘voluntarily isolate’, like they do in China. /sarc

    2. My sister’s theory is that the government is happy for the virus to spread through the population because it’s mainly the elderly at greatest risk, not children and younger adults. That way they can save on pensions, elderly care, etc…Oh, and we mainly voted to Leave the EU. I’m sure it’s all just a coincidence.

      1. Well, yes, those are my thoughts especially as they are declaring that the elderly can expect little (nothing) in the way of help if they are ill with this. Whether by accident or design I haven’t made my mind up yet, the association of this virus with certain types of blood pressure tablets increasing the risk is certainly concerning which brings the scales down slightly further in favour of design. There is something in disguised language about a population cull in Agenda 21, and the UN wants it all wrapped up by 2030 (Agenda 30). Having said all that, it could of course be accidental and coincidence.

      1. No, it was work-related. I dreamt I was allocated a much smaller surgery with an incompetent nurse.

        1. Those pesky walls banging into you while you were attempting a tricky root canal. And then the patient swallowing the broken drill bit.

  37. A friend ‘in the know’ has told me 5 jet 2
    Aircraft have been turned back enroute to Spain.

      1. Unfortunately Duncan I can’t look at these news pages on line unless I agree to their intrusion to my privacy.
        But I caught a glimpse of the headline. Thanks.

    3. If they hadn’t they would have hit the invisible coronavirus bubble that now exists over Spain. It is only visible to St. Greta.

    1. They get more desperate every time! Even their former DG, Greg Dyke has turned against them…

    1. That is something that really does need to ‘go viral’.
      It’s so stuningly appropriate.

  40. In an interview with Britain’s Channel 4 news, Dr. Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a Norway-based international alliance for developing vaccines against infectious diseases, explained the long-term dangers of the COVID-19, not only for Europe, but globally:

    “The threat is very significant… There are many epidemiologists who talk about the potential of the virus in terms of attack rates globally that could be between 50% and 70% of the global population.

    “It is important to recognise that the virus is here and that it has tremendous potential to be disruptive, to cause high rates of illness and even high rates of death….

    “I don’t think we are dealing with the flu here… this is a virus that is now circulating in a population that has absolutely no immunity to it…. You might have an attack rate that is three times higher than seasonal flu with a mortality rate that is ten times higher.

    “The most concerning thing about this virus is the combination of infectiousness and the ability to cause severe disease or death. We have not since 1918 — since the Spanish flu — seen a virus that combined those two qualities in the same way. We have seen very lethal viruses — Ebola’s mortality rate in some cases is greater than 80% — but they don’t have the infectiousness that this virus has. They don’t have the potential to explode and spread globally….

    “I think that what we are seeing is a virus that is many, many times more lethal than the flu, and a population that is completely vulnerable to it, and we are seeing its ability to explode. It has increased in some countries over the last two weeks by one thousand-fold and many countries are seeing ten-fold or one hundred-fold increases in cases. There is nothing to stop that expansion from continuing unless those societies move aggressively, engage their publics, implement multiple public health interventions, including introducing social distancing….

    3. He would say that. You need independent advice not from a drug maker. Fear is the problem here and a snowflake population.

    4. Perhaps Dr Hatchett would care to explain why China, a nation of 1.4 billion people, has had only 80,000 cases of Coronavirus if it is so terribly infectious?
      Or perhaps it’s only terribly infectious to non Chinese?

  41. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LYsTDysaz3c
    Coronavirus Update with Stefan Molyneux! BREAKOUT! March 13 2020

    “President Donald Trump plans to declare a national emergency on Friday over the coronavirus outbreak, invoking the Stafford Act to open the door to more federal aid for states and municipalities, according to two people familiar with the matter.

    The president said he will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. in Washington. Trump spoke Friday with Emmanuel Macron, the French president tweeted, about the pandemic, and agreed to organize a video conference with world leaders on Monday to coordinate research efforts on a vaccine and treatments and work on how to respond to the economic fallout.

    Trump is under increasing pressure to act as governors and mayors nationwide step up actions to mitigate the spread, closing schools and canceling public events. Declaring a national emergency would allow the government to marshal additional resources to combat the virus, and also marks a symbolic turning point for the president, who has repeatedly compared the coronavirus to the seasonal flu and insisted that his administration had the outbreak under control.

    “The number of people that are infected with the new coronavirus is entirely dependent on how America responds to the outbreak, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

    “If we are complacent and don’t do really aggressive containment and mitigation, the number could go way up and be involved in many, many millions,” Fauci told members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday.

    “The community of Chinese people in Italy has grown rapidly in the past ten years. Official statistics indicate there are at least 320,794 Chinese citizens in Italy, although these figures do not account for illegal immigration, former Chinese citizens who have acquired Italian nationality or Italian-born people of Chinese descent.”

  42. Ah well, it’s approaching beer o’clock, or as Cicero so elegantly put it ….

    “Sol Invictus supra brachium arboris est”

    Here’s a useful tip for anybody who wants to “self-isolate” and still be able to visit the pub. Chew cloves of raw garlic – it works for me.

  44. In breaking news that well known expert in public health, Nancy Dell Olio (famous for shagging an England football manager) has criticised the UK response to coronavirus.

    This was in the Metro newspaper after she was interviewed on Good Morning Britain. I despair; why are we interviewing people about subjects they know nothing about?

    1. As you are a senior consultant, may I ask your opinion of the research which has been published in a letter to the BMJ relating to ACE inhibotors ?……

      ”ACE inhibitors as a potential risk factor for fatal Covid-19

      Dear Editor,

      The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) outbreak from Wuhan, China, is spreading worldwide and is a major international concern as it has the potential to become pandemic [1].

      The largest Chinese study with 44,672 confirmed cases of Covid-19 shows a high overall case fatality rate (CFR) of 2.3% [2]. Important co-morbidities are hypertension (CFR 6.0%), diabetes (CFR 7.3%), cardiovascular disease (CFR 10.5%) and age >70 (CFR 10.2%) [2]. Similar co-morbidities were noted for the SARS outbreak in 2003.

      It is widely unclear what the commonality of these risk factors is. This is somehow surprising as compared to for example the 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza outbreak, immunosuppressant patients were primary affected. Cardiac patients seem to be at higher risk in Covid-19. One possible answer could be the following: Patients with the comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease might fulfil the indication for the use of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor antagonists [3].

      The question is, does there exist a connection between the use of these drugs and severe sequela of Covid-19? While the epidemiological association has not been investigated yet, several indicators underline the hypothesis of the link between ACE inhibitors and Covid-19:

      On the one hand, it has been shown that the Covid-19 agent (also known as SARS-CoV-2), uses the SARS-COV receptor angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) 2 for entry into target cells [4]. The interface between ACE2 and the viral spike protein SARS-S has been elucidated and the efficiency of ACE2 usage was found to be a key determinant of SARS-CoV transmissibility [4].

