Sunday 12 April: Britain can’t afford to shy away from talking about the economy

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/04/11/lettersbritain-cant-afford-shy-away-talking-economy/

815 thoughts on “Sunday 12 April: Britain can’t afford to shy away from talking about the economy”

  1. The FBI was WARNED that the Steele dossier ‘contained falsehoods from a Russian disinformation campaign’. 11 April 2020.

    The FBI team investigating President Trump’s 2016 election campaign learned that statements made in the Steele dossier – which accused Trump of conspiring with Russia – may have been products of Russian disinformation.

    The footnotes suggest that the Steele dossier, authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, relied on falsehoods from a ‘Russian disinformation campaign.’

    Still, investigators touted the Steele dossier as a key piece of evidence against the Trump campaign from 2016 to 2017.

    Morning everyone. This is mostly intentional gibberish meant to distract from Steeles’s responsibility in producing the Dossier. Since opinion has turned against the Dossier and Steele might very well find himself up in front of an American Court it has become necessary to obfuscate as much as possible. This particular line has been leaked to two secondary outlets so it’s probably the forerunner of a longer campaign that will make Steele out to be the victim of a fiendishly cunning plan by the Russians to undermine American Democracy. Different route. Same destination!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8210931/Footnotes-Steele-dossier-contains-falsehoods-Russian-disinformation-campaign.html

  3. Easter Sunday and it’s time to rise.
    Must get out of bed and make a cup of tea.
    Oh God, MOH has beaten me to it.

    1. Good message, but would be vastly improved if the first minute or so were cut out.

  6. European supertrawlers target UK waters as fishing industry struggles with coronavirus crisis
    As the British fishing industry struggles in coronavirus pandemic after the seafood fish market collapses, supertrawlers come to UK waters

    By – Steve Bird – 11 April 2020 • 6:40pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/10/04/TELEMMGLPICT000212000833_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqRp36Ti1MFCYr8PMuS2fHb17hoDUspm84EYl8tHPMRlk.jpeg?imwidth=960
    The Margiris supertrawler pictured in UK waters last year

    Five European Union supertrawlers are fishing in British waters despite the coronavirus lockdown threatening a UK industry already struggling to cope with the collapse in the seafood market.

    Three huge ships from Holland and two from France were tracked fishing off the coast of Scotland where they are netting tonnes of fish.

    Greenpeace, which monitors the movements of these vast socalled fishing factories, said the vessels set off after Britain imposed its lockdown.

    The arrival of the five boats, all over 260ft, represents a marked increase in such ships operating in UK waters compared to a year ago, a Greenpeace spokesman said.

    The UK fishing industry, worth £989 million a year, is reliant heavily on exports, with 70 per cent of its annual catch destined for Europe and Asia.

    However, the coronavirus crisis has hit the hospitality trade hard, in turn delivering a devastating blow to the worldwide sale of fish, particularly shellfish.

    Chris Thorne, of Greenpeace UK, said: “With the vast majority of the UK’s local and more sustainable fishing fleet stuck at port, unable to work because of a collapse in demand, these destructive supertrawlers are still plundering fish in UK waters.

    “The crisis has left the UK’s fishing communities high and dry, but in the meantime industrial fishing continues with business as usual.”

    Jeremy Percy, director of NUFTA, which represents Britain’s under 10m fishing boats which make up 80 per cent of the UK fleet, said the British fishing industry already needs help from the government to cope with the collapse in trade in fish caused by the pandemic.

    “It is of course all the more galling when the vast majority of the under ten fleet is tied up and some facing financial ruin to see that the large fleet of mainly Dutch super trawlers is fishing hard in our waters off the west coast of Scotland,” he said.

    “I’m unaware of the impact of the virus on our naval service’s ability to police these operations, but with such a powerful fleet active when we are otherwise engaged in fighting Covid-19 this undoubtedly puts unnecessary additional pressures on our forces.”

    A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs said ministers were aware this was a “challenging time” for fishermen and fish processors and they were working the industry to better understand the impact and whether further steps are needed.

    He added: “At the end of the ‘Transition Period’ [for Brexit], we will have the right to decide who fishes in our waters and on what terms.

    “Any decisions about giving access to fish for vessels from the EU, or any other coastal states will be a matter for the UK to decide.”

    Last month, the Scottish government announced a £5 million assistance package to help the country’s 650 seafood companies affected by the collapse in the market for shellfish.

    1. I suppose the jobsworths patrolling the beaches could point their megaphones out to sea and shout at them.
      VEREEEEEEE LOUDLEEEEEE and SLOWLEEEE ………

  7. SIR – It is vital that the Government relaxes the lockdown on businesses and self-employed people before irretrievable damage is done to the economy.

    After all, it is the economy that maintains our living standards and provides the funds for the welfare state and other public services. An impoverished Britain will have lower standards of health – and if the economy is busted, so too is the NHS.

    In that event, with millions unemployed, more lives are likely to be lost – through poverty and violence, for example – than are saved by the current restrictions. Too long a lockdown and the “cure” will be worse than the virus itself.

    David Saunders
    Sidmouth, Devon

    1. …not to mention what is likely to be a significant rise in crime

      ‘Morning, Citroen.

  8. This is worth a quick scan

    Wuhan’s hidden death toll: My week of tests, suspicion and threats in trying to uncover the truth
    The Telegraph’s China correspondent spends a week in Wuhan as it emerges from lockdown – and finds that many questions remain

    By Sophia Yan, – CHINA CORRESPONDENT, WUHAN – 11 April 2020 • 12:09pm
    Premium
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/11/coronavirus-diary-postcard-wuhanwhat-really-happened/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter

    1. China muzzled its Bat Woman: Beijing authorities hushed up the findings of a scientist who unlocked the genetic make-up of the coronavirus within days of the outbreak – which is vital for tests and vaccines
      https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/04/11/20/27080516-0-image-a-34_1586634233748.jpg
      A Chinese scientist who is the one of the world’s leading experts on coronaviruses was ‘muzzled’ after unravelling the genetic composition of the new disease, which is crucial for developing diagnostic tests and vaccines. The revelation will fuel fresh concerns over China’s cover-up of the pandemic after it erupted in the city of Wuhan. Critics argue that Communist Party chiefs frustrated efforts to contain the outbreak before it exploded around the world. At the centre of the new claims is Shi Zhengli (pictured right), known as China’s ‘Bat Woman’ after years spent on difficult virus-hunting expeditions in dank caves that have led to a series of important scientific discoveries. The virologist was called back to her highsecurity laboratory in Wuhan at the end of last year after a mysterious new respiratory condition in the city was identified as a novel coronavirus – and within three days she completed its gene sequencing.
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8210951/Beijing-authorities-hushed-findings-Chinese-scientist.html

      1. Morning Michael. This is the same lady who featured in the ‘documentary’ posted yesterday in essence as the scientist that engineered a bio-weapon. Who knows where the truth lies (I use the word deliberately) in all this?

        2. Andrew Castle (LBC) interviewed a professor from the University of East Anglia earlier this morning. The Prof clearly stated that the ‘strain’ of CV-19 infecting Australia is different from that infecting Europe. If carriers of each virus move about the World randomly how does one strain come to dominate in one continent and the other strain in a different continent?

      1. Here you Go, Hugh and Good morning and Happy Easter.

        Wuhan’s hidden death toll: My week of tests, suspicion and threats in trying to uncover the truth
        The Telegraph’s China correspondent spends a week in Wuhan as it emerges from lockdown – and finds that many questions remain
        BySophia Yan, CHINA CORRESPONDENT, WUHAN11 April 2020 • 12:09pm
        Premium

        China correspondent Sophia Yan visits a hospital to get tested for coronavirus
        Monday
        The guard at the station eyes my ticket: Beijing to Wuhan, the locked-down ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic.
        “You sure? No mistake?” he asks. “No mistake,” I say.
        My colleague and I disinfect our seats with a wad of wipes the minute we get on the five-hour high-speed train.
        I worry coming to Wuhan will change my “green” health code – a contagion risk profile, which determines the difference between going out to dinner or government quarantine.
        When I get there, traffic is sparse, though busier than I expected. I chat with people in a park, out for their first strolls after nearly three months indoors.
        I walk by Huanan seafood market (pictured below), where experts think the virus emerged, and find it sealed with sheets of corrugated metal, wrapped in police tape, and patrolled by officers.

        At the end of the day, I check my health code again: Still green. Whew.
        Tuesday
        Exiting my room, I bid good morning to a hotel cleaner in a hazmat suit and head out.
        Cai Yao, 34, tells me his mother’s symptoms appearing in late January worsened quickly; she only returned home two weeks ago.
        “For a whole week, she couldn’t eat. She coughed up blood, and her nose would bleed,” he said. “It really looked like she was on her deathbed.”
        Hospitals were full, so they drove daily across town for outpatient treatment, waiting 10 hours in line with many others. Mr Cai doesn’t know what shots were administered, but is grateful she recovered.
        Many families weren’t so fortunate. At the peak, there were 5,000 bodies waiting to be scorched into ash at one of Wuhan’s eight crematoriums, a worker tells me – a far cry from two dozen per day before the pandemic. His shifts began at 5:30am and ended after dark.
        Such accounts cast doubt over China’s reported death toll of about 3,300, especially as fatalities in Italy, Spain, France, the UK, US, and Iran exceed that figure.
        Virus deaths are so sensitive that at a cemetery – which grieving families haven’t been allowed to visit – a phalanx of uniformed officers and plainclothes minders surround me and my colleague. When I try to leave, they grab my bag, drag me backward, and snatch my phone.

        Government minders appear at the Wuhan cemetery, detaining The Telegraph’s correspondent for around an hour
        “What if you report about this incident?” one sneers, when I ask for it back.
        They accuse us of sneaking in and staying hours to take photos. Actually, we’d walked in the front gate, registered our details after a temperature check – as per usual in coronavirus China – and roamed for half an hour.
        After threatening (“can’t leave until the ‘investigation’ is over”) and berating us (“stupid imbeciles”) for about an hour, they let us go upon taking photos of our ID documents. Our driver says the police also harassed him and recorded his details.
        This is the same “welcome” treatment I’ve gotten investigating human rights violations in China – Xinjiang concentration camps, Muslim cleansing in Ningxia, the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
        Residents have told me they don’t think they’ll ever learn the truth of what happened. All this leads me to ponder what the authorities are trying to hide – even as China crows success.
        Wednesday
        Freedom! Sort of. Lockdowns lift today in Wuhan. But things are far from normal.
        Transport links start coming back online, and major roads are unsealed. Cars started lining up at city limits before midnight.
        But quotas have been imposed – for instance, only 1,000 a day are allowed to enter Beijing from Wuhan. Even then, people need to be approved after showing a clean bill of health.
        Some housing compounds continue barring residents from going out, or limiting them to two hours a day. Barriers made of corrugated metal sheets have yet to all come down. Same with cement road blocks. I spy a man in a hazmat clamber over and sneak away!
        Disinfecting tents continue to dot the city. Getting in and out of my hotel still requires being sprayed with medical-grade alcohol:
        Traffic is much noisier today, though nobody seems fussed by a sign that life is resuming.
        Thursday
        Requirements to depart Wuhan apply to me, so I head to the city’s No. 7 hospital to get my throat swabbed for a nucleic acid test to determine whether I’ve been infected with the coronavirus.
        I don’t feel ill, though asymptomatic cases are now being discovered. Hopefully, I’m not one of them…
        At the hospital entrance, a thermal facial recognition camera takes my temperature. Amazingly, this works with a face mask. I don goggles and feel even more claustrophobic.

        Getting swabbed at the hospital
        Medical staff have protective suits, shoe covers, face shields; one spritzes sanitiser over his latex gloves.
        It’s haunting to be inside. So many people died here, staff say.
        Doors are sealed in the fever clinic, dozens of oxygen tanks sit outside, and an extra CT machine is in a trailer out front.
        Next step: Registering via a mobile app to be approved for return and quarantine confirmation by Beijing authorities. There’s a long queue – at least 11,000 have already applied, and there’s a daily departure limit.
        I feel glad to pass an open wine shop. I stock up; might be here a while.
        Friday
        Tons of virus origin rumours floating around. Scientists are working on this, too, and have found genetically similar coronaviruses in bats and pangolins.
        A seafood vendor tells me she heard patient zero was a man in his seventies selling wild ducks at the now-closed Huanan market.
        Others deny any Huanan link, and tell me unspecified foreigners brought it during the World Military Games last October, held in Wuhan.
        Wu Jianming, 29, a glassworker says: “Bats are impossible – when I was a child, we often played with them.”
        By far the most prevalent theory is that the Americans brought the virus. One man says the severity of infections is evidence the virus emerged in the US.
        “It’s so bad there,” he said. “Do you think this is still the Wuhan flu?”
        The idea was seeded by a Chinese official, who suggested the US military brought the virus.
        Beijing has been busy reframing the narrative to divert public anger from government missteps over the outbreak, stoking nationalism by portraying China as the world leader in virus response and buying the world time.
        Some, including officials and politicians in the US and UK, see it differently – that a botched initial response exacerbated global spread.
        Saturday
        We bundle into a van with other foreign media for a government-arranged trip to Leishenshan Hospital, a temporary field hospital.
        Hospital officials say thousands have recovered, and only 15 patients remain. We’re shown an empty virus ward with sealed rooms waiting to be disinfected. Many medical staff have transferred out.
        “All data are reliable; please rest assured,” they say, when asked whether China’s reported figures accurately represent the outbreak.
        Doubts persist over the numbers. Hospitals were immediately overwhelmed; there were multiple revisions to confirming cases; and those not tested – despite having what doctors strongly hinted was the virus – weren’t included in the death toll.
        With so many curbs still in place, it’s clear authorities remain concerned. Even as Wuhan has begun reporting zero deaths, the hospital won’t be dismantled until next year.
        I get my virus results back. Relieved to be negative!

  9. Good morning all and a very Happy Easter to you.

    Sort of sunny here – though it is clear that it did rain a bit during the night.

  10. A farmer buys several sheep, hoping to breed them for wool, chops, etc. After several weeks, he notices that none of the sheep are getting pregnant and telephones a vet for help. The vet tells the farmer that he should try artificial insemination.

    The farmer doesn’t have the slightest idea what this means but, not wanting to display his ignorance, only asks the vet how he will know when the sheep are pregnant.

    The vet tells him that they will stop standing around and will, instead, lie down in the grass and roll around when they are pregnant. The farmer hangs up and gives it some thought.

    He concludes that artificial insemination means that he has to impregnate the sheep. So, he loads the sheep into his truck, drives them out into the woods, has sex with them all, brings them back and goes to bed.

    Next morning, he wakes and looks out at the sheep. When he sees that they are all still standing around, he concludes that the first try did not take and loads them into the truck again.

    He drives them out to the woods, bangs each sheep twice for good measure, brings them back and goes to bed.

