Sunday 26 April: The Government is running out of time to regain public confidence

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/04/25/lettersthe-government-running-time-regain-public-confidence/

877 thoughts on “Sunday 26 April: The Government is running out of time to regain public confidence”

    1. “Satellite imagery finds likely Kim Jong Un train amid health rumors”

      USA Today.

      Good morning.

      1. Not clear what his train has to do with his health/vegetative state/demise? Anyway, doubt if we will hear more until the delegation from the CCP have finished installing the new gangsters …oops, I mean regime.

        1. I suspect the Ugly Sister has done her stuff.

          It being earlyish, I read the second word as “imaginary” – and thought that was about par for the NK course!

          3. Lots of cheese and cognac (tastes acquired at the posh Swiss school that his Daddy sent him to). Might have lead to his heart problem and botched surgery.

          4. According to the impeccable source Wikipedia, there is some doubt about which school in Switzerland he went to – or whether he went there at all. I thought he went to Le Rosay but that is clearly not the case. Unless he did and it has been air-brushed. But I simply cannot imagine a North Korean regime air-brushing anything, can you?

          6. Maybe the surgeons sent out for a length of piping, and B&Q made them wait in the queue.

          7. I seem to recall reports that he was rather keen on fast food. Sounds as though he’s a bit slow now. Let that be a lesson to lovers of KFC, MuckDonalds and the rest of ’em. There’s a price to be paid for filling yer face with junk food…

          9. ‘Morning Bill, from a sunny but cool E Sussex. Unfortunately this brief but very welcome spell of global warming may be over for now if yer Met Office is right. Some rain would be nice though.

          10. Just been out to the greenhouse – yes, it is nippy. Rain forecast all day Tuesday – which will be a blessing.

    2. “Satellite imagery finds likely Kim Jong Un train amid health rumors”

      USA Today.

      Good morning.

      1. I wonder what the cardio-vascular procedure was…Chinese quacks brought in to help in the search for his heart, perhaps? Pretty pointless if so.

        ‘Morning, Peddy.

        1. ‘Morning, Hugh, I expect the Chinese ‘Quacks’ brought him some bat soup flavoured with pangolin bits.

        2. ‘Morning, Hugh.

          Could have been anything from inserting a stent to open heart surgery.

      2. There is no way of knowing for sure, Peddy. Either he is dead, in which case an announcement will be made in a few days, or he is alive, in which case he will make an appearance in a few weeks. There is absolutely no way of knowing and to pretend otherwise is just guesswork.

        It’s exactly the same with the UK’s response to the Corona Virus. Everyone has a different opinion of what we should/could/might be doing, what we should have done in the past or what we must/ought to do in the future and there is absolutely no definite “truth” in all this. Is the criticism valid or a political ploy? Is the science conclusive or not? Do we trust Boris or not? Is self-isolation and lock-down a good thing or will it lead to economic ruin? Should it be down-scaled to allow more businesses to survive? And if so, when?

        All of the above is a collection of imponderables and unanswerables, which only create more anxiety and fear and are not good for our mental health, and which the MSM keep repeating to sell more copies. All I can say is that “what will be, will be” and that I have not a chance in a million of influencing any of this. I am grateful that I do not have to make the government’s decisions for them, that I am retired with a reasonable pension (and galloping inflation after all this is over may change even that) and that I have a garden, a nearby park, and the technology (email/telephone/FaceTime) to keep connected with friends and family. I really feel for younger people who are suddenly unable to earn to support their families, for women in an abusive marriage who are now in contact with their husbands 24/7, and for children who are (mostly) missing out on a decent education.

        So I now ignore all these inconclusive debates. It’s like arguing with ogga1 or Pretty Polly – you just get nowhere. Instead I am keeping busy and filling my days with things which keep me occupied and which I enjoy. And I hope that all NoTTLers will come to the same conclusion.

      3. There is no way of knowing for sure, Peddy. Either he is dead, in which case an announcement will be made in a few days, or he is alive, in which case he will make an appearance in a few weeks. There is absolutely no way of knowing and to pretend otherwise is just guesswork.

        It’s exactly the same with the UK’s response to the Corona Virus. Everyone has a different opinion of what we should/could/might be doing, what we should have done in the past or what we must/ought to do in the future and there is absolutely no definite “truth” in all this. Is the criticism valid or a political ploy? Is the science conclusive or not? Do we trust Boris or not? Is self-isolation and lock-down a good thing or will it lead to economic ruin? Should it be down-scaled to allow more businesses to survive? And if so, when?

        All of the above is a collection of imponderables and unanswerables, which only create more anxiety and fear and are not good for our mental health, and which the MSM keep repeating to sell more copies. All I can say is that “what will be, will be” and that I have not a chance in a million of influencing any of this. I am grateful that I do not have to make the government’s decisions for them, that I am retired with a reasonable pension (and galloping inflation after all this is over may change even that) and that I have a garden, a nearby park, and the technology (email/telephone/FaceTime) to keep connected with friends and family. I really feel for younger people who are suddenly unable to earn to support their families, for women in an abusive marriage who are now in contact with their husbands 24/7, and for children who are (mostly) missing out on a decent education.

        So I now ignore all these inconclusive debates. It’s like arguing with ogga1 or Pretty Polly – you just get nowhere. Instead I am keeping busy and filling my days with things which keep me occupied and which I enjoy. And I hope that all NoTTLers will come to the same conclusion.

        1. Well said, Elsie.

          I have tasked my German group with doing online written translations, which they send to me & I ‘mark’. This gives all concerned something to do & we’ll get this year’s book finished.

          6-hour belly pork roll, with scallions & lemon grass just going into the oven for supper.

          1. What time is supper, Peddy? I’ll be round 30 minutes earlier, with a good bottle of wine!

          2. Meat & roast potatoes due out of the oven at 19.00, which gives me time to enjoy a G&T with the News beforehand.

    1. Good Morning all

      Same here, if misty.

      Hope you had a jolly party and didn’t die of thirst whilst regaling the assembled company with ribald tales from north of the border. {:^))

  4. The MR and I went to the drinks do. H has had a complicated life and lives alone. I think she was celebrating her 80th. She is an accomplished landscape painter – and bridge player. We assumed there would be a jolly crowd all standing 6 ft apart.

    Not a soul.

    H brought out a bottle and explained that one other couple (also bridge addicts) had dropped in earlier; and the village ornithologist.

    Other than that she had received nothing but opprobrium – censorious finger-wagging – “bad example”; “not the time for this sort of thing” ; “letting the village down”; “who knows what we might catch”…. etc etc. She was almost in tears.

    I have read about the curtain twitchers and finger-waggers here and in the press, but never thought I would find it in a rural village where the main activity is farming, and where we believe we have a good and caring (dreadful word) community.

    Honestly I was shocked – and we were both pleased to have gone, as invited, and that we were seen wishing our pal happy birthday.

    5. Well done, Bill. The gov and the media have terrified a majority of the population so I guess we have to cut the fearful ones a bit of slack. Perfectly rational friends of mine will not leave their home under any circumstance.

      When I walk the dog in the forest there are those, who when they see us coming, walk at least 10yards into the forest to avoid us.

    7. My neighbour invited me round for a coffee outdoors (six feet apart, natch), but I wasn’t able to go (and now the weather isn’t suitable). When it brightens up again I shall text her and ask if the invite still stands.

  5. Good morning all.

    Bright sunshine, but will it last?

    Plenty of rain from late morning onwards. Just what the garden needs.

    1. Rain promised. In fact it’s supposed to be happening now. But of course, it isn’t, and most probably won’t until the monsoons start in late June.

      1. Good point. As a non-clapper myself, perhaps I should set about fortifying Janus Towers and arming ourselves in readiness for the inevitable baying mob.

        ‘Morning, Citroen.

        1. Can all us non-clappers make our protests heard by having a countrywide clap-in at 2000 hours every evening but Thursday

          2. I was thinking of clapping at 3 in the morning, complete with fireworks and hammering on an empty oil drum in case anyone is still asleep and missing the fun…

          1. Last Thurs, I was walking from the car to the house when the lionisation erupted. As I walked past one bloke, he just looked at me and asked “Not clapping?”.
            I said No and walked on, couldn’t be bothered to get into a debate.

          2. Good for you. State-organised applause for a broken NHS just isn’t British…or wasn’t until recently. Woe betide anyone now who dares to crticize it.

  8. SIR – I congratulate the government of Vietnam on its stunning management of coronavirus.

    Despite bordering China, the country has applied contact-tracing, testing and quarantine intelligently. As a result, it has had just 268 cases and no deaths. It is now lifting social distancing restrictions and returning its economy to normal.