      On the other hand, it could be shown in animal experiments that both the ACE-inhibitor lisinopril and the angiotensin-receptor blocker losartan can significantly increase mRNA expression of cardiac ACE2 (5-fold and 3-fold, respectively) [5]. Further, losartan also significantly increases cardiac ACE2 activity [5].

      Is a link between these observations possible? Is the expression of ACE2 receptor in the virus targeted cells increased by the use of ACE-inhibitor/angiotensin-receptor blocker and is the patient therefore more at risk for a severe course? We need rapid epidemiological and preclinical studies to clarify this relationship. If this were the case, we might be able to reduce the risk of fatal Covid-19 courses in many patients by temporarily replacing these drugs.”

        1. The circumstantial evidence seems to support the research though, doesn’t it ?

          For example, in Italy where there are a high % of elderly patients and most are likely to be using ACE medication.

          It would explain why those with underlying conditions are more at risk. In fact. not so much thanks to the condition but due to the treatment for the condition.

          2. But look at the evidence. The research looks very well founded both in itself and relating to what is happening on the ground.

            Obviously there is no time to wait for definitive proof, but maybe those on ACE meds should seek alternatives, or stop using them if they have C symptoms ?

          3. As I read the letter it is an opinion that needs further research. It is not definitive.

          4. If you walk under a ladder something may fall on you. Hence, do not walk under ladders. Or you could make no changes to your style of poker, ACE inhibitors or otherwise, and take a chance that you could maybe avoid. The definitive answer probably will not be known for a while?

          5. I think I’ve heard say that the mortality rate is about 2%. When I had an operation for cancer, 21 years ago, the surgeon said that because it was caught early there’s a 98% success rate for a cure.
            I’m still here and will, for sanity sake, Looking at the probability that I have a 98% chance of survival I’ll accept those odds.

      2. My personal decision will be to cut out Losartan from my daily medication as the outbreak comes closer. Fortunately I do not have lisinopril in my medicine prescriptions. This seems to be given for short periods to people with cardiovascular conditions My last systolic pressure taken last month by my young,efficient and pretty doctor was 101 which raised her eyebrows. At home it is usually between 110 and 140. I take the measurement every other morning before breakfast and have done so for years and will continue to do so.
        Losartan I think, is prescribed for me as I have diabetes as well as a history of high blood pressure. I test my sugar levels every other day and for diabetes I take metformin twice daily. I have both conditions under control and I have an efficient diabetes nurse who checks me every 6 months.
        If my health checks at home show that I have problems I will resume taking losartan.
        If I die in the near future, my absence from this site will show that I made the wrong decision.

        1. In general medicines are individual tested ans qualified very little testing is done of cocktails of drugs simply because of the huge number of potential combinations

    2. But, aren’t they self-declared experts? If they can change sex at will, expertise would be a doddle!

    3. Quite. Jackie Smiff – she of the porn expenses – was pontificating yesterday about the virus. A pointless interview of a pointless former minister.

    1. I think Brenda is probably putting her feet up for a break now that Megxit has finally happened.

    2. Well Trumps face the nation speeches haven’t helped calm fears maybe prayer is all that is left.

  46. UK Government Action too Little and Ineffective

    If we look at China it has rapidly bought the situation under control and in most areas the restrictions are now being relaxed

    On the 8th of March China had only 40 new cases far less than the UK and China has a population of about 1.4B so what China is doing is working what the UK government is doing is not

    https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/

    1. Of course admirers of Chinese methods could have their doors and windows barricaded shut to keep them in the house..

      1. I think we are seeing the dangers of a free press and social media, which allows self declared experts like Bill, to pontificate on subjective and he knows nothing of.

        2. That post is a statement of Fact. You are disagreeing with facts that dont suit you now ?

          1. The statement at the top of your post is an opinion not a fact. You also conclude your post with an opinion not a fact. The fact you demonstrate no understanding of the difference between opinion and fact speaks to your lack of intelligence

          2. It is a fact that China has Corona virus under control./ It is a fact that the UK government & the NHS do not have Corona virus under control

          3. China report that they have the virus under control. There’s a difference.

          5. 317121+ up ticks,
            AC,
            And you come across as a self
            opinionated twit, that’s a fact.

    2. And of course we all believe the Chinese as being the beacon of truth and honesty.

          1. How are you feeling today Anne?
            I came round for short time when I had my hip op.
            It sounded like engineering 😆
            In three months you’ll be back to normal with out the grinding pain.
            Best wishes from both of us both had the same op. 👫

      2. There was a rumour that someone dared to catch covid-19 in North Korea.
        So they shot him.

  47. Newborn baby in London becomes youngest coronavirus victim

    This is the only instance I can find at present but it indicates that it can be passed on to unborn children

    A newborn baby in England has become the world’s youngest victim to test positive for coronavirus.

    The child’s mother was rushed to hospital days ago with suspected pneumonia but her positive result was only known after the birth.

    The pair are being treated at separate hospitals with the mother being cared for at North Middlesex Hospital.

      1. I remember as a boy going on my own to watch South Pacific at our local cinema. I thought of it as being a war film, even better, a war film in Technicolor, rather than black and white like the rest at the time, but with a few songs thrown in when I took the decision to go. Big mistake.

        What made it worse was that it was so long. It was one of those films like The Ten Commandments that had an intermission.

        I was almost suicidal by the time I came out and I’ve hated most of the music ever since, especially that one about washing that man right out of her hair, which I thought rather nasty. One or two songs I did like and still do, (Some Enchanted Evening, Younger Than Springtime).

        Others, (Happy Talk, Bali Hi, Nothing Like a Dame and all those where they are dancing about on the beach) make me want to reach out for a machine gun.

        That film scarred me for life.

        1. I agree that the songs are very far from R & H’s best.

          The film had a cop out ending when a young US airman was killed off so he didn’t marry a girl of a different race.

        2. “washing that man right out of her hair” was sung by Mitzi Gaynor.

          “I was almost suicidal by the time I came out”…..had they locked you in? :o)

          1. When you’re a lad of that age and you’ve paid good money for something you see it through to the end. Quitting isn’t an option.

            Rings a bell that Mitzi Gaynor was a princess and that she had fabulous tits and teeth of the finest pine.

          3. The Regal. The Piv was my local. I passed it on my walk to junior school. I also went to the Hippodrome a few times before it closed in about 1961. The Wallaw and the Regal were the ‘posh’ ones and the last to close. The Buff existed on a diet of horror films. That’s where I made another youthful mistake in about 1961. I went to see Gone With The Wind, thinking it was a western about the Civil War. I fell asleep. I’ve never seen it since to this day.