    Next morning, he wakes to find the sheep still just standing around. One more try, he tells himself, and proceeds to load them up and drive them out to the woods. He spends all day shagging the sheep and, upon returning home, falls listlessly into bed.

    The next morning, he cannot even raise himself from the bed to look at the sheep. He asks his wife to look out and tell him if the sheep are lying in the grass.

    “No,” she says, “they’re all in the truck and one of them is honking the horn!”

  11. Beijing is exploiting the disarray caused by the coronavirus epidemic to try and move a British tech company to China, claims leading Tory MP
    *Beijing exploiting Covid-19 panic to move UK tech company to China, MP claims
    *Tom Tugendhat said China was ‘using cover’ of PM’s illness to ‘launch a raid’ on Imagination Technologies, which designs chips for Apple
    *It comes as company’s CEO quit as China Reform Holdings attempted takeover
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8211163/Beijing-exploiting-disarray-caused-coronavirus-epidemic-claims-leading-Tory-MP.html

    1. Engineered virus conspiracy??

      Nothing to see here, move along now.

      Edited.

  14. Met chief: London stabbings have ‘dropped considerably’ during lockdown. Lizzie Dearden – The Independent – 11 April 2020.

    Stabbings and violent crime have “dropped considerably” in London during the coronavirus lockdown, Dame Cressida Dick has said.

    The Metropolitan Police commissioner said knife attacks on young people had been falling before the outbreak and have “dropped very much in the last couple of weeks”.

    Wow! Just imagine that! Who would ever have guessed?

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/coronavirus-london-stabbings-lockdown-cressida-dick-a9460631.html

  15. ‘Morning All

    An indulgent breakfast,fried eggs on toast with a decent slice of ham,the arteries be damned

    Morning(wry) Viral Laffs

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0cf111333670011a839ce1c2a467c9e517120e38f47239224f17ec8ea2bdb26.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e931105d979865f92ed84693a1868a94ba58590473a266a6a2ab52a3b34ccc6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/56db343a903c44258519a5b85cb7bf9d0564523ab3122d33d2b7141d7aaf66ba.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8e402d728ce6201ca251d6e5feb1bd50df9772968e8aa88e746c306248d9053b.jpg

  16. Chinese Altruism,new definition of an oxymoron

    “China has tried to restore its image after lying to the world about

    the seriousness of its coronavirus outbreak, but its attempts at

    humanitarianism have turned out to be as slippery as its wet markets.

    After COVID-19 made its way to Italy, decimating the country’s significant elderly population, China told the world it would donate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to help Italy stop its spread. Reports later indicated that China had actually sold, not donated, the PPE to Italy. A senior Trump administration official tells The Spectator that

    it is much worse than that: China forced Italy to buy back the PPE

    supply that it gave to China during the initial coronavirus outbreak.

    ‘Before

    the virus hit Europe, Italy sent tons of PPE to China to help China

    protect its own population,’ the administration official explained.

    ‘China then has sent Italian PPE back to Italy — some of it, not even

    all of it … and charged them for it.’”

    https://spectator.us/italy-china-ppe-sold-coronavirus/

    1. As usual the labour party will have a field day with all the ‘right answers’. After the event.

      1. But doctors are increasingly trying not to use ventilators, so the whole ventilator question is becoming less relevant.

    3. My daughter at Southampton General says the same. Pity the BBC can’t be arsed to make proper enquiries, but then shafting the government suits them nicely.

  18. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has demanded ‘urgent talks’ with the Government to ensure MPs can probe ministers over their handling of the coronavirus crisis.

    Sir Keir, who replaced Jeremy Corbyn as leader last week, said the Commons must open for business after Easter, even if it means MPs asking questions over webcams.

    His calls have been backed by the Liberal Democrats and SNP as Ed Davey and Ian Blackford blasted the lack of parliamentary scrutiny as the death toll nears 10,000.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8211189/Opposition-parties-unite-demand-recall-Parliament.html

    1. Any one who employs a ‘justice’ secretary such as chips on both the shoulders Lammy, can’t be taken seriously.

    2. ‘ Morning, Mags, If “His calls have been backed by the Liberal Democrats and SNP…” then it’s fair to conclude that a lot of leftie-driven government bashing is in the wings, supported no doubt by improbable and implausible rhetoric of uncertain origin.

    3. In other words: deluded MPs think that the country will be saved if they are allowed to pose and strut in the House of Commons. They only stayed at home long enough to collar the 10 000 pound allowance!

      1. And arrange deliveries of equipment from PC World which, for some reason, they don’t have in their homes.
        Unlike about 90% of their constituents.

  19. Morning all

    SIR – A&E attendances are down 27 per cent, with a 50 per cent drop in those going to heart attack centres. Many of those who did not go to hospital may well die.

    Fraser Nelson suggests there is emerging evidence that “avoidable deaths” caused by the lockdown may exceed those caused by Covid-19. With the pandemic due to peak and hospital admissions hopefully declining, has the NHS started planning a Covid-19 exit strategy? This disease will be with us for a long time, especially if there are problems developing a vaccine, but hospitals will need to deal with patients who have other illnesses.

    Immunocompromised patients, such as those suffering from cancer, will need to be protected from Covid-19, and the public will need reassurance that they won’t be infected if they go to hospital. One answer would be to divide hospitals into two parts – one with its own entrance, staff and intensive care unit for Covid-19 patients, and another for everyone else. I hope someone is thinking about this problem.

    Dr Michael Pegg

    Esher, Surrey

    SIR – Herd immunity is the quickest way out of this pandemic. It is the natural and proven mechanism to confront the infection, not a theory based on inaccurate information.

    Having created the necessary hospital facilities, now is the time to start the return to normal working practice. Naturally we must continue to protect and support the vulnerable. Testing to prove the presence of antibodies and swabbing for the virus must also be a priority.

    Michael Smith

    London SE17

    SIR – During our darkest days in the Second World War, Churchill focused on winning, while Clement Attlee focused on planning for post-war Britain, ranging from the NHS through to nuclear deterrence.

    Today, the focus must of course be on combating this disease, but who is looking at the overall picture for our citizens and planning for the post-coronavirus world?

    Maj-Gen Graham Messervy-Whiting

    Alfrick, Worcestershire

    1. I wonder if Maj-Gen Graham Messervy-Whiting is related to Mr Cholmondeley-Warner?

        1. Graham Messervy-Whiting’s background makes it easy to see why the 54-year-old career army officer was appointed to head the Union’s military staff, the key advisory body tasked with ensuring that any future operations launched by the Union do not end in embarrassment and disaster.

          EU apparatchik!

          https://www.politico.eu/article/modern-major-general/

          1. Told you – its all to do with defending the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy,,,,,,

      2. ‘Morning, Bill, for all his rank and double-barrelled name, he makes a valid point.

        Fail to plan and you plan to fail.

      3. Although it’s quite comforting to see that he has just a very ordinary first name. But I expect it depends on how it’s pronounced.

    2. Well Dr Pegg, if the NHS had not concentrated on building huge mega-hospitals encompassing all medical services from treating cuts to heart transplants we would be in a better position would we not? Oh, and as a doctor you are part of the problem.
      It worked well in Scotland, with people dying as a result of the failures endemic in big hospitals.

      1. Mega hospitals miles from people’s homes, with not enough parking!! They seem to think that people with Parkinsons disease or various painful conditions should get to their appointments by bus! I suppose the extra suffering is all part of the sacrifice demanded from bad humans by eco-paganism.

        PS: Most specialist doctors in Germany operate from their own scattered practices – far easier to reach!

        1. Most ailments require the less specialised care of cottage hospitals and GP practices.
          The mega-hospitals do the diagnosis and recommend the course of treatment or specialised surgery if needed. The smaller units carry out the mundane regular treatment with annual reviews.

          1. There is no reason why so many specialists’ practices should be located in hard to reach hospitals either.
            Visit to the skin doctor in Britain: GP appointment first, GP recommendation, long wait, appointment at mega hospital.
            Visit to the skin doctor in Germany: Call skin doctor of choice in small country town near home, get appointment within two weeks.

          3. I have ranted about this before, but the NHS killed my elder brother and one of my parents via medical mistakes. The one doctor who admitted they had made a mistake with my parent’s treatment to us, was the only British doctor on the team. As the family was gathered round the death bed, the rest of the medical team was trying to find out if any of us were lawyers. At the same time, they were openly laughing at one of my family who is psychologically ill.
            I loathe the NHS.

    3. Herd immunity does not work on another virus, the common cold. Any immunity only lasts a couple of months.

  20. SIR – I hope the current situation results in more support for small retailers. Our local butchers and food shops offer products superior to those of supermarkets.

    In our north Dorset town, a dairy farmer has installed a milk station where we can purchase local milk – no plastic involved. It is wonderful.

    Celia Wright

    Sturminster Newton, Dorset

    SIR – The Government’s emergency food package system needs rethinking. I have been identified as vulnerable but would prefer to stop receiving these packages, so that someone less fortunate than me could have them instead.

    However, Sainsbury’s, for instance, states on its website that available delivery dates will only be given to those registered most elderly and vulnerable – and I am told that, based on the information it has, it does not recognise me as one of these people.

    How can I give someone else the opportunity of receiving a free food parcel when I am unable to guarantee a delivery from Sainsbury’s?

    Ian Barratt

    Maldon, Essex

    SIR – My husband and I have just had a delivery from Waitrose, booked three weeks ago.

    Our driver told us that people were booking slots with many supermarkets at the same time, then cancelling them at the last minute, thus stopping other customers getting a delivery slot. My husband and I (68 and 65 respectively) are not in the high-risk groups but wish to avoid venturing out of the house as much as possible. Thoughtless and irresponsible people are making this harder.

    Carole Waights

    Camelford, Cornwall

    SIR – Clearly the situation is getting serious. I have just received my weekly Sainsbury’s delivery and there is no rhubarb – and I have been rationed to a single bottle of Malbec.

    Clifford Green

    Bournemouth, Dorset

      1. Apparently a kind lady in our cul de sac was out early this morning putting little gifts in the gardens of those with young children.
        The Easter bunny game was cancelled. You can never tell whose out there watching !

        Much Hand Washing did apply.

  22. Morning again

    SIR – I was deeply touched by the story of Dr Rob Baskind, who tragically lost his mother to Covid-19 and could not attend her funeral. I am of the Jewish faith, too, and felt great sadness that he was unable to recite Kaddish (the Jewish prayer of mourning) at the graveside.

    A good friend of mine lost a relative to this dreadful disease last Saturday. In her distress, she was somewhat comforted when I reminded her that, in Judaism, mourners have a stone setting, often within a year of the relative’s passing. There, many people come to view the dear departed’s new stone commemorations. Each person also places a solitary stone on the grave as a mark of respect. Prayers are said and delicious kosher food and drink are on hand to comfort the congregants at somebody’s home.

    I hope that Dr Baskind and my friend will get this opportunity to celebrate their loved ones’ lives once coronavirus has passed. And it will pass.

    Gordon Moser

    Barkingside, Essex

  23. SIR – I have just been for my daily constitutional to Torquay seafront and round the harbour.

    Although this is always an attractive spot, I usually see cast-off takeaway cartons, coffee cups, cigarette butts and other detritus floating around, as well as a film of diesel from the boats. This time, however, the water was crystal clear – the cleanest I have seen it in the 40 years I have lived here, with not a bit of rubbish in either the inner or outer harbour.

    I’m sure many lessons will be learnt from this time, but let’s hope that one of them will be what we can all do to change our behaviour in order to benefit the environment around us.

    Jan Ritchie

    Torquay, Devon

    SIR – During the lockdown I have been sorting out cupboards and drawers.

    Having found many postcards from our various holidays in the past, I now send one to each of the grandchildren every week telling them all about our trips. I almost feel I’ve been on holiday myself by the time I’ve finished writing them.

    Helen Morris

    Haywards Heath, West Sussex

    SIR – One highlight of the day is in the morning, when my wife and I discuss what we are going to have for supper, mixing and matching from the freezer, fridge and what is still in the vegetable garden, considering sell-by dates, quantity and ease of re-ordering .

    It takes at least 30 minutes and produces a very varied diet.

    Patrick Fuller

    Upper Farringdon, Hampshire

    1. It’s so enlightening and indeed satisfying to hear that Helen has been sorting out her drawers,……….but I’m worried about Jim. 😯

  24. SIR – I read with incredulity the threat by the Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police to check people’s shopping baskets for “non-essential” items.

    This ridiculous idea shows how much some forces are relishing their new powers.

    Michael West

    Eastleigh, Hampshire

    SIR – Why has there been so little common sense in the police’s interpretation of the lockdown restrictions?

    The purpose of these rules is to minimise the spread of infection. Of course no one should be driving to meet friends, having a picnic in a beauty spot or taking a trip to the seaside. The other day, however, local police put up a Facebook post bemoaning the fact that the car park of a nearby country park was busy with people who had driven there for exercise.

    This particular park comprises 200 acres. It would have been easy for people to give each other a wide 
berth. Yet apparently those exercising there were recklessly endangering others.

    The alternative would have been for these people to exercise from home, adding to the streams of joggers and walkers already using the busy pavements, where it is virtually impossible to maintain social distancing consistently.

    Steve Black

    Nottingham

    SIR – For months the police have been telling us that, due to shortages, they are only able to deal with serious crime.

    Since the shutdown, there have been many reports of the police questioning people who were sitting on beaches or in parks.

    Manchester Police reported that last weekend they dealt with 955 lockdown incidents. How were all these police suddenly available?

    Ian Pimblett

    Lymington, Hampshire

    2. That missing 20,000 has miraculously appeared.
      Nice weather, chance to bully people who won’t get stroppy.
      Let’s ignore hurty tweets and get a bit of Vit.D.

      1. Yes, the French have strict lock-down rules but my impression is that the French police have far more common sense and are more decent people than the British Bully Force that loves flexing its muscles against people who won’t hit back.

        Of course I must admit that the police in Paris have always had a justifiable reputation for violence but those in Brittany seem sensible and reasonable.

  25. BREAKING NEWS
    Chick Escapes from Egg – a crack team is investigating.

    Sorry no link yet.

  26. When the coronavirus emergency started, doctors were ordered by the NHS not to try new drugs because they might be dangerous to patients and they said they were in short supply.

    The orders from the NHS chief was paracetamol and oxygen only.

  27. Two of my pink Clematis montana rubra are bursting into flower.

    1. Warwickshire rose, dainty elongated buds, narrow petals, no scent.

    2. Elizabeth, plump, rounded buds, broad petals, strongly scented of vanilla.

    1. I think I bumped into Elizabeth in the Shopping Mall a week or so before Lockdown

      Morning Peddy

  28. Good Morning Folks,

    Happy Easter Sunday, looks like the last nice day until later in the week.

  30. So thanks to Gates, the UK has surrendered cure research to him and stalled doing research from late January thereby wasting a crucial 6-7 week opportunity to try new drugs.

