Saturday 28 March: Who authorised the police to stop rural animal-feed delivery lorries?

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),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be blacklisted.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/03/28/letterswho-authorised-police-stop-rural-animal-feed-delivery/

752 thoughts on “Saturday 28 March: Who authorised the police to stop rural animal-feed delivery lorries?”

  3. Comparing the PM now with Churchill in 1945

    SIR – Alastair Pringle’s comparison of Boris Johnson with Winston Churchill (Letters, 25 March) is misleading.

    Churchill’s defeat in the 1945 election was exceptional because it took place while we were still at war, during which political activity was forbidden. The embargo was lifted temporarily, but only Labour ran an effective campaign among the Forces.

    Brian Foster
    Shrivenham, Oxfordshire

    SIR – Churchill lost the election in 1945 because he had put Labour in charge of the Home Front, thereby legitimising many of its policies.

    He also allowed pro-Labour propaganda to be communicated to the Forces in the run-up to the election in the form of “education”. My late father recognised it as such and objected to using it with his troops. He was threatened with a court martial if he did not.

    Andrew Wauchope

  4. Am I alone in thinking there is something profoundly corrupt about the way the contract for producing emergency ventilators was given to the prominent offshore Party donor James Dyson, whose device is still on the drawing board and unlikely to get into production for a while?

    Gtech, a similar vacuum cleaner maker based in Worcester, has a cheap working prototype and was fully geared-up for starting production this week. Furthermore, they were willing to let the patent go all over the country and the device simple enough to produce in bulk where and when it was needed, without costing the taxpayer any more than it had to.

    Gtech was rejected by the official procurement managers. Why?

    1. Could it be that it is because the crises isn’t real, the deal with Dyson is just corvid 19 propaganda and they will never be made?

      1. At the moment, I am giving the Government the benefit of the doubt and respecting the lockdown.

        It has stuck me though that this may be a simple flu or an aggressive common cold going round, and that the “mild symptoms” presenting in such folk as the Prime Minister and the Prince of Wales may be the usual manifestation of the illness. I would like to see the figures for death by causes other than Corvid-19 and how they compare with that from previous years.

        1. For such a terrible virus that has been around since December the figures are no different by all accounts, I haven’t got the figures to hand.
          Unless there is something we do not know about it seems this is just another globalist power grab.

          1. The reported symptoms bear an uncanny resemblance to this thing I caught off the village choir’s accompanist back in November, and again for a second bout after a morris dance weekend in December where two of the participants had it and shared it around.

            I still have the fatigue and a slight cough today.

            It was a year earlier that I went down with what could have turned into pneumonia (there was a deathly rattle in my lungs and I was very poorly) but was ultimately diagnosed as bronchitis and cleared up after a course of penicillin and some serious bed rest.

          2. Most of us i dare say have had the flu at sometime in their lives, this bug is nothing like that, far less severe and debilitating.

          3. I don’t think my D-i-L would agree with you Bob – she has it and says it’s 10x worse than the flu

          4. If you look at the figures that are available it would appear that deaths double every 2 or 3 days. The government is rapidly converting a building to “Nightingale Hospital” to take thousands of new patients and also planning to commandeer Birmingham Airport in which to place all the anticipated bodies. But, hey, it’s just little more than the common cold, isn’t it Bob3? How long will you continue to peddle your conspiracy theories and what will it take to make you take this virus seriously?

        2. Why could the contract have been shared between them? Or is that too complicated. Surely having 2 companies manufacturing them is better than 1! But then it seems to me that government never does anything the least expensive way, it’s always the most expensive.

        3. The official British government figures for death by ‘flu are:

          Winter 2016/17 18,009
          Winter 2017/18 26,408

        4. The official British government figures for death by ‘flu are:

          Winter 2016/17 18,009
          Winter 2017/18 26,408

      2. Or perhaps it could be because some decisions are still being made by the Civil Serpents. Both are conspiracy theories. Hopefully we shall find out the truth when all this is over.

    3. Is it a matter of scale? Dyson are manufacturing at least 15,000 in Wiltshire, with more going overseas. Would Gtech have been up to that level of production?

      ‘Morning, JM.

      1. A good point, but as someone else pointed out, why not both models?

        Dyson’s large scale central operation may provide the numbers eventually, but Gtech’s small scale flexibility and its licensing to sheds in villages would get the technology into many more places while they are waiting for Dyson to tool up.

    4. That occurred to me too! Dyson is One of Them. I am so fed up with seeing the same old group of people continually passing all the good things around among themselves. Continually photographed at parties, at Buckingham Palace, at Downing Street. As though they are the only people in Britain, and the rest of us consist only of forelock-tugging merry peasants!
      The royal family probably don’t even realise that there are any other people in the UK. No wonder they’re morphing into spineless lefties – they never meet any other kind of person!

    5. GWho?

      The mantra used to be that you never get fired for buying IBM . Why go with a less well known company when you can take the cautious route?

      1. GTech actually make very good cordless vacuum cleaners. My mother has this little hand-held jobby that she uses to sweep up crumbs in the kitchen.

        1. I’ve had one of their carpet sweepers for 15 years and it’s brilliant – had to get another battery about 6 years ago though

  5. Good Morning Folks

    Another bright sunny start, no frost though but a bit of a cold breeze.

  6. Just spotted this in the comments BTL today’s letters:

    Robert Spowart
    28 Mar 2020 4:04AM
    The actions of Derbyshire Police can be summed up by the Common Purpose mantra of “Leading Beyond Authority” and are what we must come to expect from a Police Farce with its upper echelons stuffed with “bumps to the front” diversity box ticking “Graduates” of Common Purpose training schemes.

    (How did her get access to the letters so early?)

      2. Sadly, we live in an era where, for reasons of diversity, certain groups of people are given undeserved priority for promotion, Labour’s Woman Only shortlists for example, and the Police seem to have this “thing” about over-promoting the likes of Cressida Dick etc. simply because they tick the right boxes on the diversity checklist.

        The downside of this is that many women who really do deserve their promotions are treated with suspicion.

    2. ‘Morning, JBF, the letters are (supposedly) published at 00:01 so should have been up over 4 hours before BoB made his contribution.

    3. Woke up to pump bilges, realised I was not going to get to sleep, so came down for an hour so I didn’t disturb the DT.

      1. You seem to have got to today’s letters page by four am.. i couldn’t get there until about half past six.

  7. Just spotted this in the comments BTL today’s letters:

    Robert Spowart
    28 Mar 2020 4:04AM
    The actions of Derbyshire Police can be summed up by the Common Purpose mantra of “Leading Beyond Authority” and are what we must come to expect from a Police Farce with its upper echelons stuffed with “bumps to the front” diversity box ticking “Graduates” of Common Purpose training schemes.

    (How did her get access to the letters so early?)

  8. Royal Mail deliveries under threat due to union dispute over posties’ ‘key worker’ status. 27 march 2020.

    Virgin Atlantic to seek millions in state aid amid Covid-19 slump. Fri 27 Mar 2020.

    The postal service has admitted soaring absence rates may lead to “reductions in services” after union leaders urged staff to call in sick rather than risk contracting coronavirus on their daily rounds.

    Staff are also unhappy at being made to deliver “pointless junk mail” and fear a lack of protective equipment is putting them at risk of catching the disease, union sources said.

    Personally I have thought “junk mail” should have been stopped these last twenty years. There are sound moral and ecological reasons for doing so. All of which have been denied because the government must maintain postal revenues to prevent the collapse of postal services.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/27/royal-mail-deliveries-threat-due-union-dispute-posties-key-worker/

      2. Remember he only owns a small part of Virgin Atlantic.

        A much larger part is owned by Delta Airlines, who are an American carrier and have been offered bail out loans by the US government.

    2. The profitable bits of the GPO were stripped, first the telecommunications under Thatcher (just when these were taking off under major advances in IT) and then the parcels, just when mail order from online retailers were taking off.

      By the time of the Coalition, the Royal Mail existed primarily as a milch cow for Goldman Sachs. The Post Office had a valuable property portfolio what was being let go, for ideological purposes, at a fraction of its true value to a developer with friends in the planning department.

      What makes anyone think they care about the plebs?

  9. Did anybody else watch “Pilgrimage to Istanbul” last night?

    Fascinating programme with good scenery, churches, ruins, etc. & an interesting & simpatico team.

    Then the Beeb has to spoil it by dropping a miserable Kotzbrocken like A. Childs in the midst of it all.

    1. ‘Morning, Peddy. I was put off by the word ‘Celebrity’ in the title, but perhaps I should give it a go.

      1. ‘Morning, Hugh.
        I recognised Fatima W., the Egg Woman, the dreaded Childs & that was all. The rest were like complete strangers to me.

        1. The first 10 minutes were taken up by meeting at the destination airport. Once they got going it became interesting.

          2. Ah, but that is an entirely different situation. So would I, probably, unless they were prepared to speak German.

          1. ‘Celebrities, My God, Aren’t They Thick!’

            Would be a great title for a TV quiz.

  10. Keeping children home from school doesn’t seem like the right tactic to me, anyone that has had children will know that all the sore throats, coughs and sickness usually kicks of a week or two after children have returned to school after their holidays.
    What will happen what they all go back?

    1. One of the medications I was on said avoid contact with children.
      I guess that was because the drug was compromising my immune system and that children were a disease spreader.

    1. Downgraded from AA to AA-

      Is downgrading of debt a good thing or a bad thing?

    2. If the Tories are the party of big spending and big government, I have no reason to vote for them. Ever.

    1. ‘Morning, Belle. I missed your birthday yesterday, so a belated Many Happy Returns! For once, the ‘handwashing song’ had some purpose…

      1. Morning Peddy

        I did mean nithering .. Adjective. nithered (comparative more nithered, superlative most nithered) (Scotland, Northern England) Very cold; shrivelled with cold. [ from 17th c.]

  13. This Covid-19 pandemic appears to be more of a war against peoples judgement and intelligence the world over.

  14. Deary me, the thin blue line is coming in for a lot of stick today. (The DTel didn’t publish my contribution, but it was covered by the other letters.) All a bit one-sided – if only we had a resident ex-cop who normally defends his former profession with great vigour!