            The few times I went to the Wallaw in Newbiggin with my cousin were eye-openers. It was like a zoo in the matinees. In Ashington, if the usherette spoke to you or shone her torch on you, you shut up and watched the picture. In Newbiggin all the kids were chattering and yelling, especially if the projector broke down. When the noise got too bad the usher would come around yelling that if they didn’t shut up, he’d put the lights on. This usually resulted in half the kids stamping their feet in unison on the floor, making a hell of a racket. Then the house lights would be put on, meaning it was almost impossible to see the screen. Ten minutes later, when the turmoil had subsided the lights would go back off – until the next time.

            Newbiggin was ‘different’. 🙂

          4. I never used to like the matinees in the Wallaw.
            I remember I managed to scrounge several posters before I left Newbiggin and, when we moved to Wooler, my Mam chucked the whole lot out!

    1. That news is about a week old, I think. I read it somewhere else. The Telgraph is using it today to get at the government.
      You are right about Bill. He is over the moon . A great believer in space travel he is.

    2. Nothing compared to the pending disaster in the US.

      Trump is continually talking about supporting airlines and payroll tax relief as the way to minimize the effect of any shutdown and seems unwilling to look at unemployment benefits for anyone laid off from the “gig” economy.

      Democrats naturally are staring in the other direction, rejecting payroll tax relief because it doesn’t help the unemployed, they want unemployment benefits.

      Philosophically they are so far apart that compromise is going to be hard to reach.

      1. Whoops I wrote too soon, it looks like Congress have passed a bill supporting sick leave and free testing.

        Maybe the Senate will be persuaded to back it.

        1. On a Saturday? They work on a Saturday?! I recall on my first work visit there deciding I could never work permanently in the USA. All that going to work at 8AM…

          1. We had an official 8:30 am start. A lot of people would be in well before then, including me. I could get a lot done first thing in the morning before the madness of the day started.

    3. Already been there done that Richard. Twice, once with two ruptured discs the other after a hip op.
      It’s the reason why I stopped our three son’s from becoming hard working trades men or builders.
      All three now doing rather well at management level in alternative occupations.
      By the way if you need any replacement pumps for your boat get in touch.

  50. Can someone please help.
    I can’t log in on my computer.
    I tried to change my password.
    The disqus site sent me an email to change the password when i fill in the relevant section it tells me that my email address has not been
    recognised !!
    How daft it that 😕

    I’ve been having a lot of problems trying access the site for a couple of days.

    1. Check that they are not asking for your current password to start the process or the one they gave you on the e-mail they sent
      Fill in in the required details and you will be offered the chance to change your password and as usual you will have to repeat your new password to verify it. Make sure your new password contains the items they want eg capital letters, small letters numbers and asterisks, question marks etc.
      I have had many miserable attempts to change my passwords and I check carefully of what they want to be done. I have failed more than I have succeeded. I hope this helps.

        1. I have much difficulty following the diagrams to fit together items such as hoovers and cheap furniture. I prefer written instructions.

    2. RE, all I can offer is for you to persevere. When I created my ‘Mekon’ ID I fell into a similar loop as you describe: I nearly started pulling out my hair in frustration. Then a day later I tried again, I’m certain that I didn’t do anything different, and hey presto I was allowed in. Disqus must be one of THE most frustrating systems I can remember using and I’ve used some very early systems from the mid 1980s including a BT Merlin Tonto on a dial-up link from home to a computer centre in Derby. The editor we used, IIRC, was called George III and it was a real pig.

    4. Do you mean you can’t log into your computer, or you can’t log into Disqus?

      1. Disgust.
        I can see the emails sent from disqus but when I try to log in after sending me an email it tells me it doesn’t recognize the email ??
        Daft.

    1. They are taking stringent measure and are getting it under control. Population of North Korea is about 28.5M

  53. There was knock at the door at lunchtime. I opened the door just as the postman was turning away. There was a parcel and a letter on the step.
    He said that he could not come within three feet of me. New rule. Parcel was not handed over in person as it would usually have been.

    1. Interesting. I was waing for a small parcel yesterday. I was listening carefully for the bell. It didn’t ring. A bit later I noticed one of those red “could not deliver” cards had come through the letter-box. I am satisfied that he neither rang the bell nor knocked on the door.
      And no, we do not have a dog.

      1. That used to happen to me, but with large parcels the postie couldn’t be arrissed to lug around.

      2. Hermes are the worst carrier in my area. They say they arrived but got no answer. On three separate occasions. I proved the driver to be a liar by providing time stamped video footage of the front of my house.

  54. 317121+ up ticks,
    Radio 4, monetary program, you needed two years NI payments to get a years benefit this I believe was as was before the BIG scam took hold.
    The way I see it currently is if you are holding a full complement of NI stamps, then some, you are surely penalised by the state.
    Will these payments appertaining to this corona issue be payable to our “guest’s” & their lacking of stamps, or along with an insurance number have they been given a full card ?
    Does Submission, PCism,Appeasement cover the need in their case for
    any missing stamps ?

      1. 317121+ up ticks,
        See you are still in a submissive mode, are you wop or frog perchance ?

          1. 317121+ up ticks,
            Topping & logging conifers at the moment, to ward off the
            gove assault on wood-burners.

  56. 317121+ up ticks,
    Surely this issue calls for overseas aid to be diverted to cover indigenous
    overland needs within the UK homeland.
    Any decent governance party would have the welfare of their peoples top of their priorities.

  57. Iraq base hosting US-led coalition troops hit by rocket fire. 3 hours ago.

    A barrage of rockets has hit a base in Iraq housing US-led coalition troops, Iraqi security officials said, days after a similar attack on the same facility killed two US security personnel and a British soldier.

    No casualties announced yet but this looks like the beginning of an insurgency against the US occupation of Iraq!

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/iraq-base-hosting-led-coalition-troops-hit-rocket-fire-200314085616402.html

  58. Occasionally (about 1 day in seven) I wake up in the morning with a bit of allergy – runny nose, some sneezing. Usually an allergy-relief tablet settles things. I’m going to get my tablet now. I hope it works this morning ….

  60. Trying to call the ward to ask how Mother is doing. Impossible to make contact, either direct dial or through the switchboard, as nobody answers the phone – except the time it was picked up & put down again.
    Grr! Not helping.

    1. You will have to do it through the nurses instagram account! It seems that all they do is stand at reception gorking at screens.

  61. 21 deaths now in the UK. [NHS] Will the tube trains stop running in London. Surely they are a major Covid-9 risk for London Commuters

      1. It takes a while to get severe enough to cause death, so the deaths will lag behind the increase in reported cases that took a sudden jump in the past week or two.

      2. 1140 cases now. All 11 new deaths were over 70 with existng health problems The outbreak is taking control now.