      1. You only like childish cat cartoons so of course you’re not interested, and you never spend time researching what is going on in the background that affects everyone.

        1. Well I am certainly interested in the Gates research, but not necessarily twenty times before breakfast.

          There are a famous disagreement between Gates and the Google founders (iirc) about ten years or more ago when Gates said the best way to help Africa was to vaccinate every child, because people couldn’t do anything if they were ill, and the other two said they wanted to float balloons or something to make sure that everyone had an internet connection, because if you give people the tools to help themselves they will do the rest themselves.

          1. What I particularly dislike is the randomized death situation in the Gates plan.

            Take a ward of 40 patients. Average randomized treatment means 30 will get paracetamol and a Smartie and 10 will get just paracetamol.

            So lets assume all the Smarties work. That means of the 40 who went in a bad way, 30 will soon be sitting up in bed all chirpy while 10 will be lying on their fronts gasping for breath before getting oxygen and quite probably dying.

            Doctors on the ward will know what would cure those 10 gasping dying patients. Just give each one Smarties like the others and they’ll soon be sitting up all chirpy.

            But the rules say No. Doctors are not allowed to save their lives because that will spoil the trial.

            I think it sounds like State sanctioned murder.

          2. But if they weren’t doing the trial, then all the patients would die anyway.
            And once the trial’s done, the drug can be given to all who would benefit from it.

          3. Not allowed to behave like that here. Should it become obvious that the Smarties are curing people then it would be ethically impossible to continue.

          4. Have you checked the plan ? It’s all here…

            https://www.recoverytrial.net/

            My reading of it is that once the computer puts you on one of the four treatment plans, that’s it. No changes because it would spoil the trial.

            I’d like to be wrong. So please could you tell me what I’ve missed or misunderstood.

  32. Just by completely random innocent non connected coincidence, the guy advising the NHS ran a research program in Africa in 2008 for which his team received £32,000,000 from Bill Gates.

  35. How same-sex shopping helped Panama flatten the coronavirus curve

    Another ‘good news’ story for residents of Panama, which would not be possible/allowed to do here

    Only men allowed out on one day, women the next: Wot no LGBTQWERT day

    On the day your gender is allowed out, only a 2 Hour slot, governed by ID card number: ID cards yukkkkkk

    50% immediate reduction in foot fall, if ann 8 hour movement day is envisaged 0nly 12.5% people out. Those going to Ali’s Snak Bar excused

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/11/same-sex-shopping-helped-panama-flatten-coronavirus-curve/

    5. Denis Jenkinson’s book, ‘The Racing Driver’, written after he’d partnered Moss in the great Italian road race, the Mille Miglia, is a true classic, like Sir Stirling was.

    2. In another part of the interview he was asked obliquely by the BBC interviewer whether he thought a Global Government was necessary, and he didn’t bother to answer.

      One assumes that a future Global Government is more important to the BBC than a cure for Coronavirus.

    3. In another part of the interview he was asked obliquely by the BBC interviewer whether he thought a Global Government was necessary, and he didn’t bother to answer.

      One assumes that a future Global Government is more important to the BBC than a cure for Coronavirus.

  40. Sweden sees just 77 new deaths from coronavirus and number of new infections drops by a quarter to just 544 as nation continues to resist lockdown. Mail. 12 April 2020.

    Sweden’s daily death toll and its number of new coronavirus cases both fell today as the country continues to hold out against imposing a lockdown.

    The 77 new deaths – down from 106 yesterday – bring the total from 793 to 870, according to figures from Sweden’s public health agency.

    You have to wonder. That there is a virus is irrefutable but just how bad is it? Hitchens comments in the same issue…

    The total of deaths for that week in 2020 is higher than the five-year average for that time of year, which is 10,130. In fact, it is up to 11,141.

    This is 1,011 more deaths than normal per week, 144 more deaths than normal per day, regrettable but not gigantic. Do these figures justify the scale of our reaction?

    When one looks at the ludicrous activities of the Stasi in shutting down perfectly safe activities, the Closure of Industry, one has to harbour the suspicion that it might very well be a manufactured crisis.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8211307/PETER-HITCHENS-Matt-Hancock-trying-run-UK-like-1950s-prep-school.html

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8208397/Sweden-sees-just-77-new-deaths-coronavirus.html

  41. Apropos the Tory minister in the doghouse (or, one of his doghouses), I noticed a cunning ploy by the Telegraph yesterday.

    We all know that the Liebour Party and the left wing press have it in for Jews – and blame them for all the evils in the world. So the right-wing (sort of) press cannot possibly be seen to make any such slurs.

    I did notice, however, that the wife of the offending Tory minister was referred to as “Israeli born”. I don’t think that, apart from Arabs) there are many people born in Israel who are not Jewish..

    The reference seemed kind of sneaky to me.

    1. I see your point, Bill, but if it’s OK (and I think it is) to mention, quite often, that Dominic Raab is the son of a Jew who fled Czechoslovakia, there’s nothing wrong with mentioning that someone’s wife was born in Israel.

      The elephant in the room, though, is the media’s shyness about the ethnicity of various thugs and ne’er-do-wells whose crimes they report.

    2. He’s a solicitor (Skadden Arps then Sullivan & Cromwell) …..

      Wiki: ‘Jenrick is married to Michal Berkner, an Israeli-born corporate lawyer. They have three daughters, whom they are bringing up in the Jewish faith.[1][29][17] They have visited Israel as a family and Jenrick has said his connection to the Jewish community forms “a very important and integral part of my life”.[16]

      Jenrick owns two, £2m homes in London, one of which is a £2.5m townhouse less than a mile from the Houses of Parliament and also purchased Eye Manor, a Grade I listed building in Herefordshire for £1.1 million in 2009.[30][31] MP’s Newark Constituency is 150 miles from ‘Family Home’ in Herefordshire. [32] He rents a £2,000-a-month property in his Newark constituency, which he bills to the taxpayer.[33][34]’

      It’s all out there.

      1. Fair enough. I didn’t know that. I thought the DT was being sneaky – Grauniadesque. I was wrong.

        1. I see your point. It’s still a sneaky reference.
          Most DT reader wouldn’t have those sort of facts at their fingertips.

    3. Yes, I noticed that (in the paper edition). A strange piece of information, without any relevance to the matter in hand…

    5. I have no interest in his private life, but I do know that, from his statements to date, he has every intention of continuing his department’s policy of massive building over our farmland, and overriding local planning decisions.

  46. The Observer view on the smoking gun that should force Assad to face justice. editorial. 12 April 2020.

    For the first time since the war began in 2011, the intergovernmental Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversees the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), directly accused the “highest levels” of Syria’s military, and by implication Assad himself, of ordering illegal chemical weapons attacks.

    The attacks in question took place in the rebel-held village of Ltamenah, in northern Syria, in March 2017. On two occasions, Syrian fighter jets dropped sarin gas, a nerve agent, making dozens ill. In another attack, a helicopter dropped a cylinder containing chlorine through the roof of the hospital.
    The OPCW has frequently ascertained illegal use of chemical weapons in Syria, but never before has it assigned blame or named the culprits. Last week’s comprehensive report based its findings on witness testimony, medical records and satellite imagery.

    This is one of those Guardian editorials that tells you that for all its Socialist posturing when the chips are down it is still just a mouthpiece for the PTB. The reason that the OPCW has never before apportioned blame is because that was never in its remit. This has been revised and a new section created within the organisation for just this purpose and, Surprise, Surprise, it’s come up with Syria and Assad as its first (and probably only) target.

    Any neutral observer who has read the evidence over the last few years will have no doubts that these incidents; indeed the whole war, has been manufactured by the clandestine activities of the West and its proxies. Aside from this no one on their right mind would wish Assad to be overthrown since it would usher in a Jihadist State with all its attendant horrors and a massive refugee exodus to Europe.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/12/the-observer-view-on-the-smoking-gun-that-should-force-assad-to-face-justice

    1. Perhaps for a bit of practice within the structure of international laws, Blair should be brought to justice over his WMD claims.

  47. 318080+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    “The boris must stop the temp, C lockdown becoming permanent big governance”, surely a civil war will do that will it not ?

      1. 318080+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Aoe,
        Sensible advice also applies when there are enemy grenades abroad.

    2. English Civil War pikes were about 12 foot long, so we could have a war without breaking any C19 regulations.

  48. Just read on BBC Red Button that a major proportion of COVID casualties are ethnic.
    BBC already released info that they are either African, Asian or Hispanic.
    I think it’s a message to people with dirty genes that they need cleaning.

    2. Oh well, among all our other travails, we’ll have to learn to live with a racist virus.

    3. Is that in absolute terms or relative to their underlying numbers vis a vis the whole population.

    4. The Left are already explaining it away as ‘ethnic majorities are more susceptible because they work in low paying customer facing jobs, such as bus drivers’.

      1. Job sorted. Pay rises. All we have to do is pay those bus drivers and other low-paid jobs more than, say, the Prime Minister and they’ll be immune.

        Oh, just thought of a problem with that…

      2. BBC Red Button also says Goverment is trying to equalise health profiles for all in the UK.
        I don’t believe that can be done without DNA realigment of COVID susceptible genes.

      3. Or because they initially thought it only affected white people, and they were immune, or that Allah would protect them.
        Many have ignored the social distancing advice. So it’s hardly surprising that they’re experiencing the infection in greater numbers.

        1. Video of some A-hole licking handles on the tube to spread virus… HA HA HA! Get some, you bastards!

    5. The obvious explanation would be that people from ethnic minorities are less likely to observe social distancing and hand-washing rules. This could even be true for some groups…

      1. I don’t think they”ll bend over backwards to observe social distancing.
        They’ll just keep their nose to the ground.

    6. The 3 hot spots for COVID-19 deaths are London, the Midlands and Yorkshire and the North East. These areas have something in common which explains the above BBC Red Button comment. Yorkshire is a big sprawling county densely populated in some areas.

  49. Last year on October 18, Bill Gates ran a pandemic simulation exercise in New York named Event 201. The purpose was to plan a response.

    After that, Gates continued the planning with various partners which apparently included the UK.

    On March 19, the Gates coronavirus cure research scheme started in NHS hospitals.

  50. Be a lockdown hoper, not a moper. If the woke want to live like the Amish, that’s up to them
    JULIE BURCHILL – 12 APRIL 2020 • 10:00AM

    I’m writing in the third week of the lockdown, when we’re reassessing what’s really important to us and what can go out for the noble bin men when we emerge blinking in the sunshine of the other side. Knowing my own hyper-social tendencies when the weather becomes clement and the fact that my book Welcome To The Woke Trials should be completed by autumn, I should have seen incarceration as a scary blessing which would guarantee delivery. But I actually wondered for a couple of weeks whether I should write it at all – #allinthistogether and all that jazz.

    Luckily, the copious whining and ill-will from Wokers at a time when the Conservative government is acting like Robin Hood has given me renewed purpose.

    When most people are in denial, they’re in denial about Bad Things – as a coping mechanism – but the Woke are the only group who are permanently in denial about Good Things, such as the generosity of the government, for kicks. It must drive them nuts that we’re finally moving towards a sort of socialism – not a performative brag – in which ordinary people become everyday heroes. The Woke in this crisis remind me of those dogs you see in pubs sometimes, who aren’t really angry, but utter one bark every ten minutes just to keep their equipment running.

    The preferred leisure activity of the Woke is, of course, virtue-signalling – and don’t they have a brand new box of toys to chuck out of their prams now! Putting on a mask and gloves just to go out for a pint of almond milk they get to feel like bold frontline fighters, looking askance at those of us with the temerity to expose our noses and knuckles.

    Hearing of hoi polloi relaxing in public spaces they can tut smugly as they tend their herb gardens. On social media they can advocate for avocados as a sure way to wellness with the implication that if one is sensible enough to eat clean nothing so common as the coronavirus would dare invade one’s immaculate innards.

    The plague has highlighted the gap between many groups – those who do useful work are more likely to get it than the useless, ethnic minorities are more likely than white people, men than women, smokers than non-smokers. But I’d imagine that it will be spread equally between Modernists (my tribe) and Nostalgics – Hopers vs Mopers, as I think of them. We Hopers can’t wait to rush out and thrown our arms around our one and only world in all its corrupt glory once more; the Mopers having got what they wanted – no cheap foreign travel, Mother Nature silencing the city – and are keen to stress that when we get out the other side we must not re-prioritise frivolous things over the simple life.

    That’s what they say, of course – what they do is entirely different. I wouldn’t despise virtue-signalling so much if it was just a prelude to actual virtue, but I’ve come to believe from extended observation that many practitioners simply use it as a smokescreen that enables them to be even more selfish than the rest of us. The “Woke Cloak” as it’s been called, which led to the amusing spectacle last year of the Extinction Rebellion spokesman who flounced out of an interview after it was pointed out to him that the many skiing trips he had posted on social media were hardly the “emergencies” that he wanted flying to be confined to.

    So in this time of contemplation, I’d like to speak up for foreign travel, incessant socialising and crazed pleasure-seeking. But for all you Nostalgics who’ve suddenly had the revelation that you wanted to live like an Amish all along, please do stick to your plan of staycations and home-cooking because, to be honest, you don’t bring a great deal in the way of wit and wisdom to the table and I think we’ll just about struggle along without you.

    And everyone who’s ever spoken or typed the words Big Pharma will hopefully go to the back of the queue when a vaccine is discovered (probably by the Israelis – none for you, boycotters!), stick to their crystals and leave the nasty newfangled vaccines to we shameless embracers of the modern world. And please, have the sensitivity to understand that for the millions of your fellow citizens whose lives were pretty damn simple already – eat, work, sleep, worry about money, repeat – what lies ahead is not a pastoral Walden Pond dream, but a living nightmare.

    My unsuccessful attempt to post a table embedded in JB’s article appears beneath this posting

    1. When I first read this, my eyebrows shot up. Then I saw the comma…
      “… those who do useful work are more likely to get it than the useless, ethnic minorities are more likely than white people…”

  51. So the UK is now in the implementation stage of Event 201 and much influence over the NHS has thereby been handed to Bill Gates.

    1. Morning Lewis and all Nottlers – sorry, good afternoon. Have been out in the garden doing some pruning and by gum it’s hot. I’m not a sun worshipper like some. We used to have a north facing garden in our previous house and it suited me down to the ground. This house faces WSW.

      The planes still landing, where passengers have been sitting cheek by jowl for goodness knows how long, as well as waiting for hours at the departure point and then arriving to form orderly queues for immigration, passport control and customs, just beggars belief. It just makes an utter nonsense of the quarantine, sorry, imprisonment of the rest of us. It is stark staring lunacy. The lockdown should be lifted immediately. Al those especially vulnerable will stay at home but the rest of the country should get back to normality.

      1. ‘Afternoon, vouvray, totally agree about lifting the lockdown, not only because of the damage to the economy but also, as you identify, the massive hole in the regulations.