    I suggest that, when this crisis is over, those responsible for running Public Health England and the Department of Health are sent to Vietnam to learn how to plan for and handle a pandemic. And, since pay should reflect performance, their future salaries should be reduced to below those of their counterparts in Vietnam.

    Tony Laycock

    Barnstaple, Devon

    1. Assuming the figures are true, of course. Vietnam is a communist country, used to massaging the “truth”.

    2. There may be more to it than the regimen.
      Yer boffs are looking into why yer blacks suffer worse under CV – there may be a genetic or other reason for low mortality rates; same may hold for other genome types

    3. Hi Epi, what Tony Laycock also fails to mention is the temperature differences between the UK and Vietnam. In March the average high temp in Ho Chi Minh City is 33.9 C and average low temp is 24.4 C.
      Some scientists say that the virus is not resilient in higher temperatures and, of course, others disagree. However, comparing the UK to Vietnam without consideration of all the variables is pointless.

  9. Morning again

    SIR – My partner is classified as very vulnerable, so is a recipient of emergency supplies from the Government.

    The first arrival was most welcome and alleviated any fears we had concerning supplies of essentials. However, once she was able (almost immediately) to benefit from priority allocation of supermarket delivery slots, she explained that these supplies were no longer needed and asked to cancel deliveries in order to avoid waste and help people in actual need.

    The fourth box has just been delivered. This time my partner spoke directly to the organisation that delivers the boxes. She was told that the company was unable to stop the deliveries because the government website it was hooked up to was not working properly.

    Now that the Prime Minister’s adviser Dominic Cummings is back in action, perhaps he will take a look at this example of witless bureaucracy.

    Ken Ives

    Bellingdon, Buckinghamshire

      1. A bottle of gin, half a dozen Fevertree tonics, limes, cucumber, a bumper copy of Saki and a packet of root vegetable crisps.
        Some plain F/F Greek yoghurt and fresh fruit would be nice, but I’d get by without them.
        Morning, Peddy.

  10. Roberto of Bonsall posted this on Saturday’s blog very early this morning. For the non-premium NoTTLers, here it is again

    This crisis has exposed that the Army is the only part of the state that actually works
    SIMON HEFFER – APRIL 2020 • 10:00PM

    The Armed Forces have come to the rescue of an inept government

    It remains the British instinct to believe that, if all else fails in a crisis, the Armed Forces are always there to pick up the pieces. So it is during the coronavirus. the RAF was, eventually, sent to Turkey to collect personal protective equipment (PPE), once the Government remembered to order it. Soldiers are distributing it. But, according to a briefing from an unnamed senior officer, the Army – which makes a point of doing things properly – has found the incompetence of the NHS in directing equipment to where it was needed “appalling”. It was shocked that scarce resources were apportioned to hospitals without regard to relative need. The officer described the NHS’s logistics as “knackered”; and highlighted the lack of leadership that had led, among other things, to a failure to implement rationing of items that are in short supply.

    The Army implied matters would improve if it, rather than the NHS, were in charge of distributing PPE; and since most regiments have officers and men dedicated to solving logistical problems, the implication is probably justified. Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defence select committee and a former soldier, suggested that however good the NHS was at saving lives, it lacked expertise in procurement and distribution; and that a military man with logistical expertise should take charge instead.

    Mr Ellwood is to be congratulated on his tact and understatement: what, presumably out of party loyalty, he forbore to say was that ministers should have spotted this need from the moment they realised special equipment would have to be procured and distributed. The NHS, we now realise, doesn’t excel in non-clinical respects. The Government last week belatedly appointed Lord Deighton, chief executive of the 2012 Olympics, as “supply tsar”, to organise procurement. Assuming he finds the equipment, he will need the Army to get it to where it needs to go.

    The Armed Forces seem, for the moment, to be the only public service in the country that actually functions properly. This is thanks not least to the rigour of their training, but also because of the high traditions of the services in which their members are schooled, and which are largely immune to political interference. That is not true of other public services.

    The administrative side of the NHS appears largely spavined, a point underlined by the crashing of the much-vaunted virus-testing website on Friday. The heavy-handedness and zealotry of some police forces suggests they lack effective leadership and self-knowledge, with politically correct senior officers throwing their weight around with harmless people – such as allowing the checking of supermarket trolleys for “non-essential items” – in a way the public rarely perceives them doing with criminals.

    Sadly, the example is set by government itself, too many of whose ministers are inexperienced not just in their profession but in life itself, out of their depth, incompetent and indecisive, and in one or two cases engaged in absurd squabbles with each other.

    But the Armed Forces cannot be expected to come to the rescue of an inept government if they are continually demoralised, run down and underfunded. General Sir Peter Wall, until 2014 chief of the general staff, observed last week that defence spending would have to rise by £20 billion if the Armed Forces were to be equal to the job of defending Britain – a shocking indictment of the policies of recent administrations. The Cameron coalition cut 20,000 soldiers from the Army in its 2011 defence review, preferring to spend taxpayers’ money on grandstanding projects such as the overseas aid budget. Maintaining the Armed Forces at a strength where they may be able to function effectively within Nato became a low priority.

    There are now just 79,000 regular soldiers – around 3,000 below strength – and 27,000 reservists, enfeebling the Army not just against the Queen’s enemies, but in supporting the people in a crisis such as we are now experiencing. Luckily, the 13,000 personnel said to be self-isolating a few weeks ago is now massively reduced. However, the Army struggles to find recruits, not least because of a perception that the Government doesn’t really care about it. In its desperation for fresh blood, the Army has in recent years lowered its entrance requirement: 4,000 recruits in the three years up to 2019 had a reading age of less than eleven, and 50 of them less than seven.

    Inevitably, politicians make a cult of the NHS in these anxious days; but if they continue to run down the Army and take it for granted, it may be incapable of cleaning up the mess next time, or of doing even more dangerous work in a more terrifying national crisis.

    1. The reason for the Army’s effectiveness and efficiency is that seniors are allowed to issue orders, knowing that they will be carried out.

      When there is a mission, different groups are tasked according to their speciality and then its “Serjeant Major…carry on”.They don’t query or refuse their orders, there’s no coffee morning discussion or prevarication, they just get on with it.

      1. My BiL is ex-army and now works in a Min of Def establishment.

        He hasn’t quite come to terms with the fact that civilians do not automatically follow orders and seem to need absolutely everything explained.

        Oddly enough he started off as the senior manager of the department but he inherited an ex-services employee who outranked him in services terms.

        This individual was the least co-operative of the lot, always commenting on their rank difference, even though he was technically well below my BiL in the civilian hierarchy.

          1. Indeed; the chap in question was very used to being treated as “God”.
            My FiL used to tell a tale of an exchange in court.
            Barrister: “Now Mr Smith…”
            Smith: “Captain Smith if you don’t mind.”
            Barrister: “In your view, Mr Smith…”
            Smith: “Captain Smith if you don’t mind.”

            This went on for a while, and eventually the Judge interrupted.
            “I believe you served in the recent conflict as a Brigadier”
            Barrister: ” Yes your Honour”
            Judge: “As did I, a General.”

            Judge: “Well, Captain Smith In the presence of your superior officers you will give the rest of your evidence standing to attention”

          3. From what we see in media photos there’s at least one boat in the channel, but it somehow seems to make a habit of avoiding the daily rubber boat invasion.
            Does Rubber show up on radar ?

          4. The first thing a potential illegal immigrant should do on purchasing a RIB is to remove radar reflectors.

          5. Sort of. It is composed of 75 ships, of which only 20 (including HMS Queen Elizabeth, which won’t be operational until later this year) are classed as major surface combatants – which MPs say is the official definition of a warship. We do, however, have 34 fleet commanders (admirals). So that’s alright then.

    2. Thanks Citroen and BoB. I do wonder about the effect on recruitment of the hounding of NI veterans. This disgraceful practice would certainly make me think twice before signing up.

      1. Our youngest wanted to join the armed forces. I’m so glad I talked him out of it.
        Blair with daft vader following was pm at the time. They were hung out to dry.
        And then along came Cameron……..

          2. I can understand why. I wouldn’t want my sons lives put at risk and their twilight years spent fighting off government lawyers.

          4. OT, stormy. Ozark – v good, despite the unrelenting cursing. Who knew Peter Mullan could play a hillbilly!

        2. Was that the same Dodgy Dave who frequently praised the Services on the one hand while slashing their numbers with the other…

    3. Morning all 😑
      Spot on Mr Heffer.
      It’s a typically British managerial political, civil (they run our politics) service trait, eff up everything they come into contact with, and blame everyone else. Front line NHS superb, army excellent.
      Politicians with no specific training, here today gone tomorrow chancers.
      The mentioned over zealousness of the police force is a typical example of that trait.
      I hope someone is looking into the ‘care home’ debacle where hundreds of already isolated elderly have been seemingly infected from outside sources. Perhaps the owners should be investigated and brought to account. Possibly by the army.