        1. It was clear this would happen due to the up to 14 day incubation period. The government is being very complacent. Even the WHO are criticizing them. Withing a 14 we could see several thousand positives and over a hundred deaths

          The governments approach is keep washing your hands and to do nothing else. Clearly this approach has failed. Almost anyone could see it would

          1. I think he is over 70. What is the average age of the overstuffed House of Lords membership.? Will they get priority when the ventilators cannot keep up with demand, and will they get their £323 daily allowance plus expenses if they choose to work from their homes?

          4. Or 26 on 71 May according to one of his front-benchers known for their enormous skill with numbers.

          5. The average in the HoC is the same as Jeremy at 70. The longest serving peer is 93 year old Lord Denham who took his seat in 1949.

  62. As of 9am on 14 March 2020, 37,746 people have been tested in the UK, of which 36,606 were confirmed negative and 1,140 were confirmed as positive. 21 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 have died.

      1. Roughly 600,000 people die each year in the UK. So about 50,000 a month or 1,650 a day. To date CV has added a rounding error to these numbers.

    2. Ten patients who tested positive for the coronavirus have died, bringing the death toll in the UK to 21.

      All of the patients were aged in their 70s or older and had underlying health conditions, chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty​ said.

      The number of people who have tested positive for the virus has also risen to 1,140, an increase of 342 from Friday’s total of 798.

      1. Were they actually given medical treatment, or just left in the reception area?

    1. Is there a risk level at which we run around shouting “We’re doomed – doomed!” ?

        1. What – instead of suicide vests, jihadis will deliberately sneeze and cough over people?

      2. The doomed risk level seems to be when you reach the age of 70 with underlying health problems.

  64. NZ brings in ‘world’s toughest border restrictions’ to fight coronavirus

    Meanwhile from out bunch of clowns all we get is keep washing your hand and we will do something when the time s right, When that time is they never say

    New Zealand will require everyone arriving in the country to isolate themselves for 14 days in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus.

    New Zealand has just six confirmed cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

    But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the new rules, which come in from midnight Sunday local time, will mean New Zealand has the toughest restrictions in the world.

    1. Our government are handlying this ” crisis ” thoughtfully and immaculately. They are NOT a bunch of clowns.
      It must, in any event, be very easy to keep people away from New Zealand. …….it’s a long way away and nobody wants to go there.

      3. I presume you mean ‘All Cruise ships are banned as well’. If all countries do that, there will be scores of cruise ships sailing around with nowhere to dock.

    1. Can we rely on China to tell us the true facts about this disease, the number of deaths and the origin of the virus? Was the virus of Chinese making in their Wuan province Laboratory?

      1. Exactly, in 2016 and 2017, China reported only an inscrutable 56 and 41 flu deaths respectively, according to NHC data.

  66. Coronavirus: Planes turn back mid-air as Jet2 cancels all flights to Spain

    Jet2 planes from the UK to Spain have turned back in mid-air as the airline cancelled all flights to the country due to the coronavirus pandemic.

    The dramatic move by the low-cost airline comes after new infections rose sharply in Spain and the government put 60,000 people in four towns on a mandatory lockdown.

    Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said a two-week state of emergency will come into force as the number of dead rose to 120.

    Jet2, which is is based at nine UK airports, has halted all flights with immediate effect to mainland Spain, as well as the Balearic and Canary Islands, including Majorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Tenerife and Fuerteventura.

  67. Dont sneeze of cough whilst you are out of the police might detain you under emergency powers

    They will also have the powers to force schools to open should the heads decide to close them

    Additionally, the government can stop “any vehicle, train, vessel or aircraft”, and shut down ports

        1. The police will be wandering round London listening for coughs. They will have no time for burglaries or watching suspected terrorists.

          3. I didn’t think they had time for burglaries or terrorist suspects before this outbreak.

  69. Just to clarify ALL of Spain is now in Lockdown. I assume the FCO will be updating travel advice to do not travel to Spain unless essential

    1. It was never a good idea to make the whole world interdependent. Only one domino needs to fall. Food, borders, banking, blaady everything is now linked and there is no resilience. But we knew that on this site!

  71. State of Alarm Declared

    Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Friday that the Cabinet would meet tomorrow and approve the implementation of a state of alarm in the country, for only the second time since Spain returned to democracy in the late 1970s.

    Article 116 of the Spanish Constitution describes three legal categories for emergency situations: state of alarm, state of emergency and state of siege (in Spanish: estado de alarma, estado de excepción and estado de sitio).

    The head of the executive has announced the adoption of this exceptional measure for a period of 15 days, and it is aimed at combatting the spread of coronavirus infections among the population. Should the government opt to extend the time period, it will need the approval of the lower house of parliament, the Congress of Deputies.

  72. Hindu group hosts cow urine drinking party in India in belief it will ward off the coronavirus

    A group of Hindus hosted a cow urine drinking party in the belief it wards off the coronavirus.

    Many Hindus consider the cow sacred and some think the animal’s urine has medicinal properties.

    This has been refuted by experts, who assert that cow urine does not cure illnesses like cancer and there is no evidence that it can prevent coronavirus.

    The “party” – hosted by a group called the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (All India Hindu Union) at its headquarters in the country’s capital – was attended by 200 people.

  73. Our Bill in just over a fortnight…………….

    Dear diary,

    Day
    19: Only have tinned kiwi fruit, tinned pineapple, and pizza bases
    left. The full horror is only just beginning to dawn on me.

    1. …woke up from a nightmare where I was eating a huge marshmallow to discover that my mouth was full of toilet tissue.

    1. But, Minty, one has to ask, what else is slipping through without notice – and I’m not even talking about today’s gilet jaune or South African White Farmer murders?

      A very welcome deviation for the Fake News MSM – Bastards.

    2. Easy stories for lazy journalists.

      They don’t need to get off their backsides to fill a paper or a news programme. Doesn’t matter if it’s not accurate, because they can invent something else for tomorrow.

      Look on the bright side. We’ve not heard about ginger and the missus for a couple of days, so it’s not all bad.

        1. They told us when they were first bringing out 24 hour rolling news that it would enable them to bring us more news and keep us better informed. I didn’t believe them then and I was right not to.

          It’s simply allowed them to reduce the news to one story while ignoring all others, spread across all outlets and repeated on a 15 minute loop with occasional updates for days on end.

          We are less well-informed now and there are fewer news stories presented to us than there were in the days of a 15 minute bulletin at 6pm and a half hour at nine o’clock. Mushroom management.

  78. Why is there a world-wide shortage of toilet paper ? Has someone cornered the market ?

  80. We have been banned

    No travel to the states now

    The US is to extend its European coronavirus travel ban to include the UK and Republic of Ireland.

    The ban will begin at midnight EST on Monday (04:00 GMT Tuesday), Vice-President Mike Pence announced.

    President Trump’s travel ban on 26 European countries, members of the Schengen free movement zone, came into force on Saturday.