        Judy and I are both classified as vulnerable and have been self-quarantining since March 17th. We will be time-released on June 14th.

        I guess that then allows us to go prancing down Ipswich High Street, kissing all the passers-by and coughing into the faces of all the young thugs.

          2. And a Happy Easter to you & yours, Tom.
            😀👯🇳🇴🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷👍

        2. 👍👍👍
          NTN, hope you and Judy are keeping well and have a garden to prance about naked in, should you so wish! How do you manage for shopping?

          1. Thanks for the concern, vouvray, our first shop had to be click and collect with Waitrose in Ipswich. Because it meant that we would have to go into the store, we arranged with one of Judy’s grandsons who lives in Colchester to meet us at the store. We waited in the car while he took the copy order with Judy’s written authority for him to collect. Good job, that man – he bunged it all the boot so there was no contact.

            Subsequently, because we are now on a list issued by the Government, of elderly and vulnerable, we can how get delivery slots with Sainsbury’s and Asda. We had problems with Morrisons because of a Delivery Certificate costing £20, which they didn’t honour but, after a stroppy letter to their CEO and much to-ing and fro-ing with their customer service, we now have our £20 back and the promise of delivery slots. Morrisons are very low on our list. Sainsbury’s have already delivered and we are OK for a month or so.

            It’s a bleedin’ saga though.

          2. Well done for sorting out Morrisons. Alf is a master at discovering CEOs and writing to them. He says if you complain by writing to the one at the top eventually it will filter down but things start to happen. If you start at the bottom it never goes upwards. The list of CEOs has been well frequented!

            Glad you have someone to help out with the shopping. KBO!

          4. Hi again Paul, obviously its a secret society. Thanks for the attempt to help but following the link I get:

            403 – Forbidden
            Access to the page you requested on https://www.ceoemail.com has been forbidden.

            For further assistance please contact ceoemail@connectotel.com

            Your IP address is: 77.234.43.182
            Your host is: ten.emfme.net

            I don’t mind them having my IP address as I operate on a VPN. Perhaps they’ve detected that. I can still find the little bleeders though.

          5. Yep, that’s the one. Came in very handy when he was sorting out his sister’s financials in 2015. He managed it without POA as well. He did a brilliant job, probably near enough 6 months of letters and phone calls. His sister was blind, deaf, and pretty well immobile, her husband and 2 daughters had died and she was living on the 12th floor block of flats in London EC1. And then sold the flat and we brought her down to Woking in a care home. The first thing she said to us was “I’m not going into a home”. But she came reluctantly for respite care, which lengthened into a week, then a month, and she never went back to London.

            Edit: The flat was sold after she came to Woking!

          6. We shall certainly keep Buggering On and I share Alf’s belief – go straight to the top and they are onlt to happy to pour the shermite further down the chain.

          8. My limited experience of English supermarket chains in recent years has taught me to steer clear of Morrisons. The one I had to use (Hants) was a horrible and cramped store, a ghastly experience. Waitrose or, if in the NW, Booth’s are hard to beat. But I’ve never been in Aldi……

          9. When you get the chance, Harry, give Aldi a try – you might just be pleasantly surprised.

        3. My wife and I are in a similar position – I advised her to stop working at the pre-school group back in mid-March as the risk to her health was too great. Since then I have been off our property twice, once to dash to the post box at the end of the road and the second time on Thursday to order a repeat prescription. I’m fortunate that I can work in the garden but my wife is chair-bound and is stuck indoors at the moment. We planned to purchase new furniture for our revamped patio but of course that is out of the question at the moment. June 14th is still a bloody long way off.

    1. If 2/3rds of us are not of an ethnic persuasion, it means that we have been disproportionally been affected by the virus .

      Do the people of another colour think that all whities should succumb to this ghastly virus?

      1. Yes, this is “difficult” to reconcile with the “diversity is our strength” narrative.

        Still, at least they can’t do the Oscars/BAFTA complaint, “not enough diversity” amongst the chosen.

      3. Of course they do – not all of them, but certainly some of them. It’s all our fault, innit?

    2. ‘Afternoon, Mags, could the reason for the ‘disproportionate’ rate of infection across yer effnics, be anything to do with their genetic structure and culturally weak immune systems?

      Just asking…

      2. Tom ,

        My thinking is , if they are saying a third of people of ethnic diversity are affected by the virus , and are proclaiming victim hood , what about us .. we make up two thirds who are affected , we are the ones who are the victims !

    4. I thought it was a disproportionate number of deaths of non whites in London and other cities that was spoken about. Same apples in US apparently.

    5. I am sure that Lammy will have something to say about the racist government allowing this to happen.

  54. The Gates C-19 scheme offers NHS patients randomized treatment. All patients get standard care which is paracetamol plus oxygen. In addition by random selection, three out of four will get a new drug, and the remaining one will not.

  56. But from March 19 the NHS completely U turned and said new drugs were not dangerous were fine to use and were fully available.

    Subject only if used as Gates wants in his research plan.

  57. Happy Easter everyone.
    I don’t seem to be able to post on Disqus sites these days, for some reason……..

    1. Happy Easter to you.

      Your problem may be your “zero” upvotes.

      It thinks you are a spammer and unless a moderator/site “owner” puts you down as a trusted contributor you won’t be able to post..

    2. Good afternoon, Dr. J.

      You are a trusted poster on this site but it will not help
      you on others!

  58. Just by completely random innocent non connected coincidence, the guy advising the NHS ran a research program in Africa in 2008 for which his team received £32,000,000 from Bill Gates.

    So the NHS professional adviser presumably met Gates to present his 2008 report and presumably knows him socially.

      1. Slurry tankers passing through our village hourly along with enormous straw lorries with trailers. The verges of our narrow lanes destroyed and metalled surfaces cracking.

        The slurry is deposited in a lake sized pond on one of the larger farms and spread when the Environment Agency allows. The farmland would drain into the river Stour. It does whiff!

        1. Not interested in the fact Bill Gates decides what happens to you if you’re hospitalized for C-19 ?

          2. Have you repainted your boat yet ?

            The dark blue you had is such a dull boring color.

    1. 318080+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      The dangers of islamic ideology was the subject rhetorically & in book form brought out in 2005 by the
      castigated by many as a far right,racist.
      One Gerard Batten, In truth he should be
      re-categorised as being “so far right”

    2. That’s an excellent tweet. These small “random” events paint a very nasty picture when put together.

      2. 318080+ up ticks.
        Morning BB2,
        Join the dots of political power placements and the mosaic is shaping up to be a giant mosque.
        It is my belief that via many individuals we have become a vote & weep nation

        1. Keir “not enough evidence to prosecute rape gangs” Starmer is not going to improve anything, quite the reverse.
          The country is not so naive as it was when the B.Liar took power though, and people are a lot more fed up with globalist destruction.

          1. 318080+ up ticks,
            BB2,
            Never underestimate the power & grip the three monkeys have over the electorate on entering the polling booth.
            PARTY before ALL else, lest we forget is
            well forgotten.

    3. This composite picture – especially that of his newly appointed Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion, Nazz Shah, should leave us in no doubt that Keir Starmer will not do anything to heal the deep and gangrenous wounds in the Labour Party.

      Would anyone be surprised if the new shadow minister for Community Cohesion organised special grants for certain rape gangs so that they can continue to celebrate and practise their traditional cultural preferences with kaffir white girls.

      1. It’s what she understands to be “community cohesion” – that white girls shut up for the sake of diversity, and gangs can groom with impunity for the cohesion of their community.

        1. That she was prepared to have the law on rape, young girl trafficking, pimping, underage sex etc ignored in favour of her ‘community’ should have barred her forever from being allowed to be a candidate for MP (if the law doesn’t exclude such odious people then any party with scruples should not have given her the opportunity to stand. Says much about the debased LP), let alone someone with authority to speak on these matters. Starmer is pandering to the moslem vote by giving her this responsibility. Who will trust the smug git with doing anything that’s right on any issue?

          2. I doubt that she gives us a second thought – maybe not even a first thought – and she wouldn’t consider that we are a ‘community’ worthy of her attention. She is a disaster waiting to happen and the Labour Party deserve her.

      2. 318080+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        Has she reason to think she is on firm ground by looking at the voting pattern over the decades & peoples supporting / voting for mass uncontrolled immigration parties and ALL the odious consequences.?

      1. 318080+ up ticks,
        Evening NtN,
        Don’t forget to wash your hands whilst singing the full Nation Anthem three times on your return.

    1. My step-son’s mental problems were exacerbated by long term Cannabis use. Don’t anyone try telling me it is harmless.

      1. We’ve nursed too many schizophrenics who had a history of cannabis use in their teens.

    2. Happy Easter to you and yours Rastus.

      In my misspent youth I too smoked cannabis. I won’t go into detail of how it affected me, but I could see the effect in others around me. Quite mild mannered people, one in particular, became very aggressive and obnoxious.

      It was my wake up call – looking in the mirror and seeing someone I despised.

          1. And the son of one of my friends (see above) has wasted his life away. Jeremy Taylor’s song (above) is very perceptive in its mockery of potheads. You must listen to it.

      2. I always kept away from it. But they say that the stuff today is very much stronger than in the 60’s

        One of my housemates when I was still snapping whippers used to smoke cannabis.

        His son was an outstandingly talented actor who was predicted to have a stellar career until, at 15, he took to cannabis and by 18 he was on more serious stuff. His father had not done enough to stop him for fear of seeming a hypocrite since he had dabbled in soft drugs himself when he was at Cambridge.

        This young chap is now in his forties, has never had a proper job in his life and has made several visits to the Priory – a totally wasted life,

        Have you read A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. Should put people off cannabis for good.

    1. Good morning Anne, Good Morning Fellow Nottlers.

      Auberon Waugh was right. It is absurd that bats are a protected species.

      But isn’t this an habitual failing of our Western civilisation – we foster, protect and encourage things that could harm and destroy us. Look, for example, at the fact that so much terrorism seems to come from fanatical immigrants who wish to destroy the very civilisation that has saved them from the carnage of the barbarism from which they fled.

      And if it is not politically incorrect to say so:

      HAPPY EASTER

      1. Bats aren’t a species, they’re a family of well over 1,000 species, and they do a lot of good, particularly our native species (18 of them) that are all insectivorous.

        1. Vampire bats are my favourite, they make a deliciously thick meaty broth, reddish in colour, particularly if they’ve fed recently.

      2. Morning, Rastus.
        And, because of the bloody bats, people can’t go to church and sit amongst bat droppings …… ah ……

    2. Good morning Anne

      Can you vaguely remember polio outbreaks in the UK, it wasn’t untill the sewerage problem into the sea was addressed or clean water in our rivers was monitored and dealt with , diseases that were common decades ago were diminished gradually.

      1. Morning, Belle.
        Yes, I do.
        All pupils from Brightlingsea had to stay away from school.
        I was dead envious of them during those weeks (was it two or more?).

      2. I remember being given a sugar cube with the vaccine on. I think that may have been a booster because somewhere in the dim and distant past I seem to recall having an injection (although I’ve had so many vaccinations, immunisations and inoculations I could be confused).

  63. Happy Easter everyone.

    As a postman, I read the most heart-wrenching letter from a little girl
    to the Easter Bunny saying that her mum and dad had no money and how she
    would never get an Easter Egg.

    Anyway. There was no money in that one so I sealed it and re-posted it.

    1. Happy Easter, Phil!

      Your comment reminds me of the tale of the old lady who had no money to pay her electricity bill, which was for £100, so she wrote a letter to God, asking Him to send her the money.

      When the staff at the sorting office saw this letter addressed to God, they opened it and, reading of the old lady’s plight, they were touched. They had a whip-round and came up with £90, which they put in an envelope and delivered to her.

      A few days later, they came across another letter addressed to God, which read:

      Dear God,

      Thank you very much for the money, but it wasn’t quite enough to cover my electricity bill. I needed £100 but when I opened the envelope there was only £90 in it. I think those thieving bastards at the post office must have opened your letter and pinched £10.

  64. Here’s a very interesting video that refutes the suggestion that Covid19 couldn’t possibly have been man made. Published research papers going back to 2011 reveal how such contagious viruses can be manipulated. (PS Don’t be put off by the guys looks = he is a bright bunny working in this field If nothing else you get a bike riders view of parts of Pittsburgh)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIW3TQpVJYs

        1. It took a lot of mutations to develop into us, and a lot, lot longer than a year or so, and not in a lab.

          One of the Chinese virologists working in Wuhan gave a presentation on synthetic viruses a couple of years ago. Purely coincidence, I’m sure.

  65. Interesting article in The Sunday Grimes about how the Swiss are dealing with the virus. In particular, I draw your attention to the ease with which those entitled are able to obtain interest-free bank loans. Pity the UK can’t come up with a similarly simple procedure.

    I know Switzerland has one-tenth of the UK’s population, but still….

    Live TV viewing in Switzerland is generally reserved for sporting events: downhill ski championships, ice hockey finals and Schwingen (picture, if you will, Alpine-style sumo wrestling in burlap shorts).

    When the federal council (think cabinet) announced a special press conference from Bern on March 16, much of the country came to a standstill in offices and bars, living rooms and shop floors, as President Simonetta Sommaruga took up her position behind the microphone in the capital’s Federal Palace media centre.

    Flanked by her fellow councillors, Sommaruga struck a solemn tone, declaring Switzerland was in an “extraordinary situation’”and that, effective immediately, much of public life would be shut down, that border posts were being re-activated, the military was being mobilised and public gatherings curbed. She went on to say that the measures would remain in place until April 19, and it was at this moment you could hear the nation gasp — as if they had missed a penalty in a Euro quarter-final.

    Five weeks seemed a long time compared with what other countries were proposing, but then again there was much comfort in the fact that gatherings of up to five people were still allowed, all food stores could remain open, you were free to move about as needed and parks could be used as long as you kept a 6ft distance from others. Thankfully, this was not going to look or feel like France or Italy.

    As I move into week five of Swiss-style semi-lockdown, I have been taking stock of how the government has managed the crisis and how the public, from Geneva to Basel, have responded.

    While it wasn’t the most welcome news to be told that much of daily life would be halted for more than a month, at least I’ve been working to a clearly defined timeline. On Wednesday the government announced it would keep their measures in place for another week, but would lay out a clear “exit and easing” strategy this Thursday.

    From a psychological perspective, this smart bit of comms has worked remarkably well, as the nation’s expectations have been managed throughout and this has brought pretty much everyone on side.
    Perfect spring weather has also played a role, as balconies have become outdoor offices, wine delivery trucks have hectic daily circuits and clear social distancing guidelines have allowed for running and other fitness regimes to carry on, almost, as normal.
    Independent butchers, bakers and farm-stands have been enjoying a roaring trade. There’s been a big push to ensure it’s not just the nation’s two main food retailers that benefit, but also small-scale producers of cheeses, wines and Matterhorn cakes. As small gatherings are permitted, intimate dinner parties have helped keep friends in touch and ancient family recipes alive.