    1. Well deserved stick. This country has always had its Warden Hodges; sadly they’re now being given a free rein.

  15. Morning all

    SIR – We are a business that is carrying on during the current events. We supply animal feed. We get daily deliveries by large commercial vehicles.

    Suddenly, yesterday, drivers of two vehicles said they had been stopped on the road by police inquiring about their business. This is a waste of resources and unacceptable to me.

    What is going on, who authorised this and why?

    Reginald Chester-Sterne

    Beaulieu, Hampshire

    –– ADVERTISEMENT ––

    SIR – Getting some exercise in the fresh air is allowed under coronavirus restrictions and is important for both physical and mental health.

    Government advice to the BBC is that making a journey (by car) to do so is permissible, as long as rules on social distancing and the size of groups are followed.

    However, some police forces have decided to ban such journeys. Derbyshire police have castigated people walking in pairs in the Peak District. But Staffordshire police, who also cover the Peak District, are complaining that people are exercising in the town of Tamworth, instead of going into the countryside where there is more room.

    Advertisement

    This epidemic is limiting very basic freedoms and the vast majority of us accept this. But such curtailment of individual liberty needs to be by transparent rules, not by the grace and favour of individual chief constables.

    Pete Dean

    Formby, Lancashire

    SIR – The police really do have a remarkable talent for directing their scarce resources in the wrong direction.

    If you drive to a deserted spot and walk your dog – alone – you are no danger to yourself or others.

    Anthony Whitehead

    Bristol

    SIR – Police fly drones over lone self-isolating walkers in Derbyshire, while planes from all parts of the world continue to arrive in the UK and passengers are not screened for virus symptoms or monitored in their subsequent isolation.

    James Thacker

    Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire

    SIR – Are we to believe that the chief constable of Derbyshire is a reincarnation of Warden Hodges from Dad’s Army?

    Dr Robert Walker

    Workington, Cumbria

    SIR – Helen Wynne-Griffith suggests (Letters, March 27) that to ease the social-distancing dance on the pavement, we should all walk on the right.

    It would be preferable to revert to the sensible old convention that people facing the traffic should walk on the outside of the pavement, where they can see what’s coming, while those walking in the same direction as the traffic should walk on the inside.

    Sir Harold Walker

    London SW14

    1. I wonder how many people will develop DVT’s caused by lack of exercise and moving around in this long period of self confinement?

      1. They can move around in the houses. It’s the bedsit people who have my sympathy.

    2. “…the chief constable of Derbyshire is a reincarnation of Warden Hodges from Dad’s Army?”

      Except Warden Hodges looked better.

  16. SIR – Earlier this month, I wrote about the need to test NHS staff to allow them to continue to work (Letters, March 18).

    There is still no Covid-19 testing here for NHS staff or their families. We have just lost another partner for two weeks because their son has a temperature. It seems you can only get tested if you are a celebrity or royalty.

    Dr Christopher M Keast

    Pangbourne, Berkshire

    SIR – In 1939, the government set up the Emergency Public Health Laboratory Service at sites throughout the country, in the face of potential microbial attack. It later became the Public Health Laboratory Service, specialising in detecting causes of microbial diseases.

    It developed into a major contributor to microbial diagnostics, with cutting-edge techniques, and set world standards of testing. By the 2000s, it had about 50 laboratories throughout England and Wales that were always available when and if a major outbreak occurred. It was largely abandoned shortly afterwards – suddenly seen as incompatible with the structure of the NHS.

    Perhaps we should regret the loss, and consider that investment in a nationwide integrated microbiology system may now be needed again.

    Michael Coles

    Cambridge

  17. Morning again

    SIR – My daughter walks dogs for working clients. She has put this on hold as requested, but some clients have offered to continue paying to help her through this most difficult period. She is a single mother with two teenage children.

    David Howden

    Lymington, Hampshire

    SIR – I think that Richard Cutler (Letters, March 26) has hit on a great scheme for helping, if we can afford to do so, self-employed people that we usually deal with. While self-isolating I shall continue to pay my cleaners as a form of cash-flow assistance.

    Pete Hamilton

    London SE3

    SIR – Now that they are eligible to receive 80 per cent of their profits, many of the self-employed will be wishing they had declared more of their earnings.

    John Hinchsliff

    Sutton-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire

    1. On a similar note, it is clearly unpatriotic to cut one’s own hair at home. I shall wait until the hairdressers open again!

      1. #Me too. I got a visit to my Turkish Barbers for a very short haircut just before the drawbridge went up.

          1. My hair was cut short, beard trimmed & shaped, hot towels, etc. – it took the best part of an hour & 2 cups of delicious tea.

      2. Anyone know of any black market hairdressers? If my hair gets any longer, I’ll be tripping over it.

        1. Haven’t you got a pudding basin at home?

          🙁 Keep forgetting my own resolution to spend money, which goes against all my instincts.

  20. Good moaning.
    We have discovered why, this year, we have no frogs visiting our pond.
    The bloody fox is killing and mutilating them as they arrive.

      1. Dahling; this is peaceful, spineless Blighty.
        We aren’t allowed to defend ourselves.

    2. We’ve had a great year for frogs and toads heading down to the lake.

      And now, by totally random unconnected coincidence, there are zillions of tadpoles !

    2. A very public spirited sacrifice in providing a well defined control cohort of non-distancers for the benefit of now and future epidemiologists , I salute their contribution.

        1. Quite so, Anne. They believe Allah will protect them and CV-19 only infects kough-fars …..

          ….. I’ll get me Benylin.

    3. Where are the spy drones, and the small-minded Hitleresque coppers revelling in their new draconian laws? Oh wait…

  22. I had my thinking cap on earlier about all those children being taught at home, why don’t they put all those schools programmes from the 60s and 70s that they used to show, that I only saw when skiving a few days off.
    Although they might be a bit advanced for modern children

    1. It’s a potentially dangerous drug, caution is in order. But yes, perhaps it’s the answer.

      1. The people in control want the epidemic to run its course, kill and damage people, reduce the numbers of the elderly and sensible and trash the independent economy. Big business will bounce back , but bigger.

        1. Canadian doctors are being warned that they face serious repercussions if it is used to fight coronavirus. Giving people hope is off the agenda.

    2. The Grauniad is running a sob story today about how people who regularly take this drug can’t get hold of it now, even though it isn’t licenced for coronavirus, (and potentially will die, because of Trump mentioning the drug…orange man bad).

      I can sympathise with this rotten luck, until they start moaning and trying to push an agenda.

      1. ‘Morning Hugh, sorry, but he’ll never wear that one – it’s the Queen’s Crown. The King’s crown doesn’t dip down to the middle.

        1. ‘Morning, Nanners. I was waiting for that. You are, of course, perfectly correct but my skills for compiling or altering memes are in a minus quantity.

  27. From the ONS…

    Main points from latest release. The provisional number of deaths registered in England and Wales in February 2020 was 43,653; this represents a decrease of 13,053 deaths in comparison with the previous month and a decrease of 2,143 deaths in comparison with the same month in 2019.

    1. 317478+ upticks,
      Morning TB, & belated birthday greetings,
      These dangers were warned of as far back as 2005 in rhetorical & book form by one tagged as being a far right
      activist / racist, that is Gerard Batten.
      He was titled thus by many supporting / voting for mass
      uncontrolled immigration parties leading to the raising of the submissive, PC, Appeasement umbrella and the birth of the new parallel nation.

    2. I wonder if something similar was happening in Derbyshire while our police were busy monitoring dog walkers???

      1. Well, we know the above gentlemen will not be exercising dogs. (Unless their 4 wives are exceptionally plain.)

        1. Derbyshire Police reported that many of the cars are registered to Sheffield residents, which is one of the reasons I am not criticising the walkers.

    3. Morning Belle, May they share it freely amongst themselves and may Joe Public avoid them. Result – benefits claims slashed and vulnerable English girls’ safety improved. As with other rules of society, presumably these males think membership of their ‘religion’ protects them and exempts them from complying.

      2. 317478+up ticks,
        Morning Mib,
        If only your views were shared at the ballot booth
        regarding those importation parties ie lab/lib/con
        & their mass uncontrolled immigration policies.

        1. If you’re suggesting voting for Ukip, they’re never going to be elected to anything anymore, their day has been and gone. They had my vote in the past but not any more.

          1. 317478+ up ticks,
            Mib,
            You do seem somewhat techy this morning, in it’s present state I do agree with you regarding a UKIP vote and the ersatz, treacherous Nec, I as a long term member would note vote for them either.
            By the same token I would definitely NOT vote
            for the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition party the purveyors of many of our troubles & woes to date, the toxic trio taking treachery to a new level on the backs of fools.

          3. 317478+ up ticks,
            Mib,
            I last voted after the ersatz Nec actions, for an independent with the near mindset as me.
            I refuse to kiss X a lab/lib/con candidate in the polling booth and condone their actions.

    4. This lockdown situation is really highlighting how the law doesn’t apply to “communities.”

  29. The provisional number of deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending 13 March 2020 (week 11) was 11,019; this represents an increase of 124 deaths registered in comparison with the previous week (week 10). The average number of deaths for the corresponding week over the previous five years was 11,205.

    2. So, 186 deaths down on 5 year historic average, and the same goes for weeks 3 to 10. Odd, when you consider we’re in a pandemic, even though the data’s only up to 13th March.

  30. Neil Ferguson, the scientist who convinced Boris Johnson of UK coronavirus lockdown, criticised in past for flawed research. 28 March 2020 • 7:00am

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f35b104b329c4d6511b33b774e70dbb665a35c6bbdcbf2df3604c4aa273642a9.jpg

    Professor Neil Ferguson, of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College in London, produced a paper predicting that Britain was on course to lose 250,000 people during the coronavirus epidemic unless stringent measures were taken. His research is said to have convinced Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his advisors to introduce the lockdown.