    Mr Pence also announced that free coronavirus testing would be provided for every American.

    Speaking at the same news conference, President Trump said he had been tested himself and expected to get the results in the next 48 hours.The US is to extend its European coronavirus travel ban to include the UK and Republic of Ireland.

    The ban will begin at midnight EST on Monday (04:00 GMT Tuesday), Vice-President Mike Pence announced.

    1. I got in touch with my inner self today.

      That’s the last time I use 1 ply toilet paper.

    2. I got Wimbledon tickets this year, might be more use as toilet paper if they ever arrive.
      At least they are court one tickets..

    3. People who stop at the exit of escalators to decide what to do next, blocking the way.
      People who leave their mobile to ring for ages before answering.
      People who, after a 20 minute drive to the pub, reply with “I don’t know” when asked what they want to drink.

      2. People who stop in front of you for no reason when walking along a pavement.
        Socks sticking to the soles of your feet just after you’ve taken your shoes off
        Toilet rolls (sorry PT) put on the holder the wrong way round
        People who say aks instead of ask
        “Do you want anything else at all“?
        Being asked “What was your name?”
        Being asked “How are you spellingthat?”

        I’m not sure there are enough pixels to complete my list.

        1. ‘Aks’ is commonly used by Brummies.

          I had to aks someone which was the buz for the horsepickle.

      1. She would have gained more kudos and street cred if she had said it was the first time she had sex in that corn field.

        Like me…aged 13. :o)

      1. Bert and Ada are locked in Windows 10! I am unable to post!

        Now using Windows 7 …..sweetie…x

    7. Apropos ‘Happy Hour’ my brother, James, God love him, ran a pub in Holbeach Hurn and, when someone asked him, “James, should we have a happy hour” his response was:

      “Happy hour? Happy hour? We might have a less miserable 15 minutes.”

  85. Latest news – Thousands of shoppers were disappointed today when they queued for the Dublin roll on roll off ferry only to find that there was no toiler paper available

  86. Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause disease in animals. Seven, including the new virus, have made the jump to humans,but most just cause common cold-like symptoms.

    Two coronaviruses – Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) – are much more severe, having killed more than 1,500 people between them since 2002.

    ,,, and how many have been killled by Stabby Stabby Incomers in London, in the same period of time

    Answers Please Ms Crestfallen Craniumhead and Sad Dick Khant

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-symptoms-covid-19-what-infected-advice/

  87. Funny Old World

    Amid the furore of border closures and MSM hysteria it seems to have been forgotten we have had the perfect test lab to ACCURATELY observe infection rates and mortality rates

    I give you the original petri dish the Diamond Princess

    “Cruise ship outbreak helps pin down how deadly the new coronavirus is

    Outcomes suggest that, in the real world, about 0.5 percent of COVID-19 infections in China end in death”

    https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-outbreak-diamond-princess-cruise-ship-death-rate

          1. Having read the article now, yes. So the mortality rate across the whole population was tiny even though the average age of passengers would have been higher than nation wide and cruise ships being excellent environments for illnesses to transmit.

    2. I said at the start they should all have remained on board as it would give us a huge amount of data on the virus.

  90. I noticed in the park today as i was walking Dolly quite a few hundred thousand tadpoles in the deep swampy puddles. I am now the proud owner of a tadpolarium.

    That’s the slug problem dealt with.

      1. When i stripped out my bathroom and had it remodeled i had the loo on one side with a cabinet above and opposite the sink with a large mirror above. I had these positioned so there was a large enough gap to the wall to take two nine packs of bog rolls. Roll holders are so yesterday. :o)

    2. Except Grizzly who thinks you’re all stoopid.

      I personally think that the front-flap makes more functional sense – but what do I know? I only advised business how to make it all run smoother and thus minimise costs and maximise profits.

      D’ya know what, they paid me £500 a day for that (practical) advice.

  92. Emergency Legislation to be passed through Parliament on Monday

    Mass gatherings WILL be banned from next weekend and police allowed to arrest coronavirus victims who break emergency rules:

    The unprecedented move puts key summer events such as the Glastonbury Festival, VE Day commemorations, Chelsea Flower Show, Wimbledon tennis championships, the Grand National and Royal Ascot under threat.

    1. It emerged last night that hospitals could stop treating the most severely ill coronavirus victims if the outbreak escalates.

      Patients with a poor prognosis may even be taken off ventilators in favour of those with better survival chances.

    3. It emerged last night that hospitals could stop treating the most severely ill coronavirus victims if the outbreak escalates.

      Patients with a poor prognosis may even be taken off ventilators in favour of those with better survival chances.

      1. It’s not a “may be”‘ they will be taken off the ventilators if their prognosis is poor irrespective of what they are suffering from. If it gets really bad age maybe another factor in who gets the ventilators.

    1. Did anyone actually drink it? I think people used to take the same can to ‘bring a drink’ parties knowing that no-one would open it, then take it home again and repeat at the next party. While at the party, they would drink the booze that someone else had brought.

    3. It was as a direct result of this utter dead, filtered, CO₂-injected, chemical-laden piss produced by Watneys (and other so-called “breweries”) that a group of students started the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA): the most successful consumer organisation ever.

      1. I’ve posted this before, some Nottlers knew The Barley Mow, a camra pub near St Albans. Back in the early-mid 70s.
        In the gents they had a large white board for thoughtful graffiti with felt tip pens supplied. (And toilet paper 😊)
        Somebody wrote this…..
        Why is drinking Watney’s Red Barrel like making love in a punt ?
        Below……..’cos it f***ing close water.

        1. And very true, Eddy.

          CAMRA actually started up in a St Albans pub. It might even have been that one.

          1. Yes indeed.
            I know the cellar was flooded and it was quite damaged around 20 years ago.
            It’s a great shame now grizz it’s a private dwelling. Unless as it seems on Google earth last year, I think it’s been demolished.
            Look for Barley Mow Lane Tyttenhangar st Albans.
            We nearly bought the house near there when we were first married. Infront of the village hall there’s a children’s play ground, next but one with the black Audi and the white car on the drive.
            It needed too much work and I was working in London at the time. Too busy.

        2. If Red Barrel was piss, and it was, then what the hell was Watney’s Starlight?

      2. I now have a beer machine that allows me to use 2 litre ‘Torps’ in a ‘Sub’ and it delivers, chilled Affligem or Newcastle Brown – my current beers of choice from Beer wulf.

        This may seem anathema to you, George but, having lived abroad for many, many, many years without the benefit of proper British Bitter, I now find that it hangs very heavy on the gut, hence my liking for high volume Belgian beers – and I’m NOT talking Stella but the one I’ve identified earlier, plus Leffe Dark and a few others beside.

        I just ask, don’t curl your lip and recognise that there are other tastes apart from your own.