    You might recall some months ago, long before there was any awareness of Wuhan, let alone something called Covid-19, there was a news story about whether Switzerland should continue to store up to four months’ worth of coffee as part of its strategic reserves (short answer, of course it should).
    At first glance it seemed a bit ridiculous, and reminded the world of Switzerland’s curious, perhaps outdated, bunker mentality; but as many nations struggle to get their hands on masks, drugs and essential groceries, the massive reserves of antibiotics, diesel fuel, flour and some 90 million surgical masks look like a good bit of hedging by the Swiss.

    And rather than getting into cross-border disputes about sourcing or redirecting surgical mask supplies, two weeks ago the city of Zurich decided to buy its own production line and will be cranking out 32,000 masks a day from next week. Yes, the production line would cost £500,000 to get running, but there was no discussion about procurement issues or why a city should be moving into manufacturing. The need was there, the city bureaucracy had a solution, and it is likely to turn a profit on the assembly line should they decide to sell it.

    Good old common sense is what makes much of Switzerland tick, and informs the stable, measured tone of the nation’s leadership. This is aided by a political structure that sees the top leadership function more like a corporate board than a typical cabinet.

    Seven federal councillors representing various political parties oversee key ministries (my favourite grouping is the federal department of defence, civil protection and sport); one of them holds the post of president for one year only and together they drive policies forward in consensual manner.
    There is no grand-standing, little in the way of egos, no fancy residences, but the posts do come with some of the highest salaries for elected officials in the world — circa £400,000. For the past four weeks all federal councillors have put in regular press appearances alongside the Swiss version of a chief medical officer as well as a dashing brigadier-general, Raynald Droz, who’s become something of a national heart-throb with his angular haircut, decorations, fine eyewear and no-bullshit briefings. These are people you believe, obey and feel confident will deliver.

    When the federal council said it would be making 10 billion francs (£8.6bn) available to small businesses, it was a package presented in lock-step with the country’s big banks. At first reading it sounded similar to the hundreds of billions being lined up by central governments the world over, but then came the details.

    Fill out a form with six basic questions, send it to your bank and, all being well, you would receive a loan covering up to 10% of your turnover, with a ceiling of 500,000 francs, within 24 hours — zero interest, no penalties, repayable in five years and a jail term to match for wrong answers.
    As Switzerland is home base for my businesses, I tried it out. Would they come good on the snappy turnaround? Could they really make a decision that quickly? Just 18 hours later I had my answer: 500,000 francs was in my account at UBS in St Moritz. My partner sent in an application at 11am on Tuesday and the funds were with him three hours later.

    Even by Swiss standards this has been a bit head-spinning in its extreme efficiency, simplicity and swiftness. It also stands in contrast to the roadblocks that business owners have been coming up against elsewhere in Europe and the US when trying to access various government schemes.
    With infection rates dropping, plenty of spare capacity in hospitals and everyone counting the days until the exit strategy is announced, I’m curious to see how quickly the nation moves to reopen its borders.

    Given they controversially chose to stop stockpiling ethanol (essential for making hand sanitiser) in 2018, I’m even more curious to see what the Swiss will be adding to their “essentials” list for all those decommissioned bunkers deep in the Alps.

    Tyler Brûlé is the editor-in-chief of the global affairs magazine Monocle. He has been a Swiss resident for 20 years

    1. From a psychological perspective, this smart bit of comms has worked remarkably well, as the nation’s expectations have been managed throughout and this has brought pretty much everyone on side.

      The Swiss are of course a true democracy and this tends to ensure that the people will all be on side in any difficulty!

    2. Its the referendums that give the Swiss common sense government. The people decide every important issue.
      Imagine what a better place Britain would be if we did the same.

      1. I doubt it, Johnny.

        We had one almost four years ago, the result hasn’t yet
        been implemented…….and it looks increasingly unlikely
        to happen,

  66. NOT GOOD AT ALL:

    “The Goodies star Tim Brooke-Taylor has died aged 79 after contracting coronavirus.

    The actor, who stared in the 1970s comic trio series and was a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, died this morning.

    “It is with great sadness that we announce Tim’s death early today from Covid-19,” his agent said in a statement.

    2. Happy Easter Mr Kingy.

      I was a child of the 70’s and i remember the Goodies, fondly.

      R.I.P Tim.

    1. Perhaps Bojo should have a confab with whoever’s running Sweden. They have other problems of course but on Covid-19, they’re doing rather well so far.

      1. Given the size and low population of Sweden, would the figures for its more highly populated south be a better comparison?
        Overall, I think the Swedes have the right idea, but there is a big population discrepancy with Britain.

    1. If they can be towed to Dover, they can be towed to Calais and their boat sunk after 20 minutes if they haven’t evacuated.

    1. If virus carriers showed symptoms before they became infectious they could be isolated (or killed) and the virus would quickly die off. Cunning little critters those viruses, aren’t they?

      1. MOH says pathogens can hide in the body (e.g, in the bones) having acquired a positive reaction which will then subsequently test negative. When conditions are right they can come out to play and test positive once more.

        That’s why nurses can be dangerous. They can’t be positive that they’re negative.

    2. It was far too intrusive, expecting me to click on “I agree” to loads of cookies before it would allow me to do anything, even manage their cookie bomb load.

      1. Download SUPERantispyware and run it after you’ve logged off – kills ’em all.

        1. I have Firefox set to delete cookies once I close down. I just don’t like being forced to accept them in order to get anywhere.

    3. I liked the bit – “The first thing to note is that Fauci himself expressed a high degree of uncertainty about his own numbers. “I don’t have any scientific data to say that,” he admitted”

      in that case STFU

    2. How the heck did you get her nails clipped? An entire vets’ practice can’t get Sparti’s done.

      1. Mick McManners technique. Diversion, subterfuge and a Crabtree body grip.

        I am available for hire at $1000 per nail :o-(

    3. Dont worry, your hair will probably have time to grow back before you need to go out in public.

      Does Dolly always choose the middle of the two seater chair?

      1. If anyone approaches to attack my hair with a pair of scissors, they will get a clip (around the lug-hole) from me.

        :-))

    5. Are you going to give her a haircut yourself? Poppie will need one shortly. She has an appt for 1 May. Somehow I don’t think this will be happening. And the groomer is expecting a happy event shortly after that date. It is looking like I will have to look at a few youtube videos along the lines of ‘how to give your dog a haircut’. She may well be sporting a ‘knife and fork’ style.

      1. Hi Mum.

        Don’t do it !!!

        If Summer gets really hot then do it but i would avoid until it becomes critical.

        A chum sent me a facebook link of people who had. Total disasters.

        1. Oh! Thanks for the warning! I would post a photograph but I get a red banner when I try telling me I have to be logged in when I post a photograph…. but of course I am logged in in order to be able to post the text, which I can do. It is so annoying…. any ideas? It has been like this since we moved over to the the new ‘premises’ – on the old disqus site it was fine, no problemo.

          1. Not sure. Have you tried logging in via a different browser? On a laptop you can have more than one browser open at the same time.

      2. One of my friends has a daughter who’s a hairdresser – she kept her hand in by trimming their dog 🙂

  71. Was idly glancing at Spectator’s Bridge column and was intrigued by the following:

    Dealer South All vulnerable
    West North East South
    1NT
    Pass 3NT All
    Pass

    West led a small Diamond and the defence quickly took four of those, declarer and dummy discarding Clubs, and exited with a Spade. Now what?

    Hearts three-three would be welcome, or there’s always a chance that someone is hold­ing four Hearts and K,Q of Clubs and can be squeezed — but that’s it, right? If that doesn’t work, declarer can wash his hands of guilt, knowing he had done everything he could. Or
    did he?

    When the hand was played, declarer called for the Clubs J from dummy and East fatally covered with the Queen. Wrong! The threat had now been transferred to West who was the only one to stop the Clubs10 becoming a winner.

    Four rounds of Spades were cashed and West was squeezed for nine tricks.

    As someone who has barely mastered ‘Snap’, this read largely as gobbledegook, although
    with hints of a moral aspect to do with feelings of guilt (or the absence of them). This led me to wonder how much the average person would have to study Bridge – at least to be able to understand what is being said here – and how much longer before being considered a competent player. Have visions of having to start out as a babe-in-arms!

    Incidentally, is being ‘squeezed for nine tricks’ something to be looked forward to or
    best avoided?

    Please note: Had to leave out graphic showing the four card hands themselves because of formatting problems.

    1. Favourite crew room card game in the RAF
      Bingo was called ‘Rockape Bridge’

    2. For quite a few years we made up a four with a couple of friends who are avid Bridge players. In spite of all the help they gave me, I never progressed beyond the opening bid stage.

    3. I used to play something similar called “five hundreds” when I lived in Tasmania. Once you grasp the principles of bidding it is easy enough but Bridge is the ultimate test. It is supposedly the greatest of Card Games and requires many years of practice.

    4. Ah, VOM, without the hands it is quite difficult to follow but if you can play Whist, Bridge is just a follow on, with opposite partners letting each other know what their hand contains.

      So, with a mandatory six tricks required before you ‘bid’ takes effect, the first bid says that, with my hand I can make 7 tricks if there are No Trumps.

      That tells your partner that you have at least 15 points and are probably even suited.

      Hand Points are awarded on the basis that Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2 and Jack = 1. There are variations on this but you’d probably have to play with teaching partners to begin to get adept.

      It’s a bluddy good card game and exercises the grey matter, mandatory at our age. If you’re interested, you can probably download a version that allows you to learn as you go along.

      1. Bridge, my downfall at college.

        I used to get bored with following conventions and used to throw in the occasional off script bid. Hey it’s only a game.

        Last hand I played was at the golf club. I was just walking past a table when one of the players asked me to play the hand for her. You are in six no Trumps she said as she scurried away.

    5. I used to play something similar called “five hundreds” when I lived in Tasmania. Once you grasp the principles of bidding it is easy enough but Bridge is the ultimate test. It is supposedly the greatest of Card Games and requires many years of practice.

    6. If they were all vulnerable, failing to make the 9 tricks (three no trumps) would mean the points against them would be increased. Without knowing the hands (the graphics you couldn’t show) it’s difficult to see what should have been played.

      1. Think you have taken my question about the 9 tricks too seriously – it was only a flippant point!

    8. Played most fortnights for over 20 years with three others. Sadly that stopped late last year when two players moved to different parts of the UK. I learned to play by obtaining a software programme Bicycle Bridge (Which only works(worked) With MS Windows) I don’t know if this programme is sill available and works with whatever the latest version f windows is available

      1. Try Bridge Base Online, SR.
        You can join games with others in the UK and world wide, or if your friends set up an account too, you can create a ‘table’ and invite them to join you.

    1. Yo js

      Now is the time to formulatea Soros sponsored Covid-20 to replace the myriad of potions used in the deaths below

      Novochock,

      Wot got Dr David Kelly

      Harvey Weinstein

      Princess Di

      etc

      it would save the lives of us innocents

    2. “No madam, I said give me a legal brief not your briefs, but as they are now off, you may take the floor. “

    3. Whatever one thinks of him, it does appear that political prisoners stay locked up while criminals go free.

      2. There is a difference between a ‘political prisoner’ and a traitor to the west. Assange is not a political prisoner.

      1. Thank you. It has seemed really strange this Holy Week not being able to go to church. I never realised how much I would miss it!

        1. “Where two or three are gathered together…” Plod will come and shout at them. :-))
          Just to see Spring happening despite everything, convinces me that there is a God, and in that, I don’t need a crowd or a building. The old apple trees, just coming into bud is enough.
          I’m not one for singing or big, ostentatious prayers led by a bloke in a fancy frock and hat: daffodils and crocuses are enough to make me say “Thank God”.
          How pompous is that?

          1. I, too, see God in nature (Pantheism, maybe), but I enjoy meeting friends in the congregation, hearing the fantastic choral singing and joining in the hymns. It isn’t quite the same singing to myself in the garden 🙂

          2. Choral song is fantstic. My favourites are Gregorian chant, and the Mozsrt masses.
            Some years ago, I started to play the Grosse Messe when another of my small circle of friends fell off their perch: that CD is pretty well worn out now. Not so many to meet left. Maybe in Valhall?
            Happy Easter! Daffodils are not locked down!

          3. Except for the white ones in the front garden, all my daffodils have finished flowering now. I like to hear a Missa Solemnis. I sang Fauré’s Requiem and have a very soft spot for that.

          4. Learnt that at school in our O Level year. Lovely.

            Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine et lux perpetua, luceat eis, luceat eis.

          5. In Paradisum deducant angeli – not that I could ever sing that! Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna.

        2. Happy Easter! We managed a virtual service using Zoom. No music, sadly; latency issues preclude everyone singing together. Besides, I tried running Zoom at the same time as my virtual pipe organ software, and everything crashed. We had 44 in attendance, which didn’t seem bad or only the second attempt.

          2. Perhaps not for an Easter Sunday, but these are not normal times. We probably don’t have many more than 44 attend our four village churches on an average Sunday, though.

  75. There can be little doubt that Covid-19 was made deliberately. The place were it was being worked on, the laboratory in Wuhan is operated at “Bio Safety Level 4”. this means that every possible precaution is taken to prevent workers being contaminated or infected by highly dangerous stuff. Covid-19 is such stuff.
    To work with Covid-19 staff have to work in controlled conditions, entering and leaving via an air lock. They have to wear full positive pressure suits. The NHS staff dealing with the same threat level wear plastic aprons that don’t meet at the back (as seen in one of the Government’s “stay at home” adverts.)
    It is not clear if full body suits are available for all staff who are in primary and secondary contact roles. In either case there is no requirement for a head covering, apparently.
    Yet full body suits are available and have been for 60 years. Used in factory dust-proof rooms where technical stuff was made, and where hair has to be covered.
    See links, to Bio Level 4 requirements, NHS PPE donning guide, and advert on Amazon ( most seem to be made in China -that was quick!). Our NHS workers are not being protected even if they have the PPE issued.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosafety_level
    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-personal-protective-equipment-use-for-aerosol-generating-procedures
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isolation-Disposable-One-piece-Protective-Non-Porous/dp/B086CB4KM9?ref_=s9_apbd_orecs_hd_bw_b27D6hL&pf_rd_r=2E1WS7ZBM7Z6YS5XZY0Q&pf_rd_p=df125105-0dfa-5774-9821-2fcbc81c3e3f&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-10&pf_rd_t=BROWSE&pf_rd_i=1938824031

    1. As it is known that several pandemics every century originate from this area of China due to its disgusting markets selling a variety of live wild animals, I think the probability that it is just another Chinese pandemic is far greater.

      2. That just happened to have come from bats that weren’t sold in the market, came from a district hundreds of miles away, but were being experimented on in a lab that was not far from the market.
        For once, I think the likelihood that it originated in a lab with poor safety procedures and escaped by accident is more likely, and the market was a convenient cover/excuse.