    This is the guy Cochrane was ranting on about last night. In fact it may very well be Cochrane. They have a lot in common. Being wrong for example.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/28/neil-ferguson-scientist-convinced-boris-johnson-uk-coronavirus-lockdown-criticised/

    1. Sooner or later, the military of most countries will be forced to “shoot to kill” these morons.

      1. And then, decades afterwards, be hounded by parasitical lawyers and compensation seekers.

    3. It’s probably worse in France than it is here in the UK! Both for activities and keeping it out of the news!

  32. Taking a pause to battle with the DT puzzles and Crosswords. Back later – be nice (except to trolls who are best ignored).

      3. J walked down to the local shop this morning to get our ( we only have the Saturday one) so he got his exercise as well. He said the main road was absolutely devoid of any traffic.

  33. Saw this on F/B

    Well……..the planes ✈️ have stopped, cars 🚗 have stopped, the world 🌍 as a whole has pretty much stopped and the Co2 levels have dropped!
    Yet the farmers haven’t stopped. 👏They’re still getting up to milk the cows 🐄 , the lambing 🐑 sheds are in full swing, the cattle 🐄 are still being fed, the crops are being drilled, yet the CO2 has dropped.
    Maybe agriculture 🚜 isn’t quite as bad as the media have been making out …. maybe the world 🌍 isn’t going to end because of our livestock 🐮🐷🐥🐑🐄 maybe, just maybe, agriculture 🚜 is actually going to be the thing to save everyone when this world 🌍 needs feeding …..we cannot import avacados, coconut milk and mangetout from South America! ….eat local.eat fresh…🐄🐷🐑
    #supportbritishagriculture 👍#keepbritainfarming 🚜🐮🐷

    Copy and paste in support of our farmers
    👏👏👏👏 it hit home

    And as the farmers won’t get migrant workers to help with the fruit and vegetable harvests this year, maybe the government should enlist those claiming unemployment benefits to national service (harvesting), to help keep the food supplies getting to the shops and keep feeding the nation.

    1. Very good point.
      Obviously, the farmers have been working 24/7 inserting corks into their livestocks’ backsides.

    2. ..and school kids can be levered from their devices to actually do some hard work. If there is one thing that we should learn, it is that we should be more self sufficient, but we already knew that on here!

    3. The Bavarian government asked everyone who lost their job due to the virus to do crop harvesting – even if it wasn’t their normal status. I wonder how many millennial consultants whose business has suddenly dried up, will take them up on the offer.

      1. They will be wondering why the apples and blackberries they were promised to work with are hanging on trees and bushes.

    4. If all those volunteers for the NHS aren’t needed, perhaps they can help the farmers out…

      1. When we were up in Spalding in February, we saw gangs of workers out in the rain picking daffodils.
        There are some jobs that I would happily leave to others!

    5. Well McCornick of the Scottish NFU suggested a couple of weeks ago that hospitality workers could be useful on farms. That would apply especially to soft fruit farms. As far as I can tell the Scottish Government have entirely ignored this.

  34. News from France:

    Figures for domestic violence have risen considerably.

    The police are getting thousands of calls a day. A lot of people phoning to report that their neighbours are not respecting the rules.

    I suspect that similar is happening on your side of the channel.

    2. Is it not just that they are practising Apache dancing in an effort to keep fit in the current emergency without going out and mingling?

      Appearances can be deceptive.

  36. Virgin Atlantic to seek millions in state aid amid Covid-19 slump. Fri 27 Mar 2020

    Virgin Atlantic is applying for hundreds of millions of pounds in state aid to keep afloat during the coronavirus crisis, after the chancellor told the stricken aviation sector this week he would consider assisting firms on a case-by-case basis.

    Morning everyone. Of course he just called him at random.

    Hello Dick how the missus?

    She’s OK Rishi. How’s Akshata ?

    She’s OK. Her dad’s down to his last billion so I’m just thinking of bailing out anyone who really needs some cash!

    Really? Well if I need any I’ll give you a call. Lol!

    And so it goes!

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/27/virgin-atlantic-to-seek-millions-in-state-aid-amid-covid-19-slump

    1. Never was the phrase ‘Virgin on the Ridiculous’ more appropriate than now…..

      Morning Minty et al.
      (Taking a break from watching Twilight of the Gods being streamed by the Met -only anther 4 hours to go….)

      1. I really enjoyed the Inspector Morse episode “Twilight Of The Gods”, but why on earth are the Metropolitan Police streaming it to the nation?!?!?

        (Good morning to all NoTTLers, btw.)

  37. Andy Cochrane has been getting snarky about people not reading the Imperial College Corona paper. So I did, and here are a) my thoughts, and b) the email I just sent to Ferguson, one of the authors:
    (Posted on Friday’s nttl, copied here so it’s visible)
    From the Imperial College report, Summary section:
    We estimate that in the absence of interventions, COVID-19 would have resulted in 7.0 billion infections and 40 million deaths globally this year.
    Some points immediately jump out.
    1 the world population according to https://www.worldometers.in… is 7.8 billion. So, pretty well everybody would be infected in 2020 if no action is taken – seems a bit unlikely.
    2 the expected fatality rate would be 0,6% (40m/7b)
    3 the same link shows expected deaths based on historical data to be about 56 million (14+ million to date over 3 months)

    So, based on their modelling and, as far as I can tell without access to their references, only one paper with infection statistics (I’m guessing these to be Chinese, but don’t know for sure), if we do nothing, pretty well everybody in the world will be infected, and the death rate will be double that usually found.

    I am surprised that they do not comment on their input data, as this is key to their findings. Bias, misreporting and fraud would likely have a significant effect on the predicted outcome. Likewise, with such an important study, I would expect a sensitivity analysis of the input data to be carried out, but this has not been reported. I have emailed Neil Ferguson to ask about these points, and await a reply.

    Email:
    I read your paper with great interest, as I sit in “lockdown”, and three things jumped out at me that I would like to follow up and I cannot see are covered in the paper. I would be grateful if you could comment.

    1. The paper does not comment on the input data. This is key to the findings. Bias, misreporting and fraud would likely have a significant effect on the predicted outcome.
    2. Likewise, with such an important study, I would expect a sensitivity analysis of the input data to be carried out, but this has not been reported.

    Do you also have a reference as to where the models used have been tested and validated against other, previous, infection spread historical results?

    I apologise if these points are covered in the references cited – I do not have easy access to them for review.

    ⁣Best wishes / med vennlig hilsen
    Dr O Berstleutnant

      1. It’s got a pile of explanations to do. But as the paper is apparently being used to guide stratey, I feel it needs tested.
        Put it this way, this level of missing info would not be tolerated in a nuclear safety case fracture assessment.
        Also Andy believes it is The Truth. I’m keen to see how true.

    2. It was much ado about nothing Oberst. The original article in the Washington Examiner that created the furore was quite reasonable for a tabloid and contained no undue references to either Fergusion or the Imperial Study.

    3. ‘Morning, Paul.

      I would be interested to know if any sort of study is being made into the role of nutrition in the susceptibility to the virus & its effects.

      Probably not – nutrition is the poor relative of medicine.

      1. I believe wine has a medicated effect on the body and it is important to consume regular ammounts.

        2. Good Morning, Johnny

          As a Lancastrian, you might appreciate Michael Broadbent’s obituary. He was a delightful man whom I got to know in the late ’60s and lived to be 92.

          Michael Broadbent, oenophile who brought wine auctions back to Christie’s and became a leading figure in the industry – obituary
          The quintessential English gentleman, he tasted on average five different wines a day for half a century

          https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/03/27/michael-broadbent-oenophile-brought-wine-auctions-back-christies/

        3. Alcohol destroys vitamin C, which fights infections & repairs damaged tissues, so should be taken in moderation during illness.

          3. Didn’t know that, Peddy, so thanks for the advice. I am told that one glass of wine each day with my main meal is an acceptable amount. Must go to the shops to find some of those giant wine glasses.

            :-))

    4. There has been financial support for Imperial College from Open Society historically.

      Just by random coincidence, Gordon Brown who appears to be friendly with Soros called for global government a few days ago.

  38. SIR – My wife and I, both in our seventies, have signed the completion on the sale of our house. But our move to France, a long-held dream, has had to be put on hold.

    We now find we cannot get our removal company to move and store our furniture, as all removal companies have been banned from working.

    We asked our purchasers if we could store our furniture and belongings in the large garage next to the house until removal companies are allowed to work again. We were shocked to receive a reply telling us that they refused to do this and would sue us if we did not move out on the given date.

    We do not know what to do now.

    Charles Andrews

    Shaftesbury, Dorset

    1. Are they divorce lawyers by any chance?. Divorce lawyers are the scum of the earth so thank God my wife and I have a happy and secure marriage.

  39. SIR – I would like to praise British Airways (Letters, March 27), and especially Captain Julian Bray and his Boeing 777 crew, who volunteered last Wednesday to rescue us after we had been abandoned in Cyprus by the airline with which we’d booked.

    Dr Peter Sander

    Hythe, Kent

  40. SIR – Our cruise in the Chilean fjords was terminated when Chile closed its borders. With Argentina also shut, we steamed to the Falkland Islands and floated offshore for a quarantine period before docking and catching a charter flight back to Britain.

    I am grateful to the cruise company for arranging the flight, to the Falkland and military authorities for permitting it, and to the friendly coach driver who took us from Port Stanley to Mount Pleasant airport. I now also have a very personal reason for being grateful to Margaret Thatcher and her task force.

    Roger Belle

    Newport, Monmouthshire

      2. ‘Morning, Stormy, probably heavily populated by the Chilean Blue Parrot, a close relation to the Norwegian Blue.

        1. I bet they dont call them fjords though.
          Maybe El vals agua mucho profundo

          1. Nice try. This article mentions the fjords & there are a couple of maps of the southern coast showing all the inlets.

            https://www.britannica.com/place/Chile

            South-central Chile, with a lake and forest region, is temperate, humid, and suitable for grain cultivation; and the southernmost third of the country, cut by deep fjords, is an inhospitable region—cold, wet, windy, and limited in resources. The economy of Chile is based on primary economic activities: agricultural production; copper, iron, and nitrate mining; and the exploitation of sea resources.

          5. Ah! Nitrate mining. Some long time age we imported wine from the Nitrate Corporation of Chile. Actually it is guano from the islands off the coast.