      1. The NHS appears to have tipped out anyone who looked like inconveniently dying of old age; i.e. ‘with’ rather than ‘of’ C19.
        Ultimately, staff have to travel to and from their homes to work their shifts.

      2. Quite so, Eddy. The fatal lack of preparation and PPE for care homes is surely the next scandal to break. It almost seems to be a case of “Well, they are old anyway, so they are expendable”.

        1. Whatever happened to the Care Quality Commission (CQC)? Didn’t Blair and co create this additional layer of bureaucracy to oversee the private nursing homes, or is it just another quango collecting it’s wages whilst waiting for the gold-plated pension?

    4. Regarding the article’s headline, I’m pretty certain Common Purpose are working hard to correct the situation.

    5. Three comments on the Letters page:-

      Robert Spowart
      26 Apr 2020 3:58AM
      The headline from The Hefferlump’s Article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/25/crisis-has-exposed-army-part-state-actually-works reads:-

      “This crisis has exposed that the Army is the only part of the state that actually works”
      I believe Common Purpose is, even at this hour on a Sunday morning, striving hard to correct that anomalous situation.
      Delete3Like
      Reply

      Yves Binoche
      26 Apr 2020 6:28AM
      @Robert Spowart

      Common Purpose is a charity that runs courses in leadership for people from minority backgrounds. I don’t know if anyone from the military is eligible for their courses, and doesn’t the military have its own internal management programmes? Plenty of officers take a year off to do courses at University -diplomacy, international law and so on.

      FlagLike
      Reply

      Robert Spowart
      26 Apr 2020 8:30AM
      @Yves Binoche @Robert Spowart Your ignorance of the activities of Common Purpose is astounding.

      Delete1Like
      Reply

    6. ‘Twas ever thus.
      My generation of expectant mother would practically kill to give birth in the military hospital rather than the local maternity home.
      Guess which establishment no longer exists.

    7. “The Armed Forces seem, for the moment, to be the only public service in the country that actually functions properly. This is thanks not least
      to the rigour of their training, but also because of the high traditions of the services in which their members are schooled, and which are
      largely immune to political interference.      ” Believe me, they are working on it, if the posters in No 1 Radio School are anything to go by. Touchy-feely, diversity compliant, PC clap-trap – you name it, it’s there 🙁

    8. “The Armed Forces seem, for the moment, to be the only public service in the country that actually functions properly. This is thanks not least
      to the rigour of their training, but also because of the high traditions of the services in which their members are schooled, and which are
      largely immune to political interference.      ” Believe me, they are working on it, if the posters in No 1 Radio School are anything to go by. Touchy-feely, diversity compliant, PC clap-trap – you name it, it’s there 🙁

    1. I hope you don’t have the same problem as our neighbour had yesterday, Del. (see below)

  13. ‘Morning All
    I note the “Immortal” class are out in force again in the MSM,you know the ones,terrified of death and are planning to live forever.
    Their mantra of course is “Every Life Is Precious”
    What rot,what utter bunkum,throughout my entire life “Human Life” has been the cheapest commodity on the planet………….
    I can’t be arsed to list the countries that prove my point,you know them all anyway

      1. Oh Wonderful,just been to the kitchen and found myself singing the damn thing!!
        That’s today’s earworm sorted!!

  14. Donald Trump says press briefings ‘not worth the time and effort’. 26 April 2020.

    Donald Trump has tweeted that his daily coronavirus briefings are not worth his time, two days after sparking a furor by suggesting patients might be injected with disinfectant to kill an infection.

    The US president appeared to confirm media reports that he was considering halting the briefings, which dominate early-evening cable television news for sometimes more than two hours, out of frustration with questions about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    He’s right as usual. They just offer the opportunity for word twisting. More importantly we should stop them here where they just get on my nerves; although I have to admit I’ve only seen about twenty seconds at the beginning of them, and that’s because I’ve put the remote in the fridge by mistake. The bit’s I’ve seen are Political Masturbation and as such will not give birth to anything other than stained laundry!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-cases-uk-lockdown-deaths-test-covid-19-vaccine/

    1. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an amusing political cartoon in possession of a good deal of truth, must be in want of greater circulation.

  16. Latest News Just Breaking – The horror channel has been warned not to show satanic films during lockdown as we are only allowed one short exorcism a day.

    1. It shouldn’t be beyond the whit of local clergy to rig up a PA system and broadcast a recording of church bells at appropriate times pending the return of their campanologists ….

      1. 318591+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        And fly in the face of Submissive,PCism & Appeasement, I think not.
        Seemingly they would be more up for supplying any shortfall in the islamic ideology followers
        recording equipment, via dick ed davey.

      3. A couple of years ago I wrote to the heads of the main Christian groups on the subject of ringing bells. I suggested a national day of bell-ringing on All Saints.
        I received no enthusiastic replies, some blah suggesting why it would not happen, and at least one dusty answer. Maybe I should have suggested a round of applause after a service…

      4. With that nincompoop Anti-Christ Welby in charge the Cof E is probably no longer capable of anything to promote the Christian faith.

        He is most certainly a ‘wrong ‘un’ and I am beginning to suspect that he is in receipt of either blackmail threats or oodles of moolah from wealthy Islamic states.

    2. 318591+ up ticks,
      Sorry to say it but especially since the nine month treachery delay CONFIRMED it I do consider ALL
      current lab/lib/con coalition party supporters / members / voters to be of a dangerous nature & -ucking mad
      through & through.

  18. Junior:The must see film, for ‘Todays People’

    ITV 1:50 pm – 4:00 pm | Sunday 26th April 2020

    A fertility expert pioneers a treatment enabling men to become pregnant and carry babies to full term. When the authorities cancel funding for the research, he decides to test it on himself, but gives little thought to how difficult it will be to keep it a secret. The situation is further complicated when he starts to fall for the woman whose child he is carrying.

    Comedy, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Emma Thompson and Frank Langella

    How on earth did the BBC let this one be ITV

  19. Who ever said one person can’t change the world obviously never ate a bat.

  21. Apt film today on B2 at noon, given how times have changed.

    The life and death of Colonel Blimp.

  22. If the answer to the question is “Cockrobin” what was the question?
    No it’s not “Who killed the sparrow with his bow and arrow?”
    It’s “What’s that up my @rse Batman?”

  23. Don’t be fooled by the sunshine – there are only dark days ahead. Hitchens. 26 April 2020.

    I won’t dwell yet again on the damage the Government has already done, and which deepens every day. I only say that without serious and angry opposition, this will only get worse. This clueless Cabinet is motivated only by fear.

    People who strove all their lives for office now have no idea what to do with the powers they thought they wanted, and are terrified of the responsibilities that came with them. They do not understand what they are doing and are not in charge of their own destiny.
    They cannot admit they gravely overestimated the danger of the virus, and gravely underestimated the damage they would do to the economy.

    Mornng everyone. There is about the Government more than a whiff of the same attitudes that existed prior to WWII. They too were enslaved to a false doctrine. That of course was appeasement and which they followed blind to its consequences until it eventually led to disaster. In the present we have not just a government but an entire Political Class devoted to the principles of Cultural Marxism. This has led to the present crisis where the moral fibre and democratic principles that are required to rule a free people in a time of difficulty no longer exist. Only the spiritual vacuum, lies and evasion that this doctrine requires of its followers remain. Unfortunately no Churchill waits in the wings to save us.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8257541/PETER-HITCHENS-Dont-fooled-sunshine-dark-days-ahead.html

      1. Yo jM
        with very quick first glance at the young lady, i thought it wasGgreta the Bleata

        1. Super Brat has been very quiet of late. Has the Chinese Plague got her?

          ‘Morning, Tryers.

    2. Morning Minty. An excellent article, thanks for posting.

      Did you notice the snippet at the bottom about jurors? That they are no longer told the criterion for a guilty verdict is no longer “beyond reasonable doubt”, merely that they have “to be sure”. I think that’s quite alarming. But then I suppose it probably means that fewer and fewer defendants will be convicted, so saving clogging up the prisons with more inmates! “Save the Prisons” (from more customers) and “Save the NHS” from patients.

      1. Morning V. I did indeed notice it but doubt that it will make much difference to a system that is dying on its feet!

      2. Words of more than one syllable are no longer allowed. Same as the banks removal of expressions like ‘debit’ etc.. It has to be ‘you owe us’, etc…

      3. Vouvray, you have ruined my day! You seem to be suggesting that as well as the Thursday clap for the NHS we now will have a Friday clap to save the Prisons. Where will this all lead? I must buy some ear plugs to survive. (Mind you, I have yet to hear a single sound on Thursdays at 8pm, so perhaps it doesn’t really matter.)