        1. There is a theory, Ims2, that Pangolins, available at the Wuhan ‘Wet’ market, also carry the Covid 19 virus.

        2. We don’t know where the bats/pangolins in the market came from. But yes, I agree with you, the potential for some kind of mistake is huge.

      3. That hardly matters (although I would destroy China, just in case) but I am concerned that the level of protection that current PPE and corresponding usage protocols gives the NHS staff and those with whom they come into contact is not adequate.

  76. Last Easter Jim put on his blue
    Frock cwoat, the vu’st time-vier new;
    Wi’ yollow buttons all o’ brass,
    That glitter’d in the zun lik’ glass;
    An’ pok’d ‘ithin the button-hole
    A tutty he’d a-begg’d or stole.
    A span-new wes-co’t, too, he wore,
    Wi’ yellow stripes all down avore;
    An’ tied his breeches’ lags below
    The knee, wi’ ribbon in a bow;
    An’ drow’d his kitty-boots azide,
    An’ put his laggens on, an’ tied
    His shoes wi’ strings two vingers wide,
    Because ‘twer Easter Zunday.

    An’ after mornen church wer out
    He come back hwome, an’ stroll’d about
    All down the vields, an’ drough the leane,
    Wi’ sister Kit an’ cousin Jeane,
    A-turnen proudly to their view
    His yollow breast an’ back o’ blue.
    The lambs did play, the grounds wer green,
    The trees did bud, the zun did sheen;
    The lark did zing below the sky,
    An’ roads wer all a-blown so dry,
    As if the zummer wer begun;
    An’ he had sich a bit o’ fun!
    He meade the maidens squeal an’ run,
    Because ‘twer Easter Zunday.

    Easter Zunday
    William Barnes

  77. Gods blessings and happy Easter from a Saxon Queen.

    I’ve just finished a roast lamb lunch with nice wine. It’s warm outside and the birds are singing,
    and I’ve purposely forgotten the chaos and mayhem of the world around me.

      2. My cousin always has roast lamb ( all roasts actually ) in the
        evening too. We’ve stuck to the Sunday lunch tradition, I don’t
        think I could digest a large roast in the evening either, which is
        silly because we have other large meals later.

        1. My OH doesn’t like to eat much at lunchtime so we always have our main meal in the evening. I can do either, but I find a large lunch leaves me a bit bloated for the rest of the day.

          1. We are the same really. It’s mainly Sunday roasts that are eaten at
            lunchtime ( apart from the occasional summer lunch or
            pub lunches ) the rest are in the evenings, but early evening around
            6.45pm. Yes if you had a big lunch, it takes most of the morning
            to cook and and the rest of the day feeling tired,,so the day is gone.

  78. It’s strange, I ‘ve just looked around the garden. The honeysuckle bush has only started to
    green ( it usually does that in February and is starting to flower in March ) and my
    butterfly trees that usually green in late late July ( flowering end of August ) are doing so now.

    1. It does appear a strange Spring this year. I’ve just spent the last hour and a half watering my fruit bushes and I can’t remember when I last had to do that in April.
      Summer raspberries appear to be well behind this year with the lower buds only just starting to green up: the Autumn variety started off as usual but many of the early leaves turned brown and curled up as if hit by a severe frost, something we haven’t had. I can only put it down to that cold easterly wind we suffered for a week or more.
      On the plus side a bee was busy pollinating my blueberries and my redcurrant has some blossom appearing, so fingers crossed for some fruit this year.
      Any hardy fuchsia experts on here? Planted three last summer, pruned them a week or so ago but not much movement in new growth. Is it a bit early to expect new shoots?

      1. We had to start watering the garden early last year. We were on holiday for ten days in the beginning of May, and we’re already concerned about the garden getting enough water.

        May holiday this year cancelled, so we can carry on watering…
        Can’t buy any new plants to replace those that didn’t make it, though….

  79. I think HIlaire Belloc’s imagination produced a pretty good description of the covid19 virus. The last two lines are particularly apt.

    THE MICROBE

    by: Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)

    THE MICROBE is so very small
    You cannot make him out at all,
    But many sanguine people hope
    To see him through a microscope.
    His jointed tongue that lies beneath
    A hundred curious rows of teeth;
    His seven tufted tails with lots
    Of lovely pink and purple spots,
    On each of which a pattern stands,
    Composed of forty separate bands;
    His eyebrows of a tender green;
    All these have never yet been seen–
    But Scientists, who ought to know,
    Assure us that is must be so…
    Oh! let us never, never doubt
    What nobody is sure about!

  80. Putin’s People by Catherine Belton review – relentless and convincing. Luke Harding. 12 April 2020

    This is a superb book. Its only flaw is a heavy reliance on well-placed anonymous sources. Talking publicly about Kremlin corruption is dangerous, as the polonium fate of Alexander Litvinenko shows. Still, the lack of names can be frustrating. Belton writes of a Russian who “slipped through the cracks” to become “close friends with Johnson” when the future prime minister was London’s mayor. Alas, she doesn’t identify him.

    Harding is himself a notorious professional Russophobe and propagandist so we can take for granted both his approval of any like-minded work and the faults that are generated by his partisanship. They are all amply demonstrated in this article. The assertion that….

    The new president had a goal: to restore Russia as an imperial power.

    …is patently absurd, not only because Putin inherited a country that was on its knees but because even now, twenty years later, it still only has an economy the same size as Italy which renders it incapable of such a feat.

    The quote is even more revealing. How can one attribute any reliance on anonymous sources? How does he know that they are “well placed” if he doesn’t know who they are? How would you even know that such was said by anyone at all? That they are not the inventions of the author? A quote from the Man in the Moon would have greater credibility. That Harding gives credence to them simply demonstrates the nature of his own mercenary prejudice.

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/12/putins-people-by-catherine-belton-review-relentless-and-convincing

    1. The west had its chance to treat a broken Russian state with some decency.
      It missed that chance and is now reaping the whirlwind.

    1. “Tesco has been given an initial list of 110,000 clinically vulnerable and isolated people by the Government.
      From this list, Tesco has identified 75,000 existing customers who will now have home delivery slots created for them.
      Tesco also says it will make even more slots available when it receives more data from the government.”

      1. How does this square with data protections?

        Unless the vulnerable people have registered somewhere.

        1. I expect, buried in the depths of the ill-conceived and badly drafted subordinate legislation, there is something that overrides the DP Act.

          1. I find it more than somewhat worrying that so many pieces of legislation suddenly get pulled out of obscurity and are used for things that the legislators never intended (or were too stupid to realise the threat posed)
            So much for the scrutiny by the HoL and the committees.

        2. If they were given details of 110 thousand, and identified 75 Thousand customers, what will they do with the details of the other 35 thousand? and will all other shops demand the same treatment with access to seemingly everyone’s personal details.

          1. I suspect that if they included email addresses the poor old folk will be offered something.

            It’s this kind of thing that can lay the foundation for scammers.

        1. Certainly not in Fulmodeston. Not one offer of help or support from any supermarket, surgery, aid agency etc.

          Just jolly decent neighbours who volunteer their help, unasked.

        2. Not sure – I get lost on these things. Its also on the newsfeed? ( is that the name)? pages I think.

          1. When I saw similar a couple of weeks ago, it was limited to England. Scotland & Wales had their own lack-of-government scheme.

        3. England. Scotland is different, having separate NHS records. The Scottish government is doing precisely nothing.

        4. Certainly not in Fulmodeston. Not one offer of help or support from any supermarket, surgery, aid agency etc.

          Just jolly decent neighbours who volunteer their help, unasked.

  82. Easter Day greetings to you all.

    Sad that Sir Stirling and Tim B-Taylor have gone …. more lost from my formative years. Great memories though,

    ” Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
    A time of innocence, A time of confidences
    Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
    Preserve your memories; They’re all that’s left you “. S&G … Bookends ….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5V-Y53ad4

      1. He was rather younger. Brooklands didn’t really run meetings again after the aircraft factories had moved in during WW2.

        1. They still occasionally have runs on the track, I think, and time trials up the hill. I was there a few years ago.

        2. Given that they extended the runway through the banked section of the circuit….

    3. Hi Issy

      It is a melacholic Easter Sunday.

      The church bells here didn’t even make a sound .

      The countryside is so still .. no traffic , hardly any movement .. Villages are dormant .

      We dared take the car out less than 2 miles away to give my spaniels a free run away from other dogs , not a walk around the village .. because their paws are sore with the hard surfaces .. My eldest 12 year old spaniel will NOT pooh in the garden unless he bursts .. the 7 year old is fine .

      We were driving back .. and an unmarked police car dih dah di dah , blue lights flashing pulled us over .. oh dear, we were questioned and asked what we were doing out on the road .

      We weren’t fined , but we were told in no uncertain terms to go home and not exercise the dogs again in wild places untill lock down ends.

      I was driving!!

      Rather similar to the bollocking that the nurses quarters Matron gave us girls when we were students for arriving back to our nurses quarters five minutes late befor lock up time !

      My argument here is now , that so many people are at home doing DIY and having accidents etc, that that initself puts pressure on the NHS.

      Hope you had some Easter chocolate to enjoy Issy.

      1. Thank you, Belle. I’m getting wonderful help from LK.

        Chocolates well munched now.

        Dorset plods replicare West Yorks then !

      2. That is ridiculous and so officious! There is no need for that – it’s quite unnecessary.

      4. Hilary Mantel, for it was she, made trhe point that in the MAs, the only loud sounds anyone ever heard were thunder and church bells. Must’ve been bliss.

      5. Hi Maggie. You should politely ask plod if he can tell you which law prevents you from driving to a remote location and exercising you and your dogs. There isn’t one.

  83. We were listening to BBC Radio 4 earlier .. re Terry Waites ordeal in the Lebanon , and all the others who were held in solitary confinement for years .

    Why are we allowing schizophrenic , paranoid Brit hating Arab/ Muslim people succour and shelter on our shores . They are all currently drifting over here by the boatload .. These are the people whose mindset consists of hate and anger..

    Examine the Easter story .. and all the religious turmoil is there back in the Bible .

    We never learn and people never ever change , at least the ones who aim to do us harm .

    1. The central fundamental questions that no Muslim can answer are: i) why do people in Muslim ruled countries want to come to the West if Islam offers the best way of life? and ii) Why do they want to recreate in the West the hell and squalor from which they have fled?

      1. 318080+ up ticks,
        Afternoon R,
        They want to be world conker champions and many of our electorate see no wrong in that.

      3. To exploit our weaknesses, damage our society and so prepare us for the inevitable conquest promised by God.

    2. Mass immigration acts like the Corona virus, in causing chaos and damage to society. This acts as camouflage and opportunity for a take-over by the “elites” to “save” society and restore order. At the same time, freedoms are removed to ensure “safety”.
      Like boiling a frog, by the time society realises, it’s too late.
      Thus, immigration is encouraged & facilitated, virus panic encouraged, all leading to draconian curtailment of freedom, all to “protect” society. Nearly there now – look at the discussion of London lockdown.
      Never waste a good crisis.

      1. “At the same time, freedoms are removed to ensure “safety”.

        This is the same reasoning behind the installing of ‘safety cameras’ all along the roads. Nothing to do with revenue collection, oh no.

        Also, the UK has the most CCTV cameras per country in the whole world. “If you’re doing nothing wrong, you’ve nothing to fear.” Ha ha, look at all the criminals getting away (literally) with murder.

        1. I saw this chart somewhere in full colour and all the details. But can’t find it now, of course.

          If you can lay hands on it again – I would suggest that you use the “snipping tool”, save the image as a JPEG and then post it.

  86. 318080+up ticks,
    Heard the PMs farewell speech on leaving hospital and special thanks to the New Zealand & Portugal nurse’s I did think he was going to say ” I believe we should reconsider our eu exit”.
    May one ask, do New Zealand & Portugal have an abundance
    of nurses ?

      1. 318080+ up ticks,
        Evening Ptv,
        I have no doubt you did but it does not alter the fact that we as a Country have intentionally neglected to train up our own peoples in all trades.
        Remember the day return Doctor from Germany if I remember right flew in fatally od a patient flew out, just one instance.

          1. 318080+ up ticks,
            Ptv,
            Is that Manea, being converted into a town prior to becoming a city ?

          2. TBH, I’ve never been there but I’ve heard there are plans to over-develop it.

          3. 318135+ up ticks,
            Morning Ptv,
            Nicely put, could read being converted from village status to a town of many tongues on route to being a city.

    2. If unemployment is as bad in Portugal as in Spain then it wouldn’t be surprising if they looked elsewhere for work. Don’t know for certain though.

      1. 318080+ up ticks,
        Evening C,
        In the case of nurses morally wrong IMO, we should have no need of poached nurses we should bake our own.
        Having said that it should be the same for all trades also

  87. ‘Spourin’ with rain here now. Still saves watering. And probably lays the airborne Corona dust..

      1. Console yourself with the fact that it could be worse.

        Risk of large forest fires.

        Joking aside, I hope your government hasn’t succumbed to the green blob with removal of fire-breaks.

  88. Went out today and had a lie in the park in the sun.
    Then had a bit of a work out on the exercise equipment, all taped off for some reason.
    Strangely quiet though.
    All except for the people gesturing and calling out at me from the road,
    Not sure why they all kept saying the same thing,
    I was obliviously not out on an egg hunt.

  89. Thought for the day.
    A callous bastard writes:

    If the lockdown was removed entirely and life went back to normal (ish) and the estate of the deceased, caused by CV was credited with £250,000 I wonder whether the families would be quite so concerned at the death toll.

    I also wonder whether such an approach might be a lot better for the economy overall.

  90. Female prison officers were raped by inmates claiming to be trans, Rory Stewart reveals
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/12/female-prison-officers-raped-inmates-claiming-trans-rory-stewart/

    There is a simple solution to this problem. If a male prisoner wants to re-classify himself as female in order to be transferred to a female prison, then he should submit to castration. Let’s see how many are committed to transgenderism when faced with this prospect.

      2. Castration is a relatively simple operation, compared to the complete removal of male genitalia. If a man is truly committed to becoming a ‘woman’, then there should be no objection to this as a first step.

          3. No need for the “”. Someone born male is male and, irrespective of what hormone treatment & surgical mutilation they undergo, always WILL be male.

        2. Well done for the quotation marks, but I’d have added the word “Imitation”.

          2. When cutting off both his/its balls I think “fewer” is better than “less”.

            };-O

    2. So what happened to the rapists? Where their victims told to keep quiet ‘for the sake of diversity’?

  91. After glueing the sides of my guitar to the top, and an hours chat with our friends in Perth WA. I’ve have been mainly digging compost from one of our bins and with some added sharp sand to help break it up, i manged to get 5 full wheel barrows from the one bin. It was incredibly well compactedm Potentially we were in for a thunder storm, but it was just a few flashes and a lot of noise.
    I’m a bit knackered now, so I’ll be signing off.
    Slayders folks.