        And then there’s this:

        BEER BY SEVEN YEAR OLDS

        A handful of 7 year old children were asked what they thought of beer.
        There were some interesting responses, but the last one is especially touching.

        ‘I think beer must be good. My dad says the more beer he drinks the prettier my mum gets.’
        –Tim, 7 years old

        ‘Beer makes my dad sleepy and we get to watch what we want on television when he is asleep, so beer is nice.’
        –Melanie, 7 years old

        ‘My Mum and Dad both like beer. My Mum gets funny when she drinks it and takes her top off at parties, but Dad doesn’t think it is very funny.’
        –Grady, 7 years old

        ”My Mum and Dad talk funny when they drink beer and the more they drink the more they give kisses to each other, which is a good thing.’
        –Toby, 7 years old

        ‘My Dad loves beer. The more he drinks, the better he dances.One time he danced right into the pool.’
        –Lily, 7 years old

        ‘I don’t like beer very much. Every time Dad drinks it, he burns the sausages on the barbecue and they taste disgusting.’
        –Ethan, 7 years old

        ‘I give Dad’s beer to the dog and he goes to sleep.’
        –Shirley, 7 years old

        AND THE BEST RESPONSE

        ‘My Mum drinks beer and she says silly things and picks on my father.
        Whenever she drinks beer she yells at Dad and tells him to go bury his bone down the street again, but that doesn’t make any sense.’

        –Jack, 7 years

        1. Whoa, whoa, whoa, Tom! Where have I sneered at anyone else’s (including yours) choice of beers? I haven’t.

          All I have done is retold a bit of factual history about how CAMRA came into being. Traditional British cask-conditioned bitter (and mild) ale disappeared in the 1960s and was replaced by a concoction that brought breweries a lot more profit. Prior to this proper beer was made of only four ingredients: water, malted barley, yeast and hops. It was a living entity and its production and storage was carefully controlled. It was served in prime condition from a cellar at a controlled temperature. The yeast content provided not only its alcohol content but its preservation and its character. It was a living drink.

          Certain big breweries employed chemists who taught them how to dupe a discerning drinking public. Once the beer had brewed, they filtered all the living yeast out of it. They then chilled it, added a cocktail of preserving chemicals, and stored it in kegs. It could keep in this inert condition for years. To serve it, a canister of CO₂ was attached, which filled it full of gas and it was then served as a substance resembling beer but not the real thing. Watney and Whitbread were amongst the first (and worst) culprits for this abomination.

          The sterling efforts of the founders (and members) of CAMRA brought about a revolution whereby proper cask-conditioned (and bottle-conditioned) beer was again available to discerning drinkers.

          I have no problem at all with many of the beers produced in countries like Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic, for example. Their beers are every bit as good, in their own way, and as delicious as British beers. Moreover, Germany has a pure beer law, the reinheitsgebot which ensures that only the four previously-mentioned may be used in the brewing process. I have enjoyed many examples of such beers over the years.

          What I do hate though, apart from the chemical-laden inert keg beers I mentioned earlier, is the plethora of British “lagers” that are manufactured “under licence” in the UK. Most of these are a pale shadow of their continental counterparts and contain as many rogue ingredients as keg beer.

          In no measure was I “curling my lip”, I was just stating that I adore proper beers and not the abominations foisted on us by many despicable British firms, who are only interested in a quick profit.

          I can buy a number of British bottled beers in the Systembolaget. They are OK but I still make a beeline for a decent British pub on my trips back to the UK.

          1. Unreal Ale was popular with publicans, as it required no skill in managing volumes with consumption, and it didn’t need work with spiles. It lasted forever, and was the same “flavour” all the time.

          2. It’s probably because you have such high standards, George. Or more likely that you’re an opinionated Northerner. >>>>>>>>>>>>runs and hides…

    5. Ah yes, the stuff that was ever-present at many a party in the 70s. The same tin that is, as no-one would drink it.

  97. I see Anne is up and about. At least she’s ticking up a few and not ticking them off. Well done, Anne. All’s well we hope.

    1. Fine. My one down side is having to get a nurse to unhook me from the drip when I go to the loo.
      I WILL NOT use a bed pan!

      1. Don’t they have them on those little mobile stands that look like hat racks anymore?

        Glad you survived the anaesthetist’s potions.

      2. You’re amazing, for once in your life, you take OUR advice and KBO. Hugs from everyone here (I’m sure).

      3. When last in Addenbrookes the nurse admonished me for wiping the shower/loo room floor with hygienic wipes to clean the shit off the floor (left by a brain addled drunk called Keith) then scolded me for taking a shower. She told me that the exertion involved in taking the shower was forbidden by the consultant. Bi-lateral pulmonary embolism plus double pneumonia.

        Am ‘self isolating’ at present for fear of being infected by this latest gift from China and also, allegedly, Bill and Melinda Gates working closely with the Clintons. Old Gates knew all about viruses with his crap operating system. When I ran his wretched Windows 95 I was constantly advised that I had performed a ‘fatal exception’ and that my computer would be shut down.

        Switched to Macintosh and never looked back.

    1. #police to be given the power to stop anyone in possession of more than 4 toilet rolls

    1. That is great, thanks. Disappointing it is not his own voice. Was that from Carmen Jones ?

    1. But the Red Arrows do it better – and faster – and closer.

      I’m not biased though, Johnny (Only 10 years, Royal Air Force.)

      1. Three years ago, I watched the Frecce Tricolore put on a show off the Adriatic Coast. They were superb and, in my view, the equal of the Red Arrows. I do not say this lightly, having spent 25 years in the RAF, including time at a station where they were based.

  103. Boris & Andy are wrong say hundreds of Scientists

    A group of 229 scientists have written an open letter say the government approach will put the NHS under additional stress and rik many more lives

    The signatories also criticised comments by Sir Patrick Val-lance

    1. It’s not me and Boris; it’s the country’s chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser. Stop lying about what’s being said.

    3. It is of the nature of things that whatever anyone does, a mass of experts will come out to criticise.

  104. Well, after a trip to my local Sainsbury’s (a large store in Selly Oak, Birmingham), I shall remember this day as:

    The Day of the LOCUST(S)

    1. I lived in Gillott road for five years. Was rather pleasant then. I wouldn’t go there now. Locusts are the least of the problems.

    2. Although Sainsbury’s arrived in Selly Oak after I left, I have fond memories from when visiting my Mom’s, in Selly Oak.

        1. Apologies, I did not make that very clear, I left Brum when Jack and I married and moved to Essex. We then moved to US in 1979 and visited Selly Oak regularly until my mom died.

  105. – The more this corona panic malarkey goes on the more my hunch about the real purpose for that huge household waste incinerator the council built down the road appears to becoming a reality

    1. I hope someone makes sure that you are dead before they throw you in.
      (Many a true word spoken in jest ?)

      3. I recall a problem in Łódź, Poland in the early 1990/2000s when the local ambulances seemed to be surprising death traps for those being transported.