      4. But not save the law-abiding public because the scrotes aren’t going to be locked up.

    3. Thanks to LabLibCon. all Britons are forced to wear a T shirt with S O R O S emblazoned across the front.

      You can’t remove the word S O R O S without destroying the T shirt, and without destroying LabLibCon.

      So Brits need to cut a hole in the front of their T shirt, junk it along with all their politicos, and get a new one..

        1. Sure, and thanks to the brilliance of Mr Palindrome, it would look exactly the same.

          1. Only if the dye had gone right through the fabric. Alternatively the could tie-dye it & obliterate the name.

        2. 318591+ up ticks,
          Morning Ptv,
          Many do, supporting & voting in the three monkey mode.

      2. You can take the man out of Soros, but you cannot take Soros out of Government

    4. 318591+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      “They” although initially purposely lifted the latch on mass uncontrolled immigration then proceeded alternately, aided & abetted, with the same nation destroying policy in a “tiger by the tail mode”, SOD the consequences, party first. Submissive, PCism & Appeasement as tools not only to appease the enemas of state, as in many cases the islamic ideology followers, but also to calm the herd.
      Cut price sweeties for paedophiles would NOT surprise me in the least.
      We have had peoples with Churchillian fibre actively showing the way in leadership in no small manner only to be castigated & suppressed in no small manner by the political governance close shop & colluding fools.
      We witness daily the results of giving these establishment politico’s carte blanche, not once or twice that could be forgiven but again,again,& again.

    5. To be fair to the Chamberlain government, once they realised that Appeasement wasn’t going to prevent war, they did step up preparations (albeit very late in the day). Thankfully, Watson-Watt, Dowding and Park, together with Sidney Cam and R J Mitchell had been working independently of government (Hawker and Supermarine were private firms) to remedy the situation. It was, however, a damned close-run thing.

    1. There really are no major news sites I feel ‘at home’ in any more. The Times is too remainerery and the once reliable Telegraph is rapidly proceeding down market due to the row in the Barclays family and their inability to sell the brand.

      It’s probly old age…

  26. 318591+ up ticks,
    All face-book, twitter, U tube, lab/lib/con hierarchy are modern day cowboys ie herd controllers.
    The party manifesto = a soothing lullaby for the herd & many select their
    polling station kiss upon the candidate considered to be the “best of the worst”
    Little wonder we have a chap in west london yelling at the top of his voice
    that it is time for YOU to get into the head down @rse up position.

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1254349966480486400

  28. Staff slam empty London Nightingale hospital as a ‘complete waste of money’ as patients drop to a ‘ludicrously low’ 26. Mail 26 April 2020.

    A source at the 3,600-bed flagship facility told The Mail on Sunday the ‘ludicrously low’ number of Covid19 victims had shattered morale among medical staff and claimed the Nightingale was ‘a complete waste of money and resources’.

    Remember this? Remember the tens of thousands of ventilators we needed? It’s all bull based on the apocalyptic forecast of that moron Ferguson!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8257371/Number-patients-London-Nightingale-hospital-dropped-just-26.html

  30. Well, my attempt at colouring my hair was a waste of time and effort. Followed all the instructions and it seemed to be OK then rinsed and it all came off and I was back at square one. Drat!

    3. That happened to me. My wife thought it a good idea to dye my beard which was becoming grey. At the initial stage I resembled Cut-throat Jake but after rinsing I looked more like the down and out beggar harassing the staff in Mandela House.

      The next venture was to dye my greying locks. This was successful to the extent that I saw a woman with the same coloured hair as she walked towards me in the centre of Cambridge. However my face turned a piggy pink colour as I have sensitive skin and was presumably allergic to the chemicals.

    4. You’ve reminded me of the time I put my foot in it – up to the knee really – with my prospective mother-in-law. From the time I first met her she had the most attractive pale pink hair, always well looked after. Trying to compliment her I asked why she always had her hair coloured in that shade of pink: cue a hardening of face and a fierce retort that she didn’t have her hair coloured. Her husband jumped in to save the day by explaining that when she was younger she had the most wonderful red hair and that as she got older the colour faded to her current shade. MiL liked me really.😎

    7. Oh dear , sorry to hear that , was there a little bottle as well as a big bottle in your pack.. There may have been something missing?

      OR a malevolent interference at work before you purchased your selection ?

      1. Both bottles were there and duly mixed. My hairdresser has explained that part. Apparently it should have foamed when massaged. That didn’t happen.

        3. No foaming on any of the main line products we have bought, it is similar to conditioner.

    8. I used to use “Nice & Easy” back in the day. You had to mix two two parts together to make it work.

        1. Try L’Oreal. It’s what I’ve used. I suggest a shade darker than you’d normally use as it does lighten up after a week or so.
          I hate having to go through the pulava of colouring my own hair. So much easier to sit there and let someone else do it…

    10. I do it for Mrs Pea. A lot of the excess dye rinses off after the application but I get as good a result as the salon and for just the price of the dye. Success really Depends upon how dark your hair is to start (unless you are going for a darker colour).

        1. Schwarzkopf Live Or Garnier. In truth, whatever is on offer in the supermark. Mrs Pea tries to go from black to red, not easy to change black but it makes a good effort.

    12. You should try painting a shed – I now have Harvest Gold highlights (and additional freckles ) 🙂

  31. Morning all

    SIR – I have seldom seen a better example of the need for strong, leadership than during the daily updates on Covid-19, with increasingly bland performances from the ministers trotted out to deliver them.

    While not wishing to denigrate their attempts to give us confidence in the scientific advice, their parallel determination to sidestep the central question does little to inspire. We need them to outline a plan to bring us out of lockdown, albeit one that is suitably caveated to allow for uncertainties. That way, they will retain the support of the pubic, give confidence to the NHS and provide some reassurance to the financial markets.

    The absence of true leadership, and the continuing failure to offer a way forward, is damaging public confidence in the Government. When Boris Johnson is back, he should appoint a Deputy Prime Minister with the authority to take key decisions in his absence.

    Gp-Capt Alan Ferguson RAF (retd)

    Ipswich, Suffolk

    SIR – I have often wondered what a month of Sundays was like.

    Now I know.

    Geoffrey Turberville Smith

    Rudgwick, West Sussex

    SIR – R V Tate (Letters, April 22) foresees public disorder if the over-70s are instructed to stay indoors even after the lockdown has been relaxed.

    I am nearly 75, work part-time, look after my grandchildren so my daughter can work, go on walking holidays and go to Pilates classes. All of this keeps me motivated and fit . If I stay in lockdown for much longer I will become depressed, overweight and lonely.

    I would certainly join a protest march, if it became necessary.

    Sandra Handley

    London NW11

    SIR – As a soon to be 80-year-old grandmother, I am happy to stay locked down for as long as it takes to ensure my safety and that of others.

    Like it or not, the elderly are the most vulnerable. Those enormous new hospitals give an indication of what may be in store when the lockdown is lifted too soon.

    Monica Giddens

    Caterham on the Hill, Surrey

    SIR – If the over-70s are forced to self-isolate until a coronavirus vaccine becomes available, then I hope the supermarkets will continue with their arrangements for early opening hours, which I have found most satisfactory. They have enabled me to maintain my independence.

    While I have appreciated the several well-intended offers of help I have received, I have always preferred to figure things out in my own way. Were I suddenly to find myself dependent on others for an indefinite period, I think frustration really would kick in – even more so if things were gradually opening up again and others were free to return to some semblance of normality.

    Nicola F Marlow

    Bushey, Hertfordshire

    1. FGS, Monica. We all have to die of something. Better to go out living your life to the full than die on your knees (or in bed) frightened to death.

  32. SIR – I wouldn’t have a problem with a review of the triple lock, provided that the Government addresses the anomaly whereby the basic state pension for those who retired before April 2016 is £134.26 a week – whereas, for those who retired after this date, it is £175.20.
    This is despite the fact that the cost of living for both groups of pensioners is obviously the same.
    John Stephenson

    Where’s the logic in this? If anything the earlier group should receive the higher sum as their costs will be higher.

    1. ‘Morning, BSK. As a Waspi (as Mrs HJ often reminds me) she is due to clean up in Feb ’21 for the full amount. So it’s not all bad news, then.

    2. ‘Morning, BSK. As a Waspi (as Mrs HJ often reminds me) she is due to clean up in Feb ’21 for the full amount. So it’s not all bad news, then.