    1. ‘A few flashes and a lot of noise’ – reminds me of a night on draught Bass many years ago. Sadly, that commodity is now sugar-water.

      1. How’s it going Max ?
        Back in the day a lot of men drank light and bitter.
        Not sure why but it just became popular. It might have been the unmeasured half of draught that went into the dimpled pint mug first.
        By today’s standards the beers from way back were a tad weak. But having said that we could usually handle the drive home after a few pints.

    2. Some idiots love having their blasted bonfire in the middle of the day so the stink of it (goodness knows what they’re burning) permeates throughout the garden and house. ‘Orrible.

      1. Why do you think he derives such enormous pleasure from his bonfires?

        He even burns Trombetti husks to add to his neighbour’s misery…

      2. I ONLY have mine when there is a north wind. The nearest house is 5 miles away.

        1. Well done that man. I’m not sure if there is a bye-law against them within certain hours but it would help. Have fun tomorrow.

    3. Bonfires are banned here from April 1st until September. Nevertheless, three of our indigenous neighbours have had intrusive, smokey bonfires in the last fortnight. It is a remote rural area so not much chance of being caught unless someone snitches and I’m not about to do that. The French seem to be an inconsiderate bunch, adhering to the expression ‘me, here, now’, with little concern for anyone else.

        1. But I bet your neighbours did and that they couldn’t give a toss about smoke/smuts invading your life. That’s what we have, even when the tossers can see we have washing out to dry.

          1. Nope. Assiduous they are. Viticulteurs to a man – they know there is sense in the rule.

      2. I must admit that I am looking at the very dry pile of clippings etc that will be my September bonfire.

        I could set it alight now (10 pm local) and it would all be gone in an hour, it’s so dry.

        I don’t , ‘cos as an Anglais I suspect some local would snitch, even though there are very few within a Km of where I am.

          1. Not blinkers at all. We have lived in Germany ( Bad Kreuznach) and France ( Metz) and traveled extensivly in Europe. When we came to retire we decided not to live in France after very careful considerations. Suggest you research things more rather than ” Keep your blinkers on”. Britain with all its faults is home.

  93. Whilst one hopes for many springs more, like a number of us here, we are lucky to be able to get out into our gardens during this glorious self isolation weather.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96fae58cceaca270dd8a2569ca1030d21aa68696123e2eff2eb2e2e3c9eedae4.jpg

    At the back, Pieris Formosa Forrestii, then Rhododendron Johnstoneanum, closer on the left, the New Zealand daisy Bush, Olearia Comber’s Blue, and on the right, one of the last flowers of Magnolia Starwars.

    1. Boo hoo! My magnolia isn’t in flower yet, nor my rhododendrons and my Pieris hasn’t had any flowers on this year, although it’s got nice, red, new foliage.

      1. The problem with my garden is that most of the plants and shrubs have been bought in Cornwall in the spring. After May, it’s the end of the season…

        1. My garden is notoriously shaded, so my season always starts long after everybody else’s – even in the same area! I have hellebores still in flower.

      2. Juniper rich with berries… Will be distilling gin soon. Fermentation should be finished at the weekend.

    2. A few flowers: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a6811e0eff4be145b65115ca32bf5d2a7bcd8fa65b52dad97cab8606f6e9766a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99d0a29f477d7e4ad848bd910dbeb04d047e06a23bd3575a508cf1e79a9dd986.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b1e5003848d87bd3933b22887ca70065019b7e41252c7a9bcdb8bd52311b159c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/44972d14ad60ca3913d7e19f526e2ebfd52436dfcbea1caec1a703602cb89607.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e052811b547b8f155ebaac5212ccf3ca51ddcb9eae4fcdd81a9556191837e5a4.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/851968d7bcade088e9b7c727cfb01b319a46ed1a65a6402438f509d97006a5b6.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57d0423b481f284fb6106bdf13004da1a6007e5eb95b7a0545aa77dfb4f51673.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ca758bb2d3d4d23311f040b0e1a47d2c48e742e946c4cb334190569aa986a53.jpg

      1. Lovely vibrant colours on some of those. Well done the green-fingered one, whoever it is.

      2. Very nice. I don’t have any photos, but my pear trees are covered in blossom and the cherry blossom is out, too. Otherwise, I have Chaenomeles, Kerria, primroses, cowslips, Vinca, Soldiers and Sailors, Ribes, Spirea, Hellebores, Grape Hyacinths, Bluebells, Tulips, Laurel Prunus and the last vestiges of Forsythia.

        1. Sadly, my husband took it upon himself to trim back my white clematis Alpina which was growing up into our neighbours garden, I told him to leave it alone but he didn’t listen – now the flowers which were about to open are all dead, and the stumps may if I’m lucky, sprout again for next year. I wasn’t very good company last night.

          3. Gosh, that’s big for an Alpina!

            If I step out on to the terrace I’m immediately assailed by wafts of scent, which can be coming only from my Montana “Elizabeth”.

          5. That’s the current front garden scent. I have a large Choisya ternata “Aztec Pearl” on either side of the front door. They were planted as small twigs as part of the builder’s “landscaping”. They are the only shrubs of his I didn’t rip out after moving in. The next door neighbour followed suit & has 2 large ones (unfortunately the idiot tenant pruned them hard a month ago so there’ll be no blossom on them this year) & the neighbour opposite has a large one which is flowering well. Strangely, they don’t do well in my rear garden.

            As soon as the Choisya fades, the shrub roses take over: Frühlingsgold (2 planted together make a huge clump) & Maigold (climber) followed by 3 Jacobite Roses forming a large clump, Rosa rugosa ‘Roseraie de l’Hay’, & the ramblers Bobby James & The Garland. When that lot finish they are followed by the Buddleias (all self-sown) which I dead-head to keep them flowering well into the Autumn.

          6. MOH managed to kill both a wisteria and a lace-cap hydrangea by persistent cutting back. I have had my revenge; I’ve got new plants 🙂

          7. He nearly killed the wisteria, after the pergola blew down in a storm some years ago. i only just managed to stop him just in time – it recovered, but looks a bit untidy.

        2. Photos:

          Camellia (Old fashioned), Rhododendron, Viburnum Opulus, Tulips x 2, Perennial Wallflower, Anemones, Cytisus (Scottish Broom).

      1. Judging by the overall standard of Telegraph reporting, it’s difficult to see it as deliberately ironic.

    2. Ministers faced mounting pressure from across the political spectrum to put sex education on the national curriculum, following concerns children are being left ill-equipped to cope with the new realities of online porn, cyber bullying and sexting.

      Pressure from whom?
      Perhaps a tiny but extremely vocal minority of activists? The old saying “An empty Drum makes most noise” comes to mind, coupled with “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

        1. A pensioner who was given a surprise flight in a £70million fighter jet as a retirement present was flung out at 2,500ft after grabbing the ejector seat handle to ‘steady himself’.

          The drama is outlined in a newly released report by French aviation investigators which at times reads like a dark comedy script, as it describes how the unidentified 64-year-old panicked during his first flight in the Rafale-B.

          Then he shot out at high speed, losing his helmet that had not been fastened round his chin properly, before landing in a field close to the German border.

          His anti-g force suit, worn by aviators who are subject to high acceleration forces and designed to prevent a blackout, had also become loose.

          It was only through good fortune that the pilot was not ejected by his passenger’s actions, so ensuring a certain crash.

          The pensioner had ‘never expressed a desire to take part in a flight like this, and especially not in a Rafale,’ reads the report by the Paris-based BEA (Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis).

          Despite this, his colleagues at the defence contractor where he had worked, set up the flight at the Saint-Dizier airforce base, in north-west France.

          ‘The need to keep the surprise until the moment of the flight,’ had hugely risky consequences, especially as regards ‘preparation for the flight,’ reads the report.

          The man was bought a flight on a Dassault Aviation Rafale jet as a retirement present
          Colleagues arranged a flight on a Dassault Aviation Rafale jet as a retirement present CREDIT: AFP/CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT
          It continues: ‘This situation generated a feeling of stress for the passenger, and this was particularly felt during the ejection seat briefing where he had to assimilate a large amount of information in a very short time.

          ‘The passenger said he had a complete lack of knowledge of the aeronautical environment and its constraints, having never flown on a military aircraft.’

          The 35-year-old captain on the flight, which took off on a sunny afternoon on March 20 last year, had 2000 flying hours behind him.

          This included 905 in a Rafale, but he was used to having a military comrade in the back seat of the two-seater jet.

          Four of the pensioner’s colleagues had turned up with a professional photographer, and they placed a Go-Pro camera on their friend’s helmet.

          ‘Faced with a fait accompli on the day of the flight, it was very difficult for him to refuse to participate in the flight,’ says the report.

          The flight had also been authorised by the French Air Force staff at the request of the Defence Ministry, which also piled pressure on the pensioner who was ‘considered a VIP’.

          Analysis of radio recordings show that ‘the pilot was in control of the situation. Once informed that his passenger had ejected, the pilot realises that he should have been ejected too.

          ‘He then demonstrated a certain calm to pilot following the loss of the rear seat and the canopy.’

          The pensioner, meanwhile, had expected a gentle ascent, but the plane ‘climbed at 47 degrees’, compared to around 10 to 15 degrees for a standard passenger plane.

          This was when the Frenchman reached out to hang on to anything to steady himself and pulled the ejector handle.

          There was a loud bang, with the force of the ejection tearing his unsecured mask and oxygen mask away.

          The Rafele-B’s command ejection system is meant to fire both seats at once – meaning the pilot feared his seat would fly out at any moment.

          Instead he managed to land, while the pensioner’s parachute worked, and he arrived in a field, shocked and with minor injuries.

          The report calls on the Airforce and Defence Ministry to review its procedures for allowing civilians on military flights.

          1. This shows a shocking lack of briefing, equipment checking and supervision. A disaster was avoided by pure chance.

          2. Dread to think if the handle had triggered the pilot’s ejector seat and not the passenger’s.

          3. Thanks for that, molamola. Until I read your full report stating “the pensioner’s parachute worked, and he arrived in a field, shocked and with minor injuries” I thought that the poor man had died.

          4. His anti-g force suit, worn by aviators who are subject to high acceleration forces and designed to prevent a blackout, had also become loose.

            I severely doubt this happened.

            Oxygen, anti G, radio etc are connected to the seat by a single connector, The Personal Equipment Connector, which automatically disconnects as a single entity from the aircraft structure, when an ejection is made

          10. Certainly true of Martin-Baker ejection seats but I don’t know if the Rafale uses those.

    1. 318080+ up ticks,
      Evening TB,
      The time we get out of incarceration we will be in the minority.

  98. Lovely afternoon, beers in the garden listening to birds twittering.
    You wouldn’t think we were in the deep depths of plague.

  99. An excellent photo article in the Mail, which summarises beautifully the glamour that was motor racing before the moneymen saw their opportunity.

    “STIRLING MOSS PICTURE SPECIAL: From winning the Mille Miglia and the Monaco Grand Prix to living life in the fast lane off the track… we look back at some classic images of the greatest driver”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-8211933/STIRLING-MOSS-PICTURE-SPECIAL-important-moments-racing-legends-life.html

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/04/12/12/27097090-8211933-image-a-12_1586690345816.jpg

    1. My favourite Moss win is a bit obscure – the BRDC Trophy at Silverstone in 1961 run to the short lived 3 litre Intercontinental Formula. It was soaking wet, and the field was a who’s who of top line drivers at the time, including Clark, Brabham, Hill, Brooks, Surtees, Salvadori, Gurney, McLaren, etc.

      S. Moss (as he used to appear on entries) delivered a masterclass on how to race in the wet – he not only won, but lapped the entire field, those who had not spun out of contention, that is. A totally spectacular drive.

      p.s. Moss and Jenks black faces (above) were caused by brake dust from the Merc’s inboard brakes.

  100. Watching The Yorkshire Dales and The Lakes on togethertv – 164 on Freesat. Smashing stuff.

  104. Had a nice roast for lunch and about to have cheese and wine ( with crackers ).

    1. I had roast chicken with lots of garlic & herbs, now about to tuck in to a slice of Simnel cake.

      1. Love roast chicken done that way with crunchy roast potatoes and lots of
        bread sauce.

  105. From John Ward:
    “In January of this year, Soros chose the World Economic Forum in Davos to announce the “most important and enduring project of my life, the Open Society University Network [OSUN]”. He pledged $1 billion to create what he says “the world really needs” – an international platform for teaching and research that existing universities all over the world would be able to join, among other things, “to fight dictators and would-be dictators.”

    When asked how the inhabitants of OSUN might identify “would-be dictators”, Soros replied without any hint of irony, “the perfect way to tell a dictator or a would-be dictator is if he identifies me as an enemy.”

    Now that COVID19 is amongst us all, Bill Gates is carrying the tech ball in search of a certain touchdown. Having invested billions in lo-altitude satellite tracking (ensuring every lockdown is obeyed) Gates – also a big virus-testing kit investor – has been everywhere in the media giving a nonstop commentary on the dystopian world that lies ahead of us. The worrying part is that Billy Boy doesn’t seem to see it as dystopian at all.

    Last September, about three months before COVID19 made its entrance, a biometric company in San Francisco bankrolled by Gates gave out a press release saying it would undertake “exploration of multiple biometric identification technologies for infants” based on “infant immunisation”. Or put simply, a tag for every kid on the planet to prove they’ve been immunised against something.

    Further, the boffins at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a hi-tech ‘tattoo’ that stores data in dye under the skin. It will be delivered along with an immunisation vaccine developed by the global vaccine agency GAVU. This too is owned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    Gates elaborates thus with CBS last weekend:

    “This is a turning point….we may well never ‘open up’ again…..anything defined as a ‘mass gathering’ if you will, from spectators packed in a sporting stadium to protesters demonstrators on the street would be considered an act of civil disobedience without a vaccine….truly beneficial activities, like schools, have to be organised such that risks of transmission are very low, but until you’re vaccinated, mass assembly may not come back at all”.

    This is the chilling vision of an aspergers thinker with no true concept of individual liberty, but a nose for unlimited power. If you’re not disturbed by watching Gates as he offers this totalitarian vision of a ‘chipped’ future with his customary daft grin, then you must be very low on the common sense quotient.

    I feel the need to underline this: it is being suggested by a billionaire at the epicentre of the supply capacity as the solution to a relatively benign virus for over 98% of us….and also remind you all that only two days ago, Macron airily announced (also with a satisfied smile) the he was working with the smartphone sector in France to produce an obligatory app tracing everyone’s movements all the time. Purely to control COVID19 of course. Naturally.”

    1. Thought for the day (tomorrow):

      Let’s threaten to kill every billionaire on the planet, confiscate every penny they, their families’ money, their trusts, their companies and everything they own.