          6. Most of the nitrate (saltpetre) mining was in the north, in the Atacama. Sulphur was also mined there. I visited the area 10 years ago, staying in San Pedro de Atacama & Iquique & walked around Humberstone, now a national heritage site. The minerals were transported to the coast by rail where they were loaded on to ships for export in Iquique. You can still see the remains of the jetty where that was done.
            The waters around Iquique were where Captain Nemo in his Nautilus lay in wait to sink the ships carrying their deadly cargo after they had left port in Jules Verne’s fiction, “20,000 Leagues under the Sea”.

            https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nitrate-towns-chile

          7. Yes, thanks. However it’s not as amusing as buying wine from shite-shovelers.
            PS – We also bought wine from Courteney Wines, a business owned by Durex.

      7. That part of Chile also has excellent salmon fishing to rival anywhere in the world, as I learned from a rather grumpy fisherman after he’d had an expensive and disappointing day on the Tweed.

  41. It is only a random coincidence that the DG of the WHO called for massive international aid for “poorer countries” due to C-19.

    In the same way that Soros called for massive international aid for “poor countries” due to alleged climate change.

    With Soros friendly Gordon Brown calling for World Government.

    Who would run the world and dole out the billions in aid ?

    Soros and Brown ?

    1. I’m sure Tony doesn’t stray far from his phone and would just jump at the chance. Blair Witch would be world queen of course, a close run thing with Eddy Izzard.

    2. Charity = the transfer of money from the poor in rich countries to the rich in poor countries. That’s not going to change anytime soon.

    3. Those administering this massive international aid need to be renumerated according to the going market rate for top executives in the U.S. and made legally watertight by expert corporate lawyers, all of whom have to be paid. There also has to be proper diversity and equal opportunities monitoring and enforcement, and their top executives and consultants have to be adequately paid and their pensions made secure against any breakdown in the value of the currency they are in.

      There might be enough left in the kitty for a bucket.

      2. Generally speaking, I think only roughly half of international aid gets to the intended recipients.

        The other half apparently just completely disappears !

        1. Half?
          You’re optimistic.
          I’d say the poor are lucky if they get 2% once every layer of charidee workers and bureaucrats have skimmed their cut off.
          It’s only other people’s money after all.

          1. And how much does David Miliband get paid?

            My rule of thumb is not to give any money to a charity where its managers get paid more than I do.

    4. I’m sure Tony doesn’t stray far from his phone and would just jump at the chance. Blair Witch would be world queen of course, a close run thing with Eddy Izzard.

      1. They could have a b!tch fight over whose lippie and nail varnish matched the best.

  42. Good morning all. Does anyone else feel that certain arms of the State are starting to enjoy their new powers a little too much?

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/derbyshire-police-should-leave-those-dog-walkers-alone

    Call me a ‘Covid Denier’ (is that a thing yet?) but I feel that predictions of a vast apocalypse are hugely overblown. Do we go with the Imperial College prediction of 500,000 deaths, or the Oxford University model of 20,000? Do we really trust computer models, when we look at how accurate they have been over the years (climate change, impact of Brexit vote, previous outbreaks like SARS)? I am more worried that governments across the world will take the opportunity to make these ‘temporary’ powers permanent.

    Isolate the 1% of people who are truly vulnerable (perhaps Branson could host them at Necker?) and let the rest of us get on with our lives.

    1. The Civil Service has its own agenda, come Tory, come Labour governments – Kenneth Clarke once admitted as much. And it’s an agenda of command and control.

        1. 317478+ up ticks,
          Morning PT,
          Stalemate, the politico’s that is, stale.
          been in circulation to long, breeds contempt for the electorate,contempt leads to treachery as has been proven.
          A general election every year would not go amiss, change politico’s as regular as an Eskimo changes his underpants.
          Never let a lab/lib/con politico settle in for to long.

    2. I was slightly alarmed yesterday how the phrase “covid denier” was cropping up so frequently in the left wing press (Telegraph, Guardian).
      Personally I prefer “Chinese flu hysteria sceptic.”
      The assumption that there is only one version of events, and anyone who differs from that version is a “denier” – and therefore somehow less worthy of consideration, less human – is very worrying.

      1. Well, we should be used to this by now. If you are not in the posse, it’s you they’re after.

    3. Last Monday an interviewee on the BBC stated “we are expecting 2 million fatalities in the next two months”.
      Why so many?
      Even China has not had that number.

      1. Apparently it’s 5,700 now:

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/

        How can we take any of these predictions seriously when they vary so wildly? And how many of the 5,700 are elderly and infirm people who have been sadly hastened to their end? Surely we can now accept that the majority of people are not at any real risk of this flu and let us get on with our lives?

    5. I don’t have a link, but I was reading that one reason the police were giving was that the individuals:

      Might have a car crash or breakdown
      Might fall and hurt themsleves
      Might get caught in inclement weather
      Might have a heart attack or similar

      This would mean that scarce resources might have to be diverted to deal with/rescue them.

      1. I’m sure that, statistically, more accidents happen at home in the kitchen and the garden, not to mention incidents of marital murders after constantly looking at each other and being reminded of wives’ and husbands’ annoying habits.

      2. At some point, we will be driving the 35 miles to mother-in-law’s house to liberate her supply of loo roll, food (tins and frozen) and cleaning products. She has been living in a care home since December. I must admit, the thought of a jobsworth, power-crazed, plod in his moment of glory stopping us does make me anxious.

        1. Carry a bag of shopping in your car. You are delivering supplies to the housebound.
          A C21 version of keeping packets of cigarettes on display when driving in Communist countries.
          Still, after this latest farrago, any illusions about our wonderful British bobbies will have died the death.

        2. I believe that assisting the vulnerable elderly is permitted.

          When we get stopped here (we’re supposed to be alone unless there are designated medical conditions) so far the gendarmes have invariably been polite and good natured, as long as one has filled in the “attestation” properly. Reports suggest that they are more heavy handed in the cities.

          1. We could also add that we are hunting for her old specs as her current pair are missing. She also needs a few more clothes – that means I will have more naming to do, oh joy!

      3. I’m sure that, statistically, more accidents happen at home in the kitchen and the garden, not to mention incidents of marital murders after constantly looking at each other and being reminded of wives’ and husbands’ annoying habits.

        1. That’s correct. I read that some long time ago. Stairs, step-ladders, standing on chairs, chip pans, slippy little rugs…

          1. Exactly.
            Broke my ankle on the stairs when, outside, the pavements were like glass.
            BT fell off his ladder and knackered his back.
            Elderly chum tripped on a stray mat in her kitchen and lay on the floor all night.

        3. Most people die in bed. Most dangerous furniture there is, can’t think why it is still on open sale.

        5. As has been mooted the results of a lot of those accidents will arrive close to Christmas Day.

  44. Daily Wail struggling I see. They’ve implemented an ad blocker blocker…

    1. It’s an annoying one – even if I pause Adblock before opening a DM link, it still blocks me.

    2. Switch to AdLock. Used in conjunction with Chrome, it bypasses the blocker blocker and it also seems to defeat the DT paywall.

    3. If this is true, looking at that creature, I suspect that she breaks her own ban every time she masturbates.

  46. Funny how badges, uniforms and steering wheels turn normal friendly peaceful peeps into totally different peeps !

  48. Thought for the day:

    Since the first reported death from Covid-19 related causes in the UK, 759 people have died.

    Taking typical live births PA in the UK: since that first death roughly 42,000 babies have been born.

      1. Don’t be too sure.

        What that figure doesn’t tell you is how many will be Islamists and how many will turn into jihadists 20 years down the line.

  49. A man asked a waiter to take a bottle of Merlot to an unusually attractive woman sitting alone at a table in a cosy little restaurant.

    So the waiter took the Merlot to the woman and said, ‘This is from the gentleman who is seated over there’ – and indicated the sender with a nod of his head.

    She stared at the wine coolly for a few seconds, not looking at the man, then decided to send a reply to him by a note. The waiter, who was lingering nearby for a response, took the note from her and conveyed it to the gentleman.

    The note read: ‘For me to accept this bottle, you need to have a Mercedes in your garage, a million dollars in the bank and 7 inches in your pants’.

    After reading the note, the man decided to compose one of his own in return. He folded the note, handed it to the waiter and instructed him to deliver it to the lady.

    It read: ‘Just to let you know things aren’t always what they appear to be, I have a Ferrari Maranello, BMW Z8, Mercedes CL600, and a Porsche Turbo in my several garages; I have beautiful homes in Aspen and Miami , and a 10,000 acre ranch in Louisiana. There is over twenty million dollars in my bank account. But, not even for a woman as beautiful as you, would I cut off three inches. Just send the wine back.’

  50. Off in the car to walk the dog, got our stories sorted if we’re stopped. Might be some time.

      2. My much missed sister used to do that with my last dog, Ben, who she took in when my 1st marriage broke down in the late ’70s.
        After a good run on the beach near Seahouses, we came back over a lane that ran onto a rough untarmacked track and before she reached the rough section would let him out and drive along with him keeping pace beside the car. He absolutely LOVED doing it!

    1. Ah, well, of course. Normal law-abiding people aren’t likely to start a riot or mob-attack the police. Much easier to criminalise the law-abiding than deal with real law-breakers.

    1. And to think we used to scorn the Chinese for having a Police spy on every street to report ‘misdemeanours’……

    2. That’s Harriet’s front door gone! And heaven help her if she tries to go for a walk!

  54. Does anyone else on here find the Everyday Offers on online banking a complete waste of space?

    1. I use online banking only to check my balance. Everything else I have done in the branch.

    2. So far, I’ve had an email from Lloyds bank to tell me how much they love and treasure me.
      So that’s why, when I visited their premises about a month ago, I queued for a good 20 minutes because only 2 out of 4 counters were in use.

      1. ‘Morning, Anne. I feel the urge to puke when having had the misfortune not to avoid telly ads from the banks. Anyone would think they are trying to ape the Samaritans. It is going to take much more than a few fluffy cuddly ads for the banks to atone for their reprehensible conduct over mis-selling, pushing commercial customers into bankruptcy with the aim of seizing their assets and otherwise seeing cutomers as fodder to be fleeced.