    3. It may be too early in the morning for me, but why will their costs be higher?

          2. Also, the older they are, the more likely to need to move into a care home and that’s bl**day expensive.

          3. There’s more to expenses than prescription, peddy. MOH (nearly 75) requires the heating to be high and that costs.

    1. Morning OLT

      Dogs and cats have to be subjected to 6 months quarantine, so 2 weeks for humans is no hardship.

      Britain should have sorted this out right from the start .

      Moh’s golf club wallahs had a few things to say to returning holiday makers from the far East and Skiing resorts before lockdown was finalised .. golfers were really edgy about returners ..

        1. Yes indeed MM

          The course remained open for a while , but no access through the main concourse or eating area or contact re cards etc, then sadly the clampdown and all golf banned altogether.

    2. A bit late to the party, isn’t he? How many thousands are already coughing their way into the herd?

  35. You Bastards,you utter utter bastards!!
    Dry Cure you say
    Extra Thick Cut you say
    So pray tell me why 4 minutes after the 3 rashers hit the pan it look 5,yes 5 saturated sheets of kitchen roll to remove the white gunk and water from the bloody pan!!,revealing three shrunken skinny rashers now the injected water has escaped,at least now I can add a drop of oil and fry them rather than boiling them
    Yours heartily disgruntled……………..
    Any recommendations for old fashioned bacon online that doesn’t require a second mortgage??

    4. Try leaving the packet open in the fridge – when I had a fridge with a chiller section just below the freezer bit I found putting the bacon there semi-freeze dried it – you need to knock the ice off the inside of the pack and the bacon as soon as you take it out of the fridge. It’s not a perfect remedy but does cut back on some of the excess water.

    5. We buy naked bacon from Sainsburys, which doesn’t really have white gunk. Is fairly expensive though.
      (and has a silly name)

    8. That’ll be that Sodium Phosphate they inject into the meat to enable it to absorb between 10% and 20% of it’s weight in water, a process called plumping and gouging the customer

    11. None. I have looked and looked. Specialists, local butchers, cheap butchers, mail order. Latest was from Dukeshill Ham. Still has the undesirable white stuff. Even using up the third mortgage does not help.
      Two possible workarounds. Fry Prosciutto if you like it crisp, or slices ham of the Wiltshire type. there is no cure for the bacon problem.

    12. We buy naked bacon from Sainsburys, which doesn’t really have white gunk. Is fairly expensive though.
      (and has a silly name)

  37. Stop Press

    From 1200 today, anyone caught brEaking

    The lockdown rules
    Safe distancing rules
    Getting together rules
    etc

    Will be sentenced to watching endless repeats of

    BBC Covid-19 daily updates 3:50 pm – 5:20 pm |

    for a period of at least 28 days

  38. Following The Tracks Of Russia’s Not-So-Secret Unit 29155 Assassination Unit. April 25, 2020.

    Sergei Skripal. (March 2018)

    Motive: Skripal was a double agent in Russia’s FSB intelligence agency for U.K.’s MI6. Following his arrest in 2004, he was exchanged in a spy swap in 2010.

    Method: Two agents flew in from Russia under tourist visas and smeared Novichok—a Russian military chemical weapon—on the door handle. Then they tossed the perfume bottle containing the agent.

    Outcome: The poison gravely afflicted Skripal, his visiting daughter and an investigating policeman. Fortunately, all survived. The agents involved were spotted using airport security footage and eventually exposed.

    Despite the ensuing diplomatic incident, Russia leveraged its propaganda machine, aided by credulous domestic actors, to cast doubt on its involvement. Tragically, in June a man in Amesbury found the discard perfume bottle and gifted it to his partner. Both had to be hospitalized, and the woman died.

    This is propaganda by and for the mentally retarded. Aside from the fantasies about the door handle it contains the most egregious mistake in all the rubbish that has been written about the Skripal Affair and that is repeated in almost every article and book. The bottle that was supposedly used and discarded could not possibly be the same one that was discovered by Charlie Rowley because that one was still sealed in its plastic container when he found it.

    https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/following-tracks-russias-not-so-secret-unit-29155-assassination-unit-147366

    1. Yo Minty

      Two agents flew in from Russia under tourist visas and smeared
      Novichok—a Russian military chemical weapon—on the door handle. Then
      they tossed the perfume bottle containing the agent.

      So the other agent escaped? hehehehe

  40. Johnson faces lockdown dilemma as scientists warn over grim virus data. 25 April 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1c0c6436a18edc65e7abb080c37c86d3f4f19e1a72c2de25ddf143dc3476f844.jpg

    The number of new cases of Covid-19 being diagnosed is still much too high to allow any easing of the lockdown soon, leading scientists have warned, as the virus death toll in UK hospitals passed 20,000 on Saturday.

    12 year old girl and her boyfriend in Stasi uniform harass Senior Citizen.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/apr/25/boris-johnson-lockdown-dilemma-grim-virus-data

    1. Had he been accompanied by 19 people of colour, leaving their boat, the Stasi would have helped him to the benefits office…..

        1. Take away the a and the e from Canute and you have the ingredients for an appropriate anagram!

    3. Which brings into the question the usefulness of lockdown in the first place, why are people still getting it so long after we have all been cooped up indoors.

      1. Because we haven’t all been cooped up indoors. There are still millions of people who have to go to work and that involves coming into contact with others.

      2. We are getting 15,000 a day arriving on flights, according to Handycock. Untested, unquarantined and released into the population. Don’t dare notice that pubs are closed and borders open, though and mention it in public. Plod will arrest you!

    4. While they’re on the beach shouldn’t they be doing something about all those arriving in rubber dinghies?

    5. The ‘boyfriend’ is standing there like a yard of pump-water, as my mother used to say

    6. “Get off the beach and go home now! We’re expecting a boatload of doctors at any minute.”

    2. And what happened to the ’15 minute duration’ we weren’t to exceed if perchance we had to be within 2 metres? That seems to have fallen by the wayside since all this kicked off and people are terrified to pass on a footpath, where they would be within 2m for only 1 or maybe 2 seconds, preferring to take their chances with the traffic by stepping onto the road.

    4. The same place as the 5 a day , maximum units of alcohol and drinking 7 glasses of water a day , from the fevered imagination of acedemics in need of a grant is my guess.

    5. 318591+ up ticks,
      Morning Bob,
      Maybe from the good / bad advice department as in
      example,
      No good standing on the seat the crabs in here jump 20.’

    6. From France/the EU?

      It’s one metre here.
      The UK civil servants simply gold-plated the rule as they always do.

      2. Our local mayor popped round yesterday to deliver the local news sheet. He is an affable chap and he was wearing a mask. We said we didn’t bother with them and didn’t have any anyway to which he took his off and said he only wore it for appearances’ sake.

        1. By coincidence we had an unexpected visit from one of the helpers at our Mairie yesterday.

          She gave us his and hers washable facemasks that had been sewn by local volunteers. They are very sturdy and beautifully stitched.

          It struck us yet again how welcoming the commune has been to us. The masks were offered even though we are not quite in the age group and at the moment they are not compulsory, although I suspect that the village itself would rather we wore one when up there.

        1. It’s think of a number and let’s use that and as far as I can tell has no “science” in front of it.

  44. good Morning Folks,

    Beautiful start to the day here, bright sunshine and so peaceful for suburbia.

      1. Good morning, Bill

        This beautiful morning does not deserve a dose of clap.

        All this dancing, clapping and general hysteria reminds me of 1997 and the reaction to that sad woman’s demise. Where have the British sense of humour and stiff upper lip gone only to be replaced with hollow, manufactured jollity and insincere displays of unfelt emotion?

    2. Dull and overcast here; much reduced in temperature, too. I contemplated lighting the Rayburn, but then the sun came out, so I’ve put the oil heating on instead.

  45. Here’s a thing – the out of hours GP service for which SWMBO works have banned their BAME clinicians from face to face contact with poorly people, phone triaging only.

    1. Re: SWMBO, what happens if you don’t ‘O’ …and what kind of orders do you get anyway?

  46. Watering the top greenhouse just now and heard a cuckoo; first one I’ve heard here for quite a few years. They were very common when we moved here 36 years ago and I remember seeing one in the garden back then.

    1. You’re welcome to gather a few of ours.
      All day, dawn to dusk, cuckoos are calling from all points of the compass.
      Great when they first get here, extremely tedious after a few days.

      1. I’ve always felt cuckoos were overrated – haven’t heard any around our way for years for which I am eternally grateful. I’ve always thought they only feature in poetry and music and such like, because it is the only bird call readily recognisable to those of us who nothing about birds.

        1. Fascinating birds. The sound that you say is so recognisable is the male’s call, the female’s call is a lot more subtle, she doesn’t want to be seen.

        2. They are actually parasites, having a most unattractive way of continuing their species. No better nor worse than the much disliked Magpie, just different.