      Then let the deputies run it all, but tell them that if they get out of hand the same fate awaits.

      I suspect that all of a sudden the world might become a better place.

      1. You’re a little devil, but I like you! I might have mixed my quotes there, a bit like my drinks, hic!

    1. Three weeks since young Emily Jones was attacked and killed in Bolton. No sign of any charges being brought against her alleged assassin(s).

      1. 318080+ up ticks,
        Evening T,
        A terribly sad affair, yet another put down as
        a mentally, maladjusted case.

      2. The suspect has been detained under the Mental Health Act. Can charges be brought against someone deemed insane?

    2. Now, would I report a gathering of slammers or just nominate them for a Darwin award later. I’ll just have another beer whilst I contemplate my decision. Inshallah.

  107. And another one bites the dust.

    Peter Bonetti of Chelsea and England football fame.

  108. Just seen an Orange Tip butterfly and what looks like a Clouded Yellow.

    Edit: Unless it was a Brimstone…

    They’ll be sorry tomorrow – the wind has already gone round to the north and max temp of 8ºC is forecast….

    1. Get that fleece down over your minitrombettis. If you haven’t got any, un-self isolate and go down to the nearest farm with a pair of shears, their sheep won’t miss a few tufts.

    3. Forecasting 6° here, with a brisk north-north-easterly in off the sea.

      It shouldn’t be hard to stay in again tomorrow.

      1. I’ve let the Rayburn go out (it was 28 degrees C inside yesterday), so it looks as though the oil heating will have to be brought on line.

        1. For the past few weeks I’ve been getting into modelling and carving from wax for eventual casting in silver when the foundry gets back in business after the shut-down.

          Just finished a shore crab earlier this afternoon. With its claws and legs outstretched it’s a fraction larger than a pound coin. Eventually it’ll be a pendant.

          3. Blue wax. The shell is hard wax, filed to shape and I made the claws and legs from two different diameters of wax ‘wire’ that is a lot softer. Fiddly stuff. It will go to the foundry, where it will be used to make a mould for casting in silver. The wax model will disappear in a puff of smoke, lost wax method.

          7. I’ve got a good few photos of them. When I was watching them I was thinking back to the wildlife documentaries of my youth where fiddler crabs and mudskippers were standard fayre, because of the limited facilities the film photographers had in those days.

            Now it’s all cheetahs and meerkat soap operas and the viewers of today probably aren’t even aware that fiddler crabs and mudskippers exist.

          8. Wonderful animals. I used to spend hours, when I could, in Africa and SE Asia watching them. I still can’t get people to believe I’ve seen many ‘flocks’ of flying squid.

          9. Nothing, but nothing, beats a spot of creativity. Sometimes, when I get “in the zone” I lose all track of time.

          15. It’s on a flexible mount with a built-in lamp. Invaluable.

            It doesn’t stop my hands shaking at crucial times though. I broke three legs just putting them on, some of them twice. 🙂

        2. On my last holiday i had luncheon with a group of pals in a sunlit square. My dish was Lobster Tagliettelli. Large gins and good company. Akki is a serving officer in Thames V Police. He isn’t a happy plod.

          I think he needs a safe space like yours……….

          1. I feel for Akki and his colleagues. I simply couldn’t be a plod in this day and age: I would get sacked for the inevitable adverse comments that I’d make to senior ranks!

    4. Hide it quick, Bilty, or Grizz’ll have it fried on toast in a flash – they’re his favourite butterfly you know.

    5. It could be a new cross, because of these troubled times when they are all there for each other…

    6. It will be a Brimstone, Billy. They are commonplace and one of the first to emerge.

      Clouded Yellows are a UK rarity and generally only appear in what is known as a “Clouded Yellow Year”, which occurs every now and then when they become quite widespread for the duration.

          1. I’ve seen them here, in the field adjoining our garden, but not in recent years. Other than that, only in France and Germany.

    7. Been seeing a lot of Brimstones and Orange Tips here since we started having the sunshine. Also some lovely oil beetles.

    8. We were hoping for rain. The garden is very dry.

      Three days ago rain was forecast for Monday.
      Two days ago, it was forecast for today.
      Yesterday, thunderstorms were forecast for this afternoon.
      Today, nothing, nada, zilch.
      I’m very disappointed.

    9. It could be a new cross, because of these troubled times when they are all there for each other…

  109. He brought us Ecky Thump and the Rolf Harris Safari Park:

    The Goodies star Tim Brooke-Taylor has died aged 79 after contracting coronavirus.

    The actor, who stared in the 1970s comic trio series and was a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, died this morning.

    “It is with great sadness that we announce Tim’s death early today from Covid-19,” his agent said in a statement.

    “We will remember him for so much but must just mention The Goodies and I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. He had, of course, many fans whom he always treated cheerfully even after long and exhausting rehearsals and recordings.

    “He was an exceptional client and a pleasure to represent. We’re grateful that we have so much of his work to view, read and listen to.

    “In all the time with us and in all his showbiz work, he has been supported by Christine, his wife.”

    Ecky Thump, the ’70s would have been unbearable without Tim Brooke-Taylor and The Goodies
    Sioned Wiliam, Radio 4’s commissioning editor for comedy, added: “Tim Brooke-Taylor had a long and distinguished career in comedy.

    “He was charming, quick witted and a hugely skilful comic.

    “He was much loved both by our listeners and by his colleagues, and he will be sorely missed by all at Radio 4.”

    Brooke-Taylor began his acting career at Cambridge University where he was president of the famed Footlights performing arts club.

    He toured internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964 before finding wider recognition for his work on BBC Radio with I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again.

    Brooke-Taylor moved into TV with At Last The 1948 Show, where he starred alongside John Cleese and Graham Chapman.

    But it was as one of The Goodies, alongside Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, that he found international fame, earning household name status in Australia and New Zealand and attracting millions of viewers in its heyday.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/12/goodies-star-tim-brooke-taylor-79-has-died-coronavirus/

    1. For me, he will always be Dame Constance de Coverlet in radio’s “I’m sorry I’ll read that again”.

      1. The best ISRTA episodes are brilliant. Nobody ever did better puns. Luckily, I have a cache…

        1. Bill Oddie: “They made their escape in hot pea soup”. The Dark Knight is mentioned, and a voice says “Howdy doo dere, honey!”, “I need a stiff drink”, he said, so I poured him a pint of glue, “Have an OBE!”, etc. etc.

      2. ISIRTA! A genuinely funny and ground-breaking series that I listened to avidly. Thanks for the reminder, Elsie!

    2. I loved the Goodies when I was a kid. Haven’t seen it for about 40 years though. Maybe I’ll try find an episode or two and see if it’s still funny as an adult.

      1. Nah. Listen to ISIRTA instead, T. Or any episode of ISIHAC.

        btw, managed to find “B” on youtube and posted it – just the one upvote!

  110. Easter Greetings to all.

    For anyone missing music this Easter, my brother recomended this version of the St John Passion of Bach for about half a dozenn performers, livestreamed on Friday from the Thomaskirche now available on facebook (you don’t have to be signed up to listen).
    https://www.facebook.com/mdrkultur/videos/220971662483130/

    I am listening to it now from the comfort of my own home, which is considerably more more comfortable than sitting in the Thomaskirche, if lacking a bit in atmosphere.

    2. I’m perfectly happy with my own company and I have mostly worked from home, so not much change for me.

    9. Someone who enjoys a drink, has a sense of humour, is an excellent cook, knows when to speak and when to be quiet.

      “Reader, I married her.”

    10. SWMBO. She’s nice, intelligent, built for comfort… Been an item a few months over 40 years now, couldn’t get used to someone new, even if I wanted to.

    11. Glad I’m not shacked up with you Nottlers…….thanks.

      I’ll stick with Maud….

      1. There’s been quite a lot of comment on the internet from various quarters that COVID could cause the break up the EU. We can live in hope.

        1. 318080+ up ticks,
          C,
          Only part of the problem we will still be left with the 650, steeped in proven treachery.

      3. Depends whether another nation cuts and runs. Unlikely as the centre will do what it needs to keep the flock together. However, economies are not easily controlled and anything could be on the table if somebody mentions that the king is not wearing any clothes. Just a few weeks ago the UK economy was in good shape, then a Butterfly Bat flapped its wings.

        1. The UK economy wasn’t ‘in good shape’ a few weeks ago. It hasn’t been in good shape since before the global financial crisis. We’ve had deflation, weak growth, austerity in public services, private sector wages held down, benefits worth less than they were 25 years ago (things so bad they had to up the rate to keep people losing their jobs because of covid-19 happy), a massive gig economy where people have no employment rights and aren’t paid at least NMW, and yet again huge house price inflation. Access to short-term credit has become extremely expensive. The only half-decent year in the past 13 was 2014. Why? Well there was an election coming up so some of the austerity was paused.
          Who are you trying to kid?

      4. Depends whether another nation cuts and runs. Unlikely as the centre will do what it needs to keep the flock together. However, economies are not easily controlled and anything could be on the table if somebody mentions that the king is not wearing any clothes. Just a few weeks ago the UK economy was in good shape, then a Butterfly Bat flapped its wings.

      5. 318080+ up ticks,
        Evening Aoe,
        The way I see it is post Jay report there were still support for mass uncontrolled immigration parties regardless of the odious consequences.

  116. Be careful what you wish for, fellow Nottlers

    Pensioner flung from fighter jet at 2,500ft after grabbing ejector seat handle to ‘steady himself’

    A pensioner who was given a surprise flight in a £70million fighter jet as a retirement present was flung out at 2,500ft after grabbing the

    ejector seat handle to ‘steady himself’.

    The drama is outlined in a newly released report by French aviation investigators which at times reads like a dark comedy script, as it

    describes how the unidentified 64-year-old panicked during his first flight in the Rafale-B.

    Then he shot out at high speed, losing his helmet that had not been fastened round his chin properly, before landing in a field close to the

    German border.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/12/pensioner-flung-fighter-jet-2500-ft-grabbing-ejector-seat-handle/

    1. It was drummed into me that the yellow and black striped bits were for emergencies only!

      1. Having sat on said seats for 19 years, I learnt to treat them with respect. The extra bit to the report above did not mention was that the command eject was on ‘both, so the pilot should have been ejected as well. Luckily, the sequence failed and the pilot landed the aircraft with a primed seat.

      1. As it’s loading and before the firewal kicks in, hammer away at the esc key. Often blocks the firewall.

  117. I thought that the Prime Minister made a very good speech – considering he has only been out of hospital for an hour or so, looks like death warmed up and, no doubt, feels much the same.

    It was, I think a – “I haven’t gone away” – speech.

  118. I thought my contempt for the media could not be any lower. The way they are reporting covid is even more beneath my contempt. They should be far more responsable than they are, just reporting pure fiction in many cases. they should not be allowed to get away with it.

    1. This struck me most forcibly when Lent ended and I went back to reading the Daily Mail.
      Just whipped up hysteria about PPE shortages/protectOurNHS/covidiots going out/people blaming essential workers blah blah blah, which is reflected in the brainwashed comments.
      None of the other papers are any better. Probably the Express has the lowest percentage of coronavirus nonsense, but only because they’re filling in the gaps with other nonsense.
      Come back Meghan, all is forgiven 🙁

      1. She doesn’t need to come back – she’s still all over the Excess every day. Their cynical readers have her sussed.

  119. This is a curious time for the BBC. Its hatred of the Tory party in general and Boris Johnson in particular borders on the pathological yet it is required to approve of the government’s message to us to ‘stay at home’. To demonstrate the level of the threat to us all, it featured a number of younger victims on its early evening bulletin, making the point that better equipment would have protected those featured who worked in the NHS and social care. This is, of course, the government’s great weak spot and deserving of criticism. Unsurprisingly, they made the most of it.

    Sir Jeremy Farrar of the Wellcome Trust suggested that the UK was likely to be one of the worst affected countries in Europe, possibly the worst. Then, in a predictable piece of sequencing, it went straight to the briefing with the hapless Health Secretary. If you ever wanted someone to look the world in the eye, you wouldn’t choose Matt Hancock…

    There then followed a few outdoor scenes, some of them at Hastings where a 30-something woman who had been out with her children told the reporter that she had given her forthright opinion to some adults who were behaving badly. Then, a quick trip along the coast to feature a boatload of illegal immigrants. No judgementalism here, merely an observation that it’s difficult for 20 people to keep their distance in a small boat.

    This was an odd broadcast. It is a matter of genuine sadness that young people and medical and care staff have died but I felt, notwithstanding my own innate distrust of the corporation, that I was being manipulated. There was also a hint of the lecture in it, combining the grief of the relatives of the dead with the message to behave ourselves. “Better coming from us in Portland Place than that shower over in SW1, eh? We’ve got our experts too, you know.”

    I felt less angry than sad and had to push out of my mind the idea that some in the BBC, at a time without sport, are cynically compiling a European league table of shame.

    1. I think you are right, WS. And this evening, yet again, the usual vague reference to a shortage of PPE. Nothing specific, and no hospital mentioned. No one seems prepared to go on the record about this alleged shortage. As I said earlier today, my daughter at Southampton has confirmed, yet again, that they have what they need. My niece at St Thomas’ says the same. I think there is some blatant anti-government mischief going on, possibly from a union rep or similar, and it suits the BBC to repeat what they have been told without any evidence or investigation.

    2. I totally agree with your comment.

      I really hope that Boris will take some action against the BBC post Covid-19. This should include the abolition of the compulsory licence fee. We do not need a biased national broadcaster. There are plenty of better sources of information, better educational tools and better entertainment channels than the crap produced by the BBC. Most of their output entertainment-wise are repeats. They lack invention, creativity and above all objectivity.

    3. Same panic over here in Canada.

      We were just talking to our neighbour who is an Operating Theatre nurse. Never had it so easy, they have all been cross trained to help in ICU but are not needed there at the moment.

      The hospital that she is at has one covid patient, the main hospital down the road from them has maybe thre or four, with one just released from intensive care.

    4. I would suggest that entering a country illegally in an overcrowded small boat would fit the description of ‘adults behaving badly’.

      Did the BBC point out this detail?

      1. If you use your imagination, you might detect the merest ‘tut-tut’ from the reporter.

      2. As well as ‘making an unnecessary journey’, given that France is a peaceful country.

    5. A national broadcaster who approvingly films invaders arriving on our shores is not one that we want or need.

    7. A national broadcaster who approvingly films invaders arriving on our shores is not one that we want or need.

      1. A couple of nights ago they had a reporter over in the Calais camp, bewailing the conditions etc etc. So b****y what, they could always go home.

      1. ‘Morning, John. All fine thanks. Was rudely awakened by gusts of wind rattling a bedroom window (which I had forgotten to close), and having got up and dressed, decided to stay up. You OK?

        2. Morning Geoff ,

          Gusts of wind blew open a few doors, windows I had left open over night , plus the dawn chorus , birds singing their hearts out .

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