      3. I got this in an email from the DT yesterday.

        In these uncertain times, we are currently experiencing a high volume of contacts to our Customer Engagement Centre. We want to provide the best possible service to our readers, ensure our most vulnerable customers are prioritised and our staff are protected. Therefore we wish to inform you that we will close our phone lines from today. We’re sorry for any inconvenience – and we hope that you understand.

          1. I am getting reassuring emails from businesses I have not used for 5 years, and from some sources I have never communicated with.

        2. A wise precaution, H.

          As yet, our epidemiologists are not sure that CV-19 cannot be transmitted down telephone lines.
          :¬(

  55. Coronavirus Act 2020.

    Section 90. Power to alter expiry date.

    (1)A relevant national authority may by regulations provide that any provision of this Act—

    (a)does not expire at the time when it would otherwise expire (whether by virtue of section 89 or previous regulations under this subsection or subsection (2)), and

    (b)expires instead at such earlier time as is specified in the regulations.

    (2)A relevant national authority may by regulations provide that any provision of this Act—

    (a)does not expire at the time when it would otherwise expire (whether by virtue of section 89 or previous regulations under this subsection or subsection (1)), and

    (b)expires instead at such later time as is specified in the regulations.

    So much for sunset clauses!

    http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/7/section/90/enacted

  56. I had my thinking cap on earlier about all those children being taught at home, why don’t they put all those schools programmes from the 60s and 70s that they used to show, that I only saw when skiving a few days off.
    Although they might be a bit advanced for modern children

    1. Good morning Bob3. Do you mean the ones where presenters spoke clear, calm English? The ones where presenters didn’t jump around like hyperactive chimpanzees? The ones where children were treated as intelligent, thinking people? Not a chance, they’ve long since been consigned to the dustbin for being too British.

    3. We homeschooled our children until they entered the Sixth Form. They became years ahead of their contemporaries.

    4. And the BBC Radio For Schools programmes too.
      As well as Singing Together, they did several series of Nature Study programmes that I loved.

  57. DT Story today:

    A snooper’s charter? Police invite public to report coronavirus rule-breakers through online forms
    The first fines have been issued for breaching the Government’s lockdown rules as police defend tactics as necessary to save lives

    At school the word used to be sneak rather than snitch – and sneaks were the lowest of the low just as grasses are the lowest of the low in the criminal fraternity.

    When I was a child in the 1950’s one of the most odious aspects of the USSR was that children were expected to betray their parents by reporting them to the authorities. Personal and family loyalty were held to be of no account.

    Remember Friedrich Engels’s dictum “The family is the enemy of the state and the state will not achieve its full power until the family is destroyed completely.”

    2. Pavlik Morosov.
      Will now become a Hero of British School children under the name of Paul Frost.

    3. Morning Richard

      That lovely childhood rhyme that we all knew ..
      TELL-TALE tit,
      Your tongue shall be slit,
      And all the dogs in the town
      Shall have a little bit.

      1. 317478+ up ticks,
        Afternoon A,
        Great minds, penned & posted my post then saw yours, now suffering feelings of great remorse.

    2. 317478+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      KIds could be in real danger of doing hard time then if
      hop scotch was back in fashion.
      AGHAST, kid found in possession of a lump of chalk.

    3. I don’t even understand what the shopkeeper was supposed to have done wrong here.

      1. 317478+ up ticks,
        Afternoon BB2,
        Used imperial measurements more than likely,
        we are not out yet.

      2. ‘Graffiti’ on public property, not her own property. It is a criminal offence, the law is the law etc etc…..

        1. Common sense is against the law these days. It did say in the comments underneath that no ticket was issued, and the police confirmed that this shouldn’t have happened. But still, it shouldn’t have happened!

      1. 317478+ up ticks,
        Afternoon DB,
        The way I see it is In today’s political pop artist
        he would be considered to be of the right material for advancement, having a truncheon
        ( baton) in his pack, he to could become another dick.
        pop = people of power.

  59. Salisbury Review

    The Prime Minister’s daily press conferences on the Wuhan virus have

    become populated by reporters with about as much diversity of thought as

    a Momentum rally, who are filled with a new self-righteousness and

    superiority over ‘stupid people’ who go to the park or get on the tube

    to go to work.

    When asking their question, they are almost salivating at the

    prospect of the government assuming draconian powers which will give

    them the right to confine everyone in their homes with the police

    patrolling every neighbourhood with dogs and drones, and locking people

    up Chinese-style in a prison hospital if they do not comply.

    All the while, they have summarily failed to ask any

    questions about many real issues concerning the Wuhan coronavirus such as:

    Why did Iran and Italy suffer disproportionately and early?

    Did their involvement in the Chinese ‘Belt and Road Initiative’

    have anything to do with it?

    Was Lombardy particularly affected due to high number of

    Chinese slave labourers working in the fashion industry there?

    Could hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin be effective in

    treating Wuhan Coronavirus, as they were in treating SARS?

    Why are hundreds of illegal migrants, many of whom may carry

    the virus, still being allowed to arrive in dinghies every day after crossing

    the English Channel aided by people smugglers?

    Why are flights still being allowed to bring passengers to

    the UK from virus hotspots like China, Italy, Spain and Iran?

    if you question the coronavirus lockdown narrative you are not just a

    bigot or a xenophobe, you are responsible for people dying – you are a

    murderer. This is the device which has swiftly been fabricated to smash

    down anyone who urges caution against the measures swiftly drafted to

    curtail our liberty in the Coronavirus Act 2020.

    https://www.salisburyreview.com/blog/selling-our-birth-right-for-covid-19/

  61. Many will say globalisation got us into this mess. In reality, it is what will get us out of it. 28 MARCH 2020.

    When we look back on this pandemic, many will say our hyper-connected global world is what got us into this mess but, in reality, it is what will get us out of it. Not only is this globalisation necessary to create the tools needed to fight the pandemic but, as airlines cancel flights, countries seal borders and schools close, the global online world is vital to maintaining a sense of community, normalcy and sanity. This is not just a crutch for the times we live in, but an opportunity to recognize how humanity today can persevere and accomplish the seemingly impossible when we come together.

    The fight back begins lol. The only thing you need to know about this article is that it is not premium!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/many-will-say-globalisation-got-us-mess-reality-will-get-us/

    1. It would help to define ‘globalisation’ before judging whether it is good or bad.

      1. It means working the Soros way, in harmony with savages.*

        *Other definitions are available.

    3. “Paul Davis is Mologic’s chief scientific officer and one of the inventors of the Clearblue pregnancy test. He leads the Centre for Advanced Rapid Diagnostics (CARD), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”

    5. the global online world is vital to maintaining a sense of community, normalcy and sanity.

      No it isn’t. It’s possible to have communications without shipping all your manufacturing to another country on the other side of the world, leaving your own without essential goods or components in the event of supply interruptions, such as in the current situation.

    6. Bugger “sense of community”, I can remember when that actually existed. When kids might have got a thick ear from a neighbour but were pretty safe.
      Bugger “normalcy” as that means conformity. I’ve seldom conformed . My thoughts never have.
      Bugger “sanity” for that way lies the lynch mob and the witchfinder.

      Please “excuse my French”. I am now not merely ready to join an armed insurrection but also to recruit vigilantes.

  62. Deaths down in England and Wales for February and down for March up to March 13 2020 compared to previous years……..

    Can we all go out now please ?

      1. True, but many probably stayed at home so didn’t catch flu or go out on the roads.

    2. Maybe its because the not going to hospital.
      I recall a story from some years ago about doctors going on strike in a country (Italy?) and the death rate dropped….

  63. While I have been sceptical of authority since I learned to talk, and of the “we know best” approach of people most of whom struggle to tie their shoe laces, I have reached new levels.
    The Faroe Islands have 144 reported cases Covid-19. This seems highly implausible. I know that the Faroes are a popular resort in the summer for birdwatchers and the like. This is not summer. So why?

    1. Do they get regular supplies from the mainland, by boat or plane? Do any of them travel to the mainland? I don’t know the answers, or what the incident of C19 in Scotland or wherever the Faroe Islands get supplies from.

    3. I worked offshore with 3 of them, all had the same given name, or a variation on Johannes or something, and they all would drink until they fell over.

      1. Maybe so. I guess that being a smallish community they would be a high priority.
        However, the article posted lower down suggests that the kits are mostly useless. The ones the Spanish purchased from China are, because they are 30% sensitive instead of 80% as is necessary. I suppose that Spain got only the male kits.

    1. The three magic letters – BBC – allied with ‘news’; I’ll stick to Pravda for a dispassionate update.

      1. The report doesn’t say if ventilators were available; it refers only to ‘a stockpile of medical equipment’. Only if they were then criticism is justified.

    2. Lucky fellas. I was in southern Germany some time ago when I got talking to some wizzen old Brit who had been working in the spa in the hotel. He told me that the treatments for ladies included a mud bath. So what is your job, I enquired. I hose them down when they are done, he responded with a big grin.

  69. When this thing gets going, it gets going.

    I live in one of the least densely-populated counties in England, population 300,000 or thereabouts and we maintained zero cases when the rest of the country was taking off, right until the middle of last week, when 4 were reported.

    It stayed like that for a couple of days or so, then last Thursday it went up to 6.

    Over the weekend there were 11.

    Midweek 16.

    As of yesterday 45.

    Still very low numbers compared with the rest of the country, but it’s an exponential curve nonetheless.

        1. I spent a few days up in Northumberland when there was a “brisk” NE coming in off the North Sea.
          Being a southern softie, I am surprised anything can live up there, even this virus. 💨

          1. I once visited Skegness in February when a North Easter was blowing. It was like Siberia!

          2. The prevailing wind is South-west, but I know what you mean. When a north-easterly gets going you know about it. It’s been mild and spring-like all week, but there’s a brisk north-easterly blowing today. Cloudy most of the day, but even though the sun’s shining now, it’s cool (cool in Northumbrian terms, Arctic to the softy Southerners). The sort of day when you don’t mind being in quarantine.