          3. Beautiful magpie outside the kitchen this lunchtime. Brilliant white, and the black with a greenish metallic sheen. Young bird, in excellent shape.

        3. They are actually parasites, having a most unattractive way of continuing their species. No better nor worse than the much disliked Magpie, just different.

          2. Oh I don’t know – the babies we used to see the poor blackbirds trying to feed always seemed to have a sour bad tempered expression. (Well I assumed they were cuckoos as they were larger than the blackbirds – but I don’t claim any great knowledge on brids).

      2. There are at least 3 males on Kit Hill here. They didn’t start arriving until May last year and left mid-June.

        1. Judging by the direction there must be at least 6 and probably more around us.
          But we are in a very wooded area.

          As you noted elsewhere, the females were much more circumspect about disclosing their presence

      3. We have chickens, in the garden next door but one to us

        It is relentless Cuckoo doodle do

    2. Haven’t heard one for years. I did see an orange tipped butterfly yesterday, though. I can’t recall ever seeing one before in my garden (but then, I have not been locked down and required to spend so much time in my garden before!).

  47. A ventriloquist is walking across the desert and it’s beginning to get dark and he wants to find a place to bed down for the night. He comes upon an Indian who has made camp in the desert. The Indian has with him a dog, a horse, and a sheep. “Well”, the ventriloquist thinks, “he sure looks cosy. I wonder if he would mind if I stay here with him for the night?” The ventriloquist asks the Indian, who agrees to let him camp with him that night. After dinner the ventriloquist decides to have some fun.

    He says to the Indian, “Excuse me Indian, you mind if I have a talk with your dog?”
    The Indian replies, “Dog not speak!”
    “Sure the dog speaks!” answers the ventriloquist. “Hey dog! How you doing? You like living with the Indian? He treats you ok?” Throwing his voice, he makes the dog say, “Oh yeah! The Indian treats me real good. Gives me good food, exercises me, shares his food with me. I like the Indian.”

    The Indian looks astonished and says; “Me not know dog speak!”
    Next he says to the Indian, “Excuse me Indian, you mind if I have a talk with your horse?”
    The Indian replies, “Horse not speak!”

    “Sure the horse speaks!” answers the ventriloquist. “Hey horse! How you doing? You like living with the Indian? He treats you ok?” Then throwing his voice, he has the horse say, “Oh yeah! The Indian treats me real good. Washes me down, gives me a nice blanket and saddle, feeds me good oats. I like the Indian.”

    The Indian looks astonished and says; “Me not know horse speak!”

    Next he says to the Indian, “Excuse me Indian, you mind if I have a talk with your sheep?”

    The Indian yells out, “Sheep is LIAR!”

  48. “People should only exercise once a day, although in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland there is no legal ban on exercising more. However, in Wales exercising more than once a day is now illegal – and potentially a criminal offence.” (Beeb)
    There’s lovely.

      1. Yup, otherwise the Border Force will have you on benefits and assisted housing before you know it.

        1. I think not, mola2. I have been prudent, gone without, not p1$$ed what I’ve earned up the wall (I did actually work for 25 years) and have savings. I am beyond the pale – being pale is an additional disadvantage!

  49. Donald Trump says press briefings ‘not worth the time and effort’. 26 April 2020.

    Donald Trump has tweeted that his daily coronavirus briefings are not worth his time, two days after sparking a furor by suggesting patients might be injected with disinfectant to kill an infection.

    The US president appeared to confirm media reports that he was considering halting the briefings, which dominate early-evening cable television news for sometimes more than two hours, out of frustration with questions about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    He’s right as usual. They just offer the opportunity for word twisting. More importantly we should stop them here where they just get on my nerves; although I have to admit I’ve only seen about twenty seconds at the beginning of them, and that’s because I’ve put the remote in the fridge by mistake. The bit’s I’ve seen are Political Masturbation and as such will not give birth to anything other than stained laundry!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-cases-uk-lockdown-deaths-test-covid-19-vaccine/

    1. 318591+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      The daily davey rhetoric is on tape & Lancet have considered it to be the best treatment for regular early morning bowel movement.

    1. Morning Rik,

      I posted that video further down, abot 30mts ago, socially-encouraged narcissism isn’t it !

      I just hope and pray that the modern way is not dismissive of the very sick and those who are dying.

      We DO NOT want hardened uncompassionate nuts taking care of the poorly population.

    1. From my journal:

      “Shortly after I passed a boat with some rather exotic looking plants in containers in the bow and on the roof. I called out to the two blokes having a chat on the stern: “I see you are still following the old tradition of making ropes from Hemp! “. (In the days of sailing ships, the Royal Navy used tons of the stuff or so I’m told for rope-making). They both laughed and gave thumbs up signs.”

      1. I’m sure you must have been, but if not the Historic Dockyards in Chatham are well worth a visit, particulary the ropesheds.

        1. I’ve not been but I have seen a programme showing how ropes are still made – marvellous.

          1. I would heartily recommend you make a detour, and be sure to try to see a breaking-strain test.

            It is a while since we’ve been but it was a really good museum/day out.

  54. Junior:The must see film, for ‘Todays People’

    ITV 1:50 pm – 4:00 pm | Sunday 26th April 2020

    A fertility expert pioneers a treatment enabling men to become pregnant and carry babies to full term. When the authorities cancel funding for the research, he decides to test it on himself, but gives little thought to how difficult it will be to keep it a secret. The situation is further complicated when he starts to fall for the woman whose child he is carrying.

    Comedy, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, Emma Thompson and Frank Langella

    How on earth did the BBC let this one be ITV

    2. There is far too much apologising going on these days. Especially amongst timid politicians who should stand up for the courage of their own convictions.

      If somebody takes offence, then tough.

    5. Oh Blimey,That was real??
      I saw that and thought it was a parody account
      The stupid,it burns IT BURNS…………………

  57. Have just completed a splendid Sunday lunch – Takeaway from the local pub (roast pork with crackling + stuffing + apple sauce + cauliflower + carrots + red cabbage + roast parsnips + roast spuds all for £22 inc. tip, nominally for two people but enough for four) eaten at the garden table with accompanying birdsong and a weasel looping its way through the bottom of the hedgerow. Ample Chilean Malbec.to quench the thirst. All executed at a ‘social distance’.

    Matt’s solution to ‘social distancing’.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1edf6adf63bf67bcf78a35801a4eb634122ffaecd4cec1ee41c4f451dcc85b6c.png

  58. Far right hijack coronavirus crisis to push agenda and boost support. Sat 25 Apr 2020 16.25 BST.

    Far-right movements are exploiting the coronavirus crisis to push their anti-minority agendas and win new support
    .
    A report by Zinc Network, a communications agency that tracks disinformation and propaganda, suggests there has been a clear pivot among far-right groups in the UK, EU and US to “utilise the pandemic to bring new relevancy, attention and support for their key grievances”.

    This would be a great story if such a thing as a “far right movement” existed. Unfortunately it doesn’t. Nevertheless it does allow Zinc Network a CIA/Mi6 propaganda outlet to spout its usual guff.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/25/far-right-hijack-coronavirus-crisis-to-push-agenda-and-boost-support

    1. ,,,,A report by Zinc Network, a communications agency that tracks disinformation and propaganda,

      They have enough manpersonpower to investigate other than the BBC?

    3. I disagree. The far right does exist. In China. Complete with concentration and re-education camps, people “disappeared,” etc. Totalitarianism. Complete control of the population.
      As for this country, I’m sure there are some far right supporters, probably a few hundred.
      The problem is, as far as the Guardian are concerned, everyone is far right if they’re not a fully paid-up member of the Labour party.

  59. I am going to go bit further here. The BBC report about SAGE is mostly untrue. Most of what we need to know about SAGE is available online including the members.
    I might complain to Ofcom, but one has to go through the BBC first. From experience I know that the BBC will delay, obfuscate, and ignore the rules they themselves have set for handling complaints. After around three months of delay and emails there is no point in going on, as it is yesterday’s news and the fish suppers were digested long ago.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52421744

  60. So why will Britons have to line up and take their turn with the rest of the world, as Dominic Raab effectively said, if Bill Gates’ sponsorship of Oxford University research comes up with a new treatment or vaccine ?

    The answer apparently is here……..

    The ”recommendations” from the Gates sponsored ”Event 201” pandemic planning symposium in New York on October 18 2019………

    https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/recommendations.html

    Please note…

    ”Industry, national governments, and international organizations should work together to enhance internationally held stockpiles of medical countermeasures (MCMs) to enable rapid and equitable distribution during a severe pandemic.” Note… ”equitable distribution”

    and…

    ”Countries with national supplies or domestic manufacturing capabilities should commit to donating some supply/product to this virtual stockpile.” Note… ”donate”.

    It all looks like a neat exercise in World Government, just as Soros’ emissaries Gordon Brown and Tony Blair wanted.

      1. Doesn’t look like Dominic Raab is interpreting it the way you want.

        To him it seems ”should” means ”must”.

      2. Sigh. What do you think the chances of a British Tory government standing up to any globalist organisation without Nigel Farage lighting a fire under their feet is?

    3. That chimes with something I heard on the steam radio this morning. A scientist/doctor mentioned that the UK’s access to a vaccine, even if designed here, would depend on where it was mass produced. So, we pay for scientists to innovate and create but cannot manufacture for our benefit? Johnson has his work cut out to turn this Country into a modern powerhouse, as he has declared is his aim.

      1. I think Johnson’s a globalist just like all his predecessors which is why he sells out to China at every opportunity.

        Forget the EU, that’s just small fry. China is where it’s at for politicos now.

        1. So we’ve theoretically escaped the clutches of the EU to jump into the clutches of China?
          At least the EU doesn’t have concentration camps, or harvest organs of people….Oh, wait. Hasn’t organ donation now become automatic unless you opt out in the UK? But at least they wait for you to die first…

        2. Johnson may be ‘selling out’ because certain of his predecessors had already sold out and his hands are tied. Goodness knows what Blair got up to and Cameron and May both seemed to be both EUphiles and sinophiles: anything but supporters of their own nation.

  61. The knives are out for Dominic Cummings, and by association for his boss and the Government. He attended a SAGE meeting. Typically a SAGE meeting is set up composed. of scientific experts to design a racehorse and then they come up with a Bactrian camel with six legs.
    In 2016. a SAGE committee was set up to consider the risks of Zika virus.
    Stuart Wainright of the Cabinet Office attended. Remember the outcry, the screams of the chatterati, the wild headlines in the Guardian, the Times and the Independent, the universal anger expressed on the BBC? No neither do I, because no one noticed. The Government decides whether to up a SAGE meeting – it is not a permanent thing – and invite whoever they like.
    Oh, and it is not really very, very secret:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage#membership

    1. What’s wrong with him being there? He needs to hear what the experts have to say in order to do his own job.

        2. Update: BBC website article:
          “Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, has attended meetings of the scientific body shaping the government’s coronavirus response.
          Downing Street denied a Guardian report he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).
          The committee, whose membership is not public, gives independent advice.”
          What research do BBC journalists do?

          https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52421744
          Not looking at this, which is a few clicks away:
          https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/756738/SPI-M_modelling_summary_final.pdf. (Detailed pandemic model with numbers.)
          https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage-coronavirus-covid-19-response#expert-groups. (Links to all the bumf, excuse me, scientific papers and models.)

          Yep, many names of members are easily found.

          3. I believe on occasion he also took the minutes for
            the meetings.

            Good morning, Citroen.

      2. Exactly my point, as I said yesterday or whenever. I have not checked all of the meetings, but a Cabinet Office Observer, and others, seem to be part of how the meeting is constituted. Just as one would expect. (sometime I don’t make myself too clear?)

      3. And in any case, look at the so called “experts” on the panel! Most of them look as though they have been sucking on the taxpayer teat all their careers.
        How likely are they to be neutral?
        This criticism of Cummings attending the SAGE meetings appears to come from the same sort of people who are telling us to “Follow the Science” and “Believe the Science.”
        In other words, sheep who treat science as religion!

        1. The sheep who treat science as a religion, except when it clashes with their own ideology, e.g. biology, climatology…

    2. I am getting very fed up with these spiteful media campaigns against any government or individual that is seen as right wing.

      1. It’s what they do. It’s how they undermine any narrative vaguely to the right of Stalin.

  62. 318591+ up ticks,
    My personal belief is I am prepared to go another two weeks then ALL parties should be satisfied.
    As in learn to live with it ,or the alternative until we master it.
    The political upstairs / downstairs status has now been sorted surely to the satisfaction of the governance parties, as in the electorate WILL do as ordered.
    You WILL learn to love HS2 as an example.

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1254320450546565123

    1. Yo ogga

      From the above link

      However some critics on social media have panned the decision, calling
      for the gradual lifting of lockdown measures      , after long queues were
      seen at stores in London, Bristol, Kent and in the Wirral .

      Ah, the little bit pregnant syndrome

      1. 318591+ up ticks,
        Morning Olt,
        Mine was a personal view as in give it another two weeks then have a grand opening.
        I see incoming potential carriers regarding airports are to be quarantined for two weeks, the governance politico’s will glimpse the horse 5 counties down country after securing the door.
        No mention of the welfare seeking invasion fleet landing on the beaches.

  63. I have wondered for some time (and have decided to turn to the Nottlers for an explanation) how the letters are ascribed to the spelling of words translated from languages of other scripts such as Chinese or Arabic.

    Take Den Xiaoping pronounced by everyone as Den Jiaoping. I always thought X at the start of words was pronounced as Z (xylem, xenophyte, xylophone) so why isn’t it spelled with a J?

    Similarly, Colonel Gadaffi was sometimes spelled Qadaffi with no u after the Q, so why wasn’t it transcribed as Kadaffi instead? And why is Qatar not spelled Katar?

          1. No, he wasn’t!
            He was actually discharged on medical grounds, possibly on the orders of Harold wilson, to save the RAF and MoD the embarrassment of the Court Marshall as the reason why he did it, a protest against the lack of commemoration of the RAF’s 50th Anniversary, would have earned him a lot of sympathy from the public.

    3. I don’t have the answer, but to throw another factor into the mix, other languages have far more sounds that we do in English. In fact, we’re one of the most sound-poor languages in the world, aren’t we?

    4. We don’t use the standard phonetic alphabet characters to denote sounds, so we just come up with an approximation.

    5. It’s a bit like the french unable to pronounce Paris as Paris calling it Parree…..

  64. Officer: “Madam, swimming is prohibited in this lake”.

    Lady: “Why didn’t you tell me, when I was removing my clothes?”

    Officer: “That is not illegal, Madam!”

    1. {
      “id” : “”,
      “error” : {
      “code” : 2600200,
      “message” : “Webtop error”,
      “data” : {
      “code” : “AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED”,
      “message” : {
      “parameters” : { },
      “key” : “auth.authRequired”
      }
      }
      },
      “jsonrpc” : “2.0”
      }

  65. ‘Morning, all. Yesterday, I had to go into Inverness and I saw the sad sight of a poor old soul gathering cigarette-ends in the street.

    Guessing he could not afford to buy himself a packet, the spirit of Christian charity – for which I’m known in the clachan – kicked in and so lighting a ciggie, I positioned myself upwind of him so he might enjoy the smoke drifting towards him.

    2. I used to fish our local river for salmon. The year I stopped smoking in the 1980s I was walking along the river on my own on a section with wooded banks on both sides and I got a very strong scent of tobacco smoke. Nobody to be seen. I carried on walking.

      It was about a quarter of a mile or more before I came across the source of the smoke. An angler sitting on the bank with his rod by his side fishing a salt minnow ‘lying on’ in a deep pool.

      It’s amazing how far it travels.

      1. Don’t tell the doom demons in goverment; they’ll believe Covid-19 can travel similarly.

  66. Been talking with an American pal about the demonstration that recently took place in Lansing, Michigan against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s unpopular lockdown policies, where some protesters were bearing firearms, as is their right under the Second Amendment of the US Constitution. Despite the hysterical melt-down in the left-wing media, these so-called “rednecks” caused no trouble and nobody got shot.

    But then neither did we see the police chucking their weight about, threatening protesters with violence and arrest if they didn’t disperse and stay in their homes as Gov. Whitmer had ordered.

    ……….. odd that.

      2. Fantastic! SWMBO loves them!
        EDIT: And is now rattling the keyboard mysteriously…

      3. Not very handy for going upstairs with those tracks sticking out of the front to catch on the steps.

        Have the dentist on speed-dial if you buy some.

        I don’t know why they are there in the first place. The tracks on a Sherman didn’t project in front of the hull at all.

      4. Not very handy for going upstairs with those tracks sticking out of the front to catch on the steps.

        Have the dentist on speed-dial if you buy some.

        I don’t know why they are there in the first place. The tracks on a Sherman didn’t project in front of the hull at all.

      8. Fantastic! SWMBO loves them!
        EDIT: And is now rattling the keyboard mysteriously…

  68. The cytokine storm and COVID-19 in simple language:

    https://youtu.be/yWKbggj55LY

    Ends with a final note from Dr Eric on how to boost your immune system as a defence against this virus.
    N.B. does not include bleach injections or swallowing a UV lamp!

      2. He does mention however some things that you might find in a fish tank that I zinc you might find helpful!

  69. 318591+ up ticks,
    Could there be a more sinister reason for no end of the lock-down in sight as in ease of passage for the invasion force.
    Keep the indigenous indoors as an anti brick throwing,
    cudgel waving hoard protecting the beaches & welfare infrastructure is the last thing the governance coalition party want.

  70. I have had a What’s App message that it is proposed to include Covid deaths in hospices in the totals. I think this is rather dubious.

    To offset this likely overcount, perhaps we should also include deaths caused by lockdown/economic destruction – give it 12 months and these might well comfortably exceed Covid deaths.

  71. A funny thing happened on the drive home after walking the dog yesterday. We needed to pop 2 letters into the post office, so MOH parked just behind a car that was already in the village’s tiny ‘high street’ layby. I walked the 20 yards to the post office and handed the letters to the fellow inside. Walked back towards the car, saying hello to a neighbour going into the butchers, tried to open the passenger door and was surprised it was locked. Looked inside I saw the face of a strange (to me at least) woman staring at me in horror. Her husband, just coming out of the grocer/newsagent sees all this and laughs. I apologise profusely, in sign language to the woman and retreat to our car where MOH is practically peeing herself. The husband shakes his head and says his car’s white and our car is black and laughs again. Oh dear, and we were talking about this sort of thing just the other day.

      1. Could this be the way ahead

        Lockdown Partner swapping?

        Edit A whole new way of looking at ‘Key Parties’

    2. At least when it happened to me the car of which I was about to sit on the lap of the driver was the same make and colour as mine.

  72. One thing about all this is that we know what life would be like in a far left wing communist state. I just hate it all and miss my freedom. rules for us but not for others.

  73. Good morning, Chums.

    I have just been asked [by ‘phone] :

    ” Why don’t you come outside on a Thursday
    evening, to clap for the NHS. you are one of
    three households in the Close who ignore the
    vote of appreciation.”

    My response:

    ” I am too busy appreciating every one else
    who is doing their job and who do NOT find it
    necessary to act like prats on expensive and
    valuable pieces of equipment.”

    I have already been given a red card for chatting
    [at a distance] to a friend in the village Co-op, at
    this rate I expect a white feather in my letter-box
    and a bell to ring when I venture out!

    1. That’s awful. Well done for your robust reply.
      Have these Blockwarts forgotten that there will be a life after lockdown, and that people will remember their actions?

    3. Good gracious Garlands, that’s awful. It sounds as if they’re trying to send you to Coventry. We have stopped and chatted to several neighbours whilst out walking and so far haven’t received any comments either about that or the fact that we don’t go outside every Thursday to clap for the NHS.

      I can think of nothing less helpful than clapping in the street for people doing their jobs. That may sound harsh but to me it’s all virtue signalling. Especially when I think of all the appointments cancelled for follow ups and cancer treatments etc. etc. I think there will be far more premature deaths amongst those who haven’t their expected treatment.

      KBO.

      1. In some ways I think it is more than just VS – I reckon the NHS PR people are working long hours to ‘protect’ a hugely expensive, bureaucratic and inefficient from any fallout when the Chinese Plague is over. Call me an old cynic…

        1. Hi you old cynic. #metoo btw.

          It’s a great pity Boris had the virus because he’ll be even more gushing about “our wonderful NHS”. It’ll be virtually impossible for anyone to criticise it and it was bad enough before that.

    4. “you are one of three households in the Close who ignore the vote of appreciation.” So, you have neighbours who are not only spiteful, but are taking names for the Stasi list!? Don’t tell em your name Garlands! Seriously, I think that’s quite worrying.

      2. It is odd, we all shop for each other.
        Now goods seem to be more readily
        available it seems to be just a few items.
        Although I do quite a lot of shopping
        [mainly fresh food] for three couples
        at risk.

  74. OT – for the last few days, the garden has had large quantities of black flies – mainly among the trees. They have what look a bit like “arrester hooks” beneath them.

    I was worried that they might attack the cherry – but are definitely not that sort.

    Any bug hunting NoTTLer got any ideas. They are about the length of a house fly but narrower.

    1. Hawthorn fies. Harmless. (EDIT also known as St Mark’s Fly)

      They occur in swarms near hawthorn bushes for a short spell each year at this time.

      Trout love them.

      1. They are also called St. Mark’s flies as the adults usually emerge around St Mark’s Day, 25
        April.

        1. ;-))

          That’s no way to talk about the Most Recent, Uncle Bill. You are a Silly Sausage and I banish you to the Naughty Step.

    1. I just had to rescue a blackbird from an attack by 3 magpies. Time to buy a Larsen Trap.

      1. There were several mobbing a nest in one of the hedges last night. Terrible noises, I kept shooing them away but they were using the stealth techniques of little gentle single squawks while they got closer from all sides. Evil birds.

    1. Thanks for that, Stephen. I just skimmed through the 4 hours dipping in here and there and it looks (and sounds) really great.

  78. Peter Hitchens in the Mail today is saying “Let’s put Lockdown in the Dock.”
    As I understand, he wants lockdown to be challenged in the courts.
    Is it really a good idea to put laws passed by Parliament under scrutiny of the courts? Isn’t that just exchanging rule by democratically elected representatives (yes I know!!) for rule by the likes of Lady Spider and the Supremes?
    Did Britain always let laws passed by Parliament be overturned by the courts? I don’t remember this being such a thing before the left got so bolshy and confident, but maybe I just didn’t remember it.

    1. I thought that the lockdown “rules” were just guidelines. In which case nobody is breaking the law.

      2. You have to have one of the ‘excuses’ written in law to go out. Just carry a shopping list everywhere you go and keep away from the great unwashed. Simples eh.

      2. That depends on how relatively powerful the individual telling you what to do might be.

      3. As I understand it lockdown itself is not a law but you can only venture out for a reason that is listed I.e., shopping, exercise, if you’re a sufferer of domestic violence. So as Kaypea says elsewhere always carry a shopping list with you.

    3. Keep the courts and judges as far away as possible.

      Look what the ghastly ” Supreme” Court did to the Commons last year.

      1. I was thinking about the Thalidomide cover up and the way in which Sir Francis “Bob” Purchas dealt with it in the Appeal Court. Coincidentally one of his two QC sons lives opposite me in the Old Rectory. A brilliant family so far removed intellectually from Spiderwoman and the Supremes.

        1. Perhaps he wants to assert that lockdown is contrary to English Common Law. The problem is that our judiciary no longer uphold the law.

          1. They uphold corpus juris (the EU version of the law) rather than common law, unfortunately.

  79. Deep breaths or skip the article!

    Viewers of a solidly unflashy American TV business show might have thought they’d tuned in to the wrong channel last Friday.

    With a straight face, the anchor reported that bookmakers were offering odds of 100-1 that Meghan Markle would be elected US President in 2024.

    Perhaps the item was intended as light relief amid the Covid gloom, yet after a short discussion, the anchor and his studio panellists seriously conceded that she was an unlikely but not impossible future occupant of the White House.

    ‘Perhaps the first Duchess to become President’ was the concluding thought, although nobody mentioned the technicality that holders of American public office are banned from using foreign titles.

    Still, it’s quite an idea. President Meghan. It’s surely no more unlikely than the story of how Ms Markle became a Duchess.

    And why should her talents not carry her further? Giving up her grand Royal handle might be a small price to pay for a shot at being the first female holder of the world’s most powerful office.

    But there are other, less fanciful, reasons for the Sussexes to shed their Royal status, as we shall see.

    While the image of President Markle waving regally from the steps of Air Force One will appeal to the Duchess’s many devotees, the current reality of her life with the exiled ‘Call Me Harry’ is rather less glorious.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8257173/PATRICK-JEPHSON-urges-Harry-Meghan-celebrity-lives.html

  80. Professor Branestorm at it again:

    “100,000 could die if lockdown is lifted too soon warns Prof Neil Ferguson – as new analysis predicts up to 60,000 dead by start of August”

      3. About 500,000 for the whole of the UK.

        *Other figures are available from Imperial College.

    4. I sincerely hope that when the money runs out, because of the economic crash he is helping to create, that his is a job that vanishes in the austerity cuts.

      1. Thanks – although like everyone I want to see an end to ‘lockdown’ I’m hoping to see ‘Pink Perfection”, a Rhodo I first planted 45 years ago, bloom once move before I move….

  82. That’s me done. Potted on the cavolo nero and the trombetti – all in good heart; and basil; and preparing to choose the best tomatoes to pot on tomorrow.
    It was a lovely day, too – sunny and warm and no breeze.

    Have a grand evening planning what you’d do when you succeed Young Un.