        A 36-year-old Polish paramedic has been charged with killing a patient in order to sell her body to a funeral parlour.

        The case is the latest development in a grisly scandal which has shocked the nation.

        The paramedic is charged with killing a woman with an injection
        Some medical workers in the central city of Lodz have been accused of taking bribes in order to guarantee funeral parlours first access to dead bodies.

        http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3323663.stm

  107. Message just received from our surgery

    ……. Medical Practice have made a decision to convert all face to face appointments to telephone consultations to protect our patients and staff during the corona virus outbreak . If you need to speak to a doctor please email us at smp.help@nhs.net. Alternately you can call the surgery. Any coughs, fevers respiratory problems please call 111. We appreciate your cooperation at this time. Many thanks

  108. Following the BBC News programmes both on Radio and TV, I am certainly worried about the problem of Covid-19 being transmitted rampantly amongst the population through the churches and cathedrals.

    But what is remarkable is there is no such similar problem with the more more tightly packed and heavily attended mosques – at least, that’s what I am making of the fact that mosques have never been mentioned.

    1. Better keep quiet about that. We don’t want to be told that all our womenfolk have to wear black facecoverings to keep the lurgy away.

    2. ‘Evening, Lewis, we can only hope…

      As the Irish say, “Live in hope and die in despair.”

    4. I posited a few days ago that the high number of COVID-19 cases in Italy might be because of large numbers of old people attending small, crowded churches every day. I then posited that the same might be true of Iran (but with mosques, of course).

    1. ”
      People over 70 will be instructed by the government to stay in strict
      isolation at home or in care homes for four months, under a
      “wartime-style” mobilisation effort by the government likely to be
      enforced within the next 20 days.

      It is part of a series of measures being prepared by the prime
      minister, health secretary, chief medical officer and chief scientific
      adviser to prevent the health service from “falling over” and to save
      lives as Covid-19 becomes an epidemic in the UK.”

      An Armageddon scenario, to save the NHS, with saving old people’s lives as
      a possible side effect.
      Haven’t the media learned from Brexit that Project Fear does not work ?

  113. Just returned from a meal out to celebrate our wedding anniversary. I have to report the Italian restaurant was 75% full but the visit to the micro pub on the way home was a quite affair.
    I am not sure how this translates to the British attitude to this bloody virus, I think a last muted hurrah before lockdown.
    All in all a very pleasant evening, I told Mrs VVOF she was a lucky woman to have me, but she knew that already!!!

        1. I recently finished transcribing my Grandfather’s memoirs of the 1st World War. He joined up in Spring 1914 and it all sounded fairly pleasant until August.

          2. That’s lovely. You sound similar to us. I can’t think of anything major that I would change in my life.

        1. We have near where we live it’s always crowded. And a micro brewery not too far away.
          The Italians have a great ethos when running restaurants.

          2. I agree whole heartedly.
            We have had some wonderful holidays in Italy.
            One in particular was 2 years ago in Sorrento.
            We stayed in a wonderful hotel over looking the bay across towards Naples and mount Vesuvios. My wife and both of her old school friends were all 70 at the time and six of us had a fabulous meal out surounded by lemon trees.

    2. A recent BBC broadcast revealed that population longevity in the UK is now showing a downturn.
      Even ignoring the outlook of more COVID deaths in the ageing population, pension fund managers are looking forward to significantly lower payout projections.

      1. This was inevitable as we boomers come to the end of our boom.

        For years the media have been repeating the nonsense without giving a thought to what they actually were saying that ‘We are all living longer’ and being modern meeja types they never check their facts. They just parrot the thing they heard the day before from someone equally as stupid. The fact is that average the age people live to has changed very little in recent decades, since we started to benefit from the NHS.

        The average age of the population has increased though, partly because child mortailty is no longer an issue, but primarily because there was the baby boom. Through the 90s, and 00s this large bulge of people of roughly the same age grew progressively older, pushing up the average age. In the 60s and 70s this same group of people held the average age down.

        These boomers are now in their 60s and 70s and like others of that age are starting to drop off the perch, causing a slow down and eventually a decline in the average age of the population.

        We were never ‘all living longer’. There was just a large number of us all getting older at the same time.

        1. I think it’s likely that the generation now in their 40s and 50s may not live as long as the boomers and their parents, largely because of obesity and the problems it causes.

        2. On, the other hand, we do tend to live longer, and in better health, than those of our parents’ generation.

          1. My mother lived to 97 and her little sister passed away last week aged 100. It wasn’t Covid19. Aunty was OK on Monday but didn’t wake up on Tuesday.

          5. My dad died at the age of 88. Born 1913. He would have lived a lot longer if he didn’t have to go into a hospital with a minor injury and come out again three months later in a coffin, weighing half of what he was when he went in thanks to the marvellous ‘care’ they gave him, and he wasn’t overweight then.

            My mother almost made it to 88. Only a couple of months short of her birthday.

          7. Get your stents in quick.

            My father made it to his late 70’s before he had a bleed on the brain. He had had emphysema for 40 years after working at Smiths crisps. My mother died in a car crash aged 52.

          9. She was driving back from a Sunday night at the bingo. She had not long passed her driving test. She lost control on a very wide and easy road and crashed into a bridge. They suspected she was lighting a cigarette.

            My father never forgave himself for not going with her that night.

            Thanks Sue. It was a great shock at the time but as they say…Time heals. You never forget but it doesn’t hurt so much.

      2. Funerals are going to be very cheap. One…two.. and up to the top of the communal bonfire pyre with us.

        2. Certainly, valuable space could be saved by burying the dead standing up.

          Anyway, it would look much smarter on Resurrection Day – all formed-up in close-order.

          2. That is the funeral i have arranged. Hessian sack and into the pit with a tree planted on top. I’m hoping for an Oleander.

            There is a place near me that do it and it is a rather pleasant place to visit. Unlike graveyards.

          4. I’m fairly sure I’ll be turning into some sort of a tree when my time comes, probably ash.

          5. Indeed. Some graveyards are not pleasant places to visit, especially for folk of refinement, who are sensitive to coarseness or social indelicacies.

            I blame the rude forefathers of the hamlet, who sleep in them.

    4. On the plus side, it’ll wipe out many of the “child-refugees” from the Middle East.

  116. Latest news – Thousands of shoppers were disappointed today when they queued for the Dublin roll on roll off ferry only to find that there was no toilet paper available

  117. Double Awkward

    “Now the news programmes want the scientists to show all the data models and explain them.

    When this hiatus is over, let’s demand the same burden of proof from the Climatologists”

          2. I must confess I never watched it, but GA was good in The Fall.

            Maybe I should have said Cagney & Lacey or Scott & Bailey.