          4. Our youngest son likes “body surfing” off Whitley Bay, all year round.

            I once swam in the North Irish sea, just in trunks, in August.

            I thought I had frozen my nuts into my earlobes.

            Even in an “industrial” wetsuit I can’t imagine how he enjoys it.

    2. Where’s AC when Professor Ferguson needs protecting from online speculation and cynicism??

      1. I think that Andy making a stand defending that report is a good example of what is going on, certainly enhanced by today debunking of this specific report.

        There is so much junk flying around nowadays and I doubt that any of it can be trusted, let alone the rebuttals,reaffirmations and political spin being applied.

        One New York doctor is reported to have said that most people who need a ventilator do not recover, they die after a few days. If the report is to be trusted, that does not sound like just another flu season, maybe just forget ineffective hospital care and give sufferers a few tylenol and a get out of life pill.

        Sorry, I don’t believe in the conspiracy theory, something bad is going on and we have too many “experts” coming up with half baked estimates of what might happen – some might be trying to help!

        Anyway it is all bs. Coronavirus is a devious plot by the extinction rebellion mob to demonstrate that the earth can survive without carbon dioxide, once co2 levels drop below a target percentage the virus will go dormant and XR will claim responsibility and let it be known that restarting industry will revive the virus.

        All hail the doom goblin.

  71. Free as a bird
    It’s the next best thing to be
    Free as a bird
    Home, home and dry
    Like a homing bird I’ll fly
    As a bird on wings
    Whatever happened to
    The life that we once knew?
    Can we really live without each other?
    Where did we lose the touch
    That seemed to mean so much?
    It always made me feel so…
    Free as a bird
    Like the next best thing to be
    Free as a bird
    Home, home and dry
    Like a homing bird I’ll fly
    As a bird on wings
    Whatever…

    The Beatles

  72. As we had to brave the shops today, we bought a copy of the DT – mainly for the puzzles! SWMBO has just shown me the Travel section, which includes an article on Oberammergau and the passion play – the main photo is actually of the neighbouring town of Ettal – you can’t see Oberammergau even in the distance! Very sloppy.

    1. I was tempted to buy DT but its’ so bluddy heavy…with potatoes. milk and braed

      1. I wish you had told us earlier Plum. I’m running low on all three. Still it’s good that the DT is giving away freebies….

      1. That’s ironic. The play was set up to thank God for saving Operammergau from the Plague.

      2. I know – that’s what the article was about! Some friends were aiming to go this year – certainly to the final rehearsals – but obviously that’s all on hold for the moment.

          1. The decision to close the print edition was attributed in part to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, which interfered with distribution of the magazine

  73. My 16 year old told me yesterday that she quite likes me being at home. After I had recovered from this touching tribute, she explained that her friends are complaining that their mothers won’t leave them alone – they are knocking on their doors every 5 minutes, and the kids can’t study. Apparently, I leave her alone in peace.

      1. Rebelling against authority these days means demanding that you get lessons on Fridays, instead of attending the mandatory protest (where your teachers probably are as well!)
        Very unpopular it is.
        My eldest daughter became known in the school as a “nazi” because she questioned immigration policy.
        Somewhat ironically she was
        (a) the darkest skinned person in the class and
        (b) the only one whose great grandfather had fought against the nazis in WW2.
        But it didn’t stop her being attacked by teachers and toadies alike.

    2. My 16yo will end up with vitamin D deficiency and repetitive strain injury. Some beautiful days tidying the garden after winter but no sightings of her before dark yet. I give advice to children only once. After that, its their own lookout if things go wrong.

    2. Your mate will not accept a word said against him and his team.
      Have you even received an acknowledgement of your email?

      Probably not; I doubt they work weekends.

      1. I suspect he will ignore all emails and calls following the DT article – I only just saw it myself.
        Mate? You mean Cochrane? Well, he moaned that nobody read the report and were trolling against it, but when you dig a bit, you find there are reasons to be skeptical, at least, and not accept it at face value without questions. Then the DT come out with others, who (gratifyingly) seem to agree with me.

    3. Now there’s a cost cutting exercise for the DT.
      Head straight for NOTTL to get the information and sack at least 50% of their journos.

      1. I wish I could remember, the label was lost long ago. It would have come, like the rest of my camellias, from Trewithen or Burncoose, in Cornwall.

    2. So dry that I have had to water my blueberries this week – they are in pots – and with little or no rain forecast over the next few days I’ll be doing so again tomorrow. I have about 600 litres of rainwater available so I should be OK for a few months.

      1. Do you get a good crop from them?
        I have wondered whether to get some blueberries. A farmer near us has two fields filled with pots of blueberries, surrounded by a sturdy fence.

        1. I do not get a huge crop but I had enough last year to make several pounds of lovely jam and to eat some fresh with a nice vanilla ice cream. If you live in a chalky area then large pots filled with ericaceous compost and rainwater for watering are a must.

          1. I would need the pots to protect them from slugs anyway. Sounds tempting, I must admit.

          2. Once established they are no trouble except for the watering but check on the internet for pruning.

          1. Mine are in a cage to keep the blackbirds, mainly, from scoffing the blueberries and the redcurrants.

          3. Not only a sturdy fence, but an electric fence as well. Those badgers are determined and persistent.

      2. I did some hoeing yesterday and the top surface is so hard because of the winds we’ve had for ages now so also did a bit of watering of newish plants.

    1. This time of the year they drive people mad with their courting shrieks .. We were plagued with them where we previously lived years ago.. The wretched things annoyed everyone , I just don’t know why people breed them .

  78. Scientists discover three new species of pterosaurs in the Sahara, 28 March 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a7844d964081bf356ac89d102e2ed6eb1433820a53af842791203c556195fd5.jpg

    Prof David Martill, a palaeontologist at the University of Portsmouth, made the discovery with a team of researchers from Morocco and the US.

    The study, published in the Cretaceous Research journal, has revealed a community of pterosaurs that inhabited prehistoric Morocco.

    Killed off no doubt by an outbreak of Dinovirus!

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/mar/28/scientists-discover-three-new-species-of-pterosaurs-in-the-sahara

    1. There are quite a few old Terror-saws alive today…(judging from the headlines…)

  79. Why are so many of these senior politicans, Royalty and high profile celebrities apparently only getting a mild dose of the virus?

    Are they being treated with something not available to the masses?

    1. Or maybe, contrary to what the Daily Mail, BBC et al would have us believe, catching it is not a death sentence unless you are very unlucky indeed.

    3. Gosh, yes. As I posted yesterday about our Royal Heir. He is bang in the so-called “vulnerable” group.
      the long analysis about testing t hat is posted below makes me wonder if there are two or more things going on. Normal flu as is common at this time of year, and the Covid-19 which has a higher mortality rate.

        1. One would hope so, as he has instant access to the best doctors on the planet. No standing in the cold outside a doctor’s surgery waiting in a queue for it to open in mid-January, kind of thing.
          But, as I have posted elsewhere, there may be different viruses going round. he may just have had cold.
          Someone posted a long analysis earlier suggesting that the the testing kits cannot tell the difference.

          1. Being fit also requires not being a greedy beggar, or a couch potato. If it was that easy, Britain would be a nation of slim 72 year olds, rather than blob city!
            Give the man his due 🙂

      2. It is known from the Chinese that there are two strains of the virus – one rather more serious than the other.
        Also, I would assume that those in authority, as it were, are monitored much more closely than the rest of us.

        And I do bet that the Spanish Royal Family are not subjected to the “over 65” filter the poor citizens of Madrid are faced with.

    4. Statistically speaking you are much more likely to have a mild dose than something that sees you interred!

  81. As a lonely sad bastard I had no idea getting pissed out of your brain was so boring….HIC!

    Back to sobriety…………………anyone want 6 cases of medium dry…?

  83. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/27/church-england-launches-first-lgbti-chaplaincy-service-make/
    “Church of England launches first LGBTI chaplaincy service to make Christianity a ‘safe space for all’ ”

    LGB I understood and the expression had some scientific legitimacy. Then they added ‘T’, not for the minute proportion of true transexuals, but to encompass those who psychologically could not contemplate having and understanding their homosexual leanings. It became another banner for the left and a nice little money spinner for the surgeons and therapists. Now they seem to have added an ‘I’. What on earth is that about please?

    1. Interchangeable i.e. first one thing and then the other. Of course the interchangeability could be intermittent. Aye, aye.😎

        1. Only if you’re thinking of two sexes and I thought that was very yesterday. Isn’t sexuality now rather like the idea of the ‘multiverse’, lots of bubbles of it floating about and doing its thing?

          3. Bi, tri, quadri all leading to multi which blends well with culti. Hurrah, destination arrived at!

    2. Still not compatible with Christianity though. It is hard to read the Bible and conclude that homosexuality isn’t a sin.
      Safe space it may be, Christianity it ain’t.
      Every Christian has to come to terms with being a sinner, this lot want to move the goalposts.

      1. Yes. Christ’s teaching is completely devoid of any hint of collectivism or relativism.

        1. The sanctions on homosexual activity are in the OT, not the Gospels. The Gospels do however condemn divorce, it only being allowable apparently if the wife strays, as it were. Otherwise it’s a case of “…God hath joined, let no man put asunder”.

    4. They muddled up LBVGTI, which is a very nice port wine specially bottled for the Volkswagen Golf sales company.

    5. I stand for indifferent.
      Since we are indifferent to the whole muddled mess, that is the only way we get included nowadays.

    9. Interdenominational?

      Bloody C-of-E doesn’t know if it’s coming, going or vanishing up its fundament.

      1. Rest assured, Sosra, the C of E long since vanished up it’s own fundament, complete with all its trappings of orifice.

    10. So – every CofE building is closed (which flies in the face of the Government guidelines that “places of worship should remain open for solitary prayer.” Most of the church hierarchy appear to have gone into hiding. But there’s time for this nonsense. It’s the same disease that’s behind the drone / chalk / etc nonsense. It’s almost as though it was centrally planned. As if they had a ..er ..common purpose.

    1. Good for you. To say I’m sceptical about this situation is an understatement. It is ridiculous. Can you imagine the MPs and their wives queueing in a biting wind, 6feet away from the next person?

    1. It’s a great pity that the owners of those bins could not be fined 100x the retail value of the food they’ve pitched.

    1. But soft, what scandal through yonder country breaks?

      They are shit stirring and making it up as usual.

      It will not go well for the Press after all their scaremongering.

      They feel themselves to be the arbiters of what we should be thinking.

      They are going to get a wake up call. Soon.

    2. A BTL comment re his son which I thought rather amusing…

      First Corona!
      Now we just got Megan and Harry!!
      Lord have mercy on our souls

  87. George Galloway’s RT news channel loses High Court challenge over £200,000 fine for biased coverage of novichok poisonings and Syria. 27 March 2020.

    Ofcom, the UK’s broadcasting watchdog, sanctioned the Kremlin-backed channel over seven news and current affairs programmes between March 17 and April 26, 2018 which failed the requirement for news to be presented with ‘due impartiality’.

    Two of the sanctioned broadcasts were editions of Sputnik presented by former MP George Galloway which covered the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in March 2018.

    Ofcom is just an attack dog here for the Elites. Galloways refutation of the Skripal Saga is one of the best I have ever seen, hence the prosecution. The Syrian accusation was probably bought in as a back-up!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8160273/RT-news-channel-loses-High-Court-challenge-200-000-fine-biased-coverage.html

    1. RT is “a bought and paid for” propaganda outlet for the Russian government. Trying to cover up Putin’s propensity for knocking off his perceived “enemies” is part of its agenda.

    2. In the politest possible way, may I suggest that you visit Salisbury and try your ideas on a few locals.
      And remind me, isn’t there another saintly politician involved with RT, one Alex Salmond?

      1. Neither of these men are saints. No one is claiming that. Galloway left Dundee just ahead of the police (we used to have police). Salmond’s defence lawyer was quite candid about his client.
        That does not mean that they cannot be clear-headed and right about things from time to time. We may also fairly sure that they are not in the pay of the same people as the Establishment.

      2. I cannot imagine why you would think (as you obviously do) that the locals would support the Government narrative. One of the best and most exhaustive blogs against the story is by a Salisbury local Rob Slane. The Skripal Saga is unusual among False Flag operations in that absolutely no input is required from another source to deny its legitimacy. It is as fake as a £3 note. Not one scrap of it meshes with another in any coherent fashion. It was dreamed up by idiots and carried out by morons. Were we living in a country with a free press it would have been exposed long ago. As to inciting guilt by association in using Salmond’s name I would point out that he has just been acquitted of all charges.

        http://www.theblogmire.com/summing-up-the-official-claims-in-the-salisbury-poisonings-weighed-in-the-balances-and-found-wanting/

    3. Ofcom, the UK’s broadcasting watchdog, sanctioned the Kremlin-backed channel over seven news and current affairs programmes between March 17 and April 26, 2018 which failed the requirement for news to be presented with ‘due impartiality’.

      Which broadcasters haven’t breached “due impartiality” guidelines? Brexit coverage, for example, by the BBC or any other broadcaster??

  88. Peak District’s ‘Blue Lagoon’ dyed black by police to deter visitors on coronavirus lockdown. 28 March 2020 • 12:20pm.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d63597f7f7ae31590653d2df993ec95365a19ee569039e6dc565f3ecaa910ea2.jpg

    The so-called ‘Blue Lagoon’ has been dyed black by police because it has proven popular with walkers despite people being told to stay home.

    At one time this piece of vandalism would never even have occurred to anyone in the UK let alone a policeman to enforce the tenets of the State. It speaks of a country that has neither history nor soul.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/28/peak-districts-blue-lagoon-turned-black-deter-visitors-stop/

        1. So I’ve seen from the wiki entry.

          Interestingly, a petition requested it be drained but the risk to the local water table was deemed to be too great.

          Having read the warnings about the chemical composition and what else is lurking in the waters, my take is let the idiots swim, and may Darwin work his magic.

    3. Saw this in the news earlier. Unbelievable!
      This will be quoted in history books as an example of the coronasteria that reigned in early 2020.
      If Britain wasn’t so overcrowded, it wouldn’t matter that a few people drove out to get healthy sunshine and exercise in the countryside!

    4. They are out of their effing minds. They have no idea of the consequences of their actions.

      They have managed to create a level of universal dread.

      Wait till they have to cope with universal outrage !

      1. 317478+ up ticks’
        P,
        Keep adhering to the same voting pattern & they never will, we have suffered mass murder, mass rape & abuse of kids , mass political treachery / sh!te etc,etc, for years. Come general Election day & mass amnesia settles over many of the electorate.

      2. Soon.. I suppose. Unless we have all been cowed. Maybe they are testing, if we have the blood of Drake, Nelson, Livingston, and Buick?

    9. They do that often there. It’s an old limestone quarry. That water is about pH 12. Idiots still swim in it.

  89. “This is a vital update on Coronavirus” is beginning to irritate me a lot more than ads with mixed race families trying to sell me stuff. Dare I call it overkill? It’s not as if it’s informative. Just endless repetition of you will stay indoors, you will stay indoors. Big Brother commands, you will obey.

    1. They will borrow the LBGT’s pink tank. Resistance will be futile, the rainbow flag flies everywhere, a symbol of friendship and pride…as long as you don’t disagree with it.

  92. I asked what was for supper tonight and our Nellie said caulichower fleas.

    I do hope her cooking is better than her diction.

  94. It would have been my daughters wedding today, daughter number 2 has just put on Gavin & Stacey, the episode where they get married.

    1. I’ll raise a toast to her now.

      I hope the big day, when it comes, will be a joy to behold for all your family

    3. I’ve now raised several toasts; and reading below, so have many others.

      Thus, she should be well and truly blessed, if partially pickled by proxy, and better yet she won’t hear her old man’s eulogy to her youth!

    5. That’s a real shame after all the planning and expectation. Here’s to October and a great day for your daughter and her husband to be.
      I postponed our Golden Wedding anniversary bash earlier this week as the pub/restaurant is closed indefinitely. However, I would have had to postpone as many of the guests were in their late sixties, seventies and several in their eighties in addition to my wife being in the ‘at risk’ category due to her immune system being shot to pieces.

      3. Congratulations on your Golden 🎩 👰 wedding anniversary Korky. So sorry you had to cancel the celebrations.

        1. Thanks, Vouvray. There’s exactly a month to go to the day. We were surprised and pleased that the anniversary fell on a Saturday, bit of a good omen, we thought…

        1. Never too old to enjoy a bit of Quo! When our boys were teenagers, we took them to see Quo at the NEC Birmingham. They were impressed that we were even keen to go!

      5. Congratulations. We have 18 years to go to catch up – but even though Caroline was 26 when we married I was nearly 42.

      7. And here I was thinking the 22 years with my missus was a life sentence.

        Congratulations Korky and Mrs Korky.

        1. Thanks, sos. Looking through the photograph album to find a few pictures to scan was enlightening. My 18 year old bride looked so happy and I was tashless and with almost black hair, oh, and a waist.

          1. 18?

            Wow, you could spot a good ‘un early!

            Tasteless and many apologies in advance.

            You proposed with the immortal words: ” you’re what?”

            We were hitched at 22 and first podded at 24.

          3. We didn’t, or should I say couldn’t, have children until my wife’s wonderful rheumatology specialist and our equally wonderful GP came up with a drug regime and care programme that would work for her arthritis and not pose a threat to the baby. It took 13 years to come up with that plan.
            No offence taken, have another glass.

          4. Then twice (or more) blessed in your marriage.

            I worked with a woman, in the late 70’s, who had crippling arthritis, I don’t think I’ve ever met many braver or more resilient people.

            Her approach to life was humbling.

          5. A friend with ALS died a year ago yesterday. He was always optimistic and faught the disease right to the end.
            I wonder what he would think of our pandemic induced hysteria.

          6. My wife’s approach was that she would be ‘in charge’, not the arthritis, and she pretty much succeeded. She has shown amazing resilience over the years.

      1. 317478+ up ticks,
        Evening Anne,
        Then past the political baton on to what passes as the tory party who did not disgrace themselves in being activist in the anti UK/pro eu
        treachery department.
        Keeping the wretches major / cameron in mind for instance.

    5. Perhaps Anna would have liked no hospitals and the crap that Thatcher and Major left by 1997.

      There was no other way of having the hospitals built.

    1. 0.03% of the population have it, 99.97% don’t, (apart from the fact one can’t trust the “have it” figures.
      ~ 0.00% of the population have died from it.

  97. Flightradar 24 shows, in Norwegian airspace, there is only one aircraft flying – ambulance helicopter at Lillehammer.

      1. Made me laugh…but then i am laughing a lot at the moment for some strange reason. Must be something that isn’t in the air………….

          1. I would not agree. The first few episodes or were OK, but then…

            Only watched it because the Steven van Zandt was good in the Sopranos.

          2. Agreed. It started out with a lot of promise but fizzled away unfortunately.

    1. ha ha
      it was the same in our supermarket too
      Imagine my surprise! as PJW would say.

        1. Ah, you clearly don’t watch day-time TV, with all those middle aged ladies modelling the latest in walk-in baths…

  100. Something very strange is going on

    “My initial question to a serious, unimpeachable Paris source, jurist

    Valerie Bugault, was about the liaisons dangereuses between Macronism

    and Big Pharma and especially about the mysterious “disappearance” –

    more likely outright theft – of all the stocks of chloroquine in

    possession of the French government.

    Respected Professor Christian Perronne talked about the theft live

    in one of France’s 24/7 info channels: “The central pharmacy for the

    hospitals announced today that they were facing a total rupture of

    stocks, that they were pillaged.”

    https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/why-france-is-hiding-a-cheap-and-tested-virus-cure/

    https://twitter.com/JamesDelingpole/status/1243958483537494018

      1. Same as the bags of chlorinated salad salad leaves you buy in our supermarkets. ” Packed in a Protected Atmosphere” = Chlorene spray.

    2. Don’t concern yourself with that, Rik. Sam smith is likely to suicide on his faceache page live !

      I hope…didn’t want to waste all that popcorn…. 🙁

    5. Why on Earth are they calling this a cheap and tested cure? It’s nothing of the sort!

      Maybe because the ginger tosser claimed it, but then he got that info from a cryptocurrency investing lawyer who faked a scientific paper.

          1. Reading the article one can’t help thinking that perhaps the American youngsters thought they were immune and carried on regardless. (Spring break and the like.)

            Darwin is busy at the moment.

          2. The numbers catching it are prob higher in the 18-49 as they are more likely to be out working, shopping, caring etc., and so exposed to catching it but the 65+ group probably shows a higher % mortality rate

          4. What’s missing are the age domgraphics for California, without which one cannot draw any real conclusions.

          5. Photo-appendages 0-17 30%

            Fruitcakes 18-49 15%

            Nutters 50-64 20%
            Hippy nutters, 65 and older 30%
            Unknown or so spaced out that they don’t know if it’s Sunday or breakfast, 5%

  105. If you read carefully you can detect a pulling away from the total scare tactics that are being used. The NHS will be able to cope says a report from Imperial Collage. The peak will now be at the begining of April and not mid may.There are less people going to die than in a “normal” flu year.ETC ETC. It will just run its course as these things do.

    2. The extra power is going to police heads. They will end up causing more trouble not less.

    3. Is this suppose to imply that giving the police so many extra powers has belatedly closed Pandora’s box?

      1. I don’t know. It was a news item.
        The police now have even more power. Power whose limits are undefined. Power over the well-behaved, law-abiding majority, a power far greater than before when they bullied and threatened as a matter of routine.

          1. Ouch! I blunder sightlessly, obliviously, onwards through a mist to an unknown destination.
            You got me!

      1. Yes. However, the vest hanging out over his trousers suggests that he may have partaken of a small libation.

        1. I’m thinking he’d been in a bar and started coughing over the other clients and started bragging about having the bug.

          One phone call later, police arrive and try to save him from his own idiocy.

  110. Measure for Measure

    ROGER SCRUTON

    From The American Spectator, 7th February 2011

    Since 1995, under pressure from the European Union, our Land Registry in Britain has been measuring land areas in hectares, rather than acres. As from now the acre is no longer protected as a legal measure, and all transactions in land must be conducted in hectares. The European Commission has not banned the acre: but it has not needed to, since it has pushed the British people into a corner where their ancient way of measuring and parcelling out land no longer has any real legal standing. This is one part of the ongoing abolition of England, and it offers me an occasion to reflect on the meaning of weights and measures, and on what first inspired the comprehensive decimal system that is now uniform across Europe.

    It began in France at the Revolution, when the decimal system was proposed as uniquely rational, proof that people were able to organize their lives according to Reason rather than Custom. The meter and the centimetre, the franc and the centime, the litre and the centilitre, the hectare and the square meter were henceforth to replace all the old weights, measures, and currencies that had reminded the French of the unexamined ways by which they had lived. Even the clock had to be decimalized, with 10 hours to the day, 100 minutes to the hour, and so on. The Revolutionaries stopped short of decimalizing the months, but were clearly deeply frustrated that they could not boss the moon about as effectively as they could boss the earth.

    From the mathematical point of view there is nothing sacrosanct about the decimal system, which owes its pre-eminence to our human fingers, rather than to any properties of the number 10. As we now know, if there is a basic way of counting, on which all others depend, it is that of binary arithmetic, using the numbers 0 and 1. But what was offensive about the decimal system was not its arbitrariness. It was its despotic intent. The decimal system did not evolve; it did not emerge by an invisible hand from the transactions of free individuals, as the old currencies and measures had emerged. It was imposed from above, by arrogant revolutionaries who despised what was customary and voluntary as a threat to their geometrical conception of society. Through changing the measures they hoped to change the world, binding the familiar transactions in an abstract yoke of pure mathematics.

    You may think the exercise harmless. After all, Americans, who use yards and miles instead of metres and kilometres, and acres instead of hectares, began their independence with a decimal coinage – the dollar and cent, derived from the German thaler. But the old weights and measures persisted in America despite that innovation. Ounces, pounds, stones and bushels, pints, quarts, and gallons, rods and perches, and all the crazy derivatives of those fantastic measures have lasted here as they lasted back home in England. And why did they last? They lasted because they grew from the free transactions between people, because they were marked by human need and human interest, and because no meddlesome official had ever thought he had the right to change them.

    A bushel of corn is just the amount that a single man can carry. A stone is 14 pounds, which is the maximum you can lift without strain. A pint is the amount that will quench the ordinary thirst, and a gallon (eight pints) the largest quantity that can be easily carried on a journey. A pound is 16 ounces, and so can be divided two ways, four ways, and eight ways in even portions. The natural contours of the human body and human relationships can be read in these measures at every point.

    For in-built gentleness, nothing compares with the old English currency, still in use during my youth, and abolished under pressure from Europe when that cold fish Edward Heath decided (alas, probably rightly) that England would be better ruled by Brussels than by him. Since the days of King Alfred the Great it had been established that the English pound – defined by weight – would contain 240 pence. Why choose such a number? The simple answer is that 240 has 18 whole number factors, besides itself and 1 – so that there are 18 ways of dividing a pound among those entitled to a share of it. This is a currency designed for sharing and giving, unlike the decimal system (100 has only 7 whole number factors, and 10 only 2). And the principle of sharing and dividing penetrated our coinage from top to bottom. The pound had 20 shillings, divided into four crowns. But we also divided again, so as to have the half-crown piece, worth two shillings and sixpence, since the shilling was divided into 12 pence (12 having four whole number factors besides itself and 1). Hence the half-crown and the two-shilling piece (the florin) lay side by side in our pockets, both of them heavier than any coin in circulation today. The shilling was divided into the sixpence, the three-penny bit, and then the penny, which was in turn divided into the halfpenny, the farthing, and (though this coin was extinct in my youth) the mite. The array of sterling coins created a kind of compendium of human dealings. It suggested all the ways people could be linked by division and multiplication, rather than by the mean-minded addition and subtraction that define the decimal system.

    Most wonderful of all was the coin that had vanished long before my time, but which was still retained as an item of accountancy – the guinea. This, equal to 21 shillings, had no other purpose than to define a booty in which there could be seven equal shares. Even today horses are bought and sold in guineas, maybe because those involved gang together in threes and sevens, or maybe because the word “guinea” is too closely associated with the horse in the legends of huntsmen and highwaymen.

    Our coinage remained unchanged for a century or more and Victorian pennies still circulated abundantly at the moment when the penny ceased to be “legal tender.” Silver coins survived from the reigns of Victoria, Edward VII, and George V, but they were made of real silver, and therefore rare, since the metal was worth more than the coin. (Hence Gresham’s law, which tells us that “bad money drives out good.”) Losing this precious part of our national life was hard for us, even if easy for Edward Heath. For it meant saying farewell to dealings that made threepence, sixpence, a shilling, two shillings, and then half a crown into thresholds, stages on the way to an agreement, in which we could exercise our social prowess and pause to take breath. Ours was an intricately social coinage that opened the way at every point to the concluding gesture.

    Then came the European directive of 2001, which abolished our ancient weights and measures, and which allowed our Parliament no right to consider the matter. Pounds and ounces, gallons and pints, bushels and stones – all those wonderful, irrational, but humanly intelligible measures were stolen from us. And for what? So that our markets could be “opened to competition,” and our customs “brought into line” – so placing a penalty on our economic life, forcing us to redesign all our scales and packaging, and abolishing all our local ways of doing things.

    There was resistance for a while; one or two butchers and grocers were prosecuted. But we knuckled under, since no one in authority made a move to defend us. Our Parliament is a fiefdom of the political class; it knows on which side its bread is buttered, or rather its tartine est beurre. The great advantage of those top-down edicts from Brussels is that they confer on our politicians the right to be elected, without the duty to do anything in exchange for it. Nevertheless, it still seems to me that our little farm, which we have worked for years to put together from abandoned scraps, is not 40 hectares of Europe, but 95 acres of England. 

  111. A combination on a theme.

    Further to Stephenroi’s comment below about Mary Hopkin’s recording of 52 years ago, combined with my comment yesterday about that audience watching Country Joe at Woodstock in 1969 were 70-year-olds and one or two comments about Bob Dylan’s music, here’s a meld.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Frj2CLGldC4

    2. Not much hope of keeping the French out of our fishing grounds if our forces are unable to stop inflatables manned by non sea farers.

      1. 317478+ up ticks,
        Evening Kp,
        Lest we forget a great % of “our” politico’s up until the 24/6/2016 were pro eu, in my book little has changed, I still see a limited damage to brussels campaign being run.

      2. Well, if the RN can’t stop them, I suggest the Government issue “Letters of Marque” to the private sector, giving ships participating in the scheme the right to attack any fishing boat flying the French flag.

        These ships could be called ….. oh I dunno ….. privateers?

        1. 317478+ up ticks,
          Evening Dm,
          A foreign attack force from the evil empire.
          afafftee for short.

  115. Been out walking most days since the lockdown, did 21/2 hours this morning, all you see is people out jogging or exercising in the parks looking fit and healthy, it doesn’t feel like we are in a country with a serious pandemic.

    2. I’ve been out for a walk every day this week. Admittedly I only live in a small village, but I as surprised not just how few people I saw taking a walk, but how people didn’t even seem to be in their gardens taking advantage of the sunshine. All farm work lso seemed to be at a standstill, when I would have really expected them to be taking advantage of the fine weather to get on with ploughing etc. Everyone seemed to be confined indoors.

      1. Two weeks off, starting next weekend. Farm duty. Try to get something useful done.

      2. I’ve been at work every day, starting at 8am finishing about 10pm. I would LOVE to get outdoors and have a stroll, legal or otherwise.
        Most of the planning is done now so I’ll be working from home this week. My bad luck – even though there might be time for the odd 30 min daylight and fresh air the weather is changing next week.

      1. Looking at the full URL on notepad, it looks like Disqusting has added a lot of erroneous code onto it.

      2. Sorry. I can’t upload actual photo as “I am not logged in” although I am. All attempts have failed.

Comments are closed.