  118. 317121+ up ticks,
    Personally i find the conspiracy theories cannot hold a candle to the governance parties and their talk of us going on a war footing and talk of
    property being taken over, no telling what that could result in, probably making housing planning objections illegal & commencing on a build for the worlds homeless program, on their past record nothing good anyway.

    1. To believe in a conspiracy theory, one must first believe that the alleged conspirators have the wit, wisdom and competence to carry out the conspiracy. That is why there can never be a government conspriracy!

      1. 317141+ up ticks,
        Morning Eda,
        If wit be treachery then the lab/lib/ con coalition party are well versed & able.

  120. All that the Covid-19 coronavirus has demonstrated in the UK is the fragility of the NHS to cope with a pandemic. It also demonstrates the government’s view on the apparent expendability of folk over 60.

    Without folk over 60 the snowflakes would lose the Bank of Mum and Dad because most sentient older folk will have made wills in favour of the PDSA and Cats’ Protection League rather than fund the hedonistic lifestyles of their wretched offspring.

    1. Surely many now ”sentient older folk” had a ”hedonistic lifestyle” themselves in the 1960s – 1980s ?

      4. Some did. I did not, more’s the pity.

        Edit: The children of wealthy parents indulged, much the same as nowadays when only the offspring of wealthy parents can afford to wallow in the mud of Glastonbury.

        2. Dad used to be something of a hippy when he was 20, but it would be impossible to believe it now without seeing the pics !

    3. IIRC, the Canine Defence League was renamed the Dog’s Trust because modern yoof don’t know what ‘canine’ means.

    4. It is going to be very interesting to see how the US manages.
      Will the uninsured masses have any effect on the numbers infected?

  121. Norway going into Lock down from Monday

    All ports and airports will close from 08:00 Monday

  122. TUI cancelling cancelling flights to Spain, Cyprus, Malta, Tunisia, Italy and Jamaica

    1. I told those sods I would never fly with them again in 2010 and 35 foreign holidays later I’ve kept to my word. If they were the last company in the world offering flights I’d stay at home.

  125. Isis travel advice to terrorists: avoid EuropeThe
    Isis terrorist group is steering clear of Europe because of the
    coronavirus. Having previously urged its supporters to attack European
    cities, the group is now advising members to “stay away from the land of
    the epidemic” in case they become infected.

  126. Saturday night TV is pretty grim

    Saturday Night take away is pretty stupid . A good part of it seems to be a free advert for Virgin

    3. Saturday night TV was grim in the days of the Billy Cotton Band Show and it’s never improved. Same old tired singing & dancing variety shows, only the colours and the dress styles differ and these days the plate-spinners and jugglers appear less often.

      This is why I never watch Saturday evening TV before 9pm, if then.

  127. Earlier this evening:

    HardcastleCraggs
    This mass hysteria over a bug reminds me of the ash cloud from Iceland. Both utterly pointless.

    Bob3
    Makes me wonder what they are really up to

    Conspiracy, eh Bob? But then…

    I’ve just been listening to one of the worst programmes that Radio 4 has produced for a very long time. The usually excellent Archive on 4 was taken over by Gordon Murray (“…academic and playwright at the University of Winchester…”), who has been gathering stories from the children of the soldiers ordered to stay on Christmas Island during the nuclear tests of the 50s and 60s. This is a serious story and deserves serious treatment. Instead, it was trivialised with embarrassing 6th form dramatisations inserted between the interviews. What a mess.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gdtx

    The conspiracy? I listened to it just after the 8pm news had reported on the scientists critical of the government’s approach to Wuhan flu and a thought fleetingly crossed my mind: that those in the scientific establishment who are advising the government might see this as an opportunity (admittedly fortuitously presented) to experiment on the public, just as the governments of the past quite deliberately used servicemen, many of them conscripted through national service, to test the effects of nuclear weapons.

    And then I thought “No. We’ve come a long way from then. Haven’t we?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51892402

    2. ‘Evening, William, shades of Porton Down and the research into ‘Cures for the Common Cold’. How we laughed at our extra 6/- a day.

  129. Today I noticed for the first time herd immunity being mentioned on the radio (BBC Any Questions) and in the press (CNN) below.

    This is regular term used in the medical profession and is one of the main targets of the NHS to maintain the health of the nation by ensuring sufficient take-up of immunising inoculations against infectious diseases. A herd immunity target of %take-up of protective immunity is set for all known pathogens.

    Historically, in the absence of inoculations, herd immunity had to be achieved naturally through wastage of those members of the population who were unable, naturally, to acquire immunity to a specific pathogen.

    Unfortunately due to the unavailability of an inoculation for COVID-19 the only hope for survival of the UK herd in the foreseeable future is for healthy individuals to acquire the infection and survive.

    A target of 60% population with acquired immunity I believe was mentioned today on Radio4 as a Government target.

    Those of us who manage to weather the storm through isolation may be able to resume normality when a suitable vaccine has been developed.

    Our future is now primarily in the hands of our snowflakes.
    Let’s hope they can rise to the challenge and refrain from melting.

    Boris will be well aware that the decisions his own Government makes will directly influence the future of his own progeny.

    https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/13/uk/uk-coronavirus-response-boris-johnson-intl-gbr/index.html

    2. So why didn’t the Government introduce segregation earlier than they did? I fear they are now closing the stable door.

  130. Let’s have another look at ACE inhibitors as a potential risk factor for Covid-19.

    It does look from the statistics that it might not exclusively be age or underlying conditions which make individuals in the risk groups more exposed to Covid – 19 but the treatment for the conditions from which they suffer.

    From the British Medical Journal……

    https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m810/rr-2

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8108735/Medicines-high-blood-pressure-diabetes-worsen-coronavirus-symptoms.html

        1. In fact, I was summoned to the GP surgery last Friday for a BP check. Absolutely fine (I have a BP monitor which I use sporadically. 135/72 first thing this morning, which I’m perfectly happy with). Mild sniffles and occasional cough since Tuesday. Chances are I caught CV in the bus on the way home. Or not.

          Meanwhile, our Rector has decreed that all service books will be “wiped with sterile gel after use”. Told him not to be so bloody silly. Quite apart from the fact that they were printed on an inkjet printer, they’ll end up as papier maché. Besides, if they were contaminated, it would merely spread the contamination to the “sterile gel”.

          It’s completely OTT, but I’ve printed single-use sheets with the order of service and the hymns, which rules out the sharing and (unlikely) contamination of service and hymn books…

          If Peston is correct, there’ll only be myself and the Rector there next week. Everyone else will be in lockdown.

  132. Just got back from an excellent night at the pub, with great live music. Average age was probably 50ish. The folks who saw it to the end were probably 60ish.
    I sneezed when I walked in to a worried, and then jokey, bunch.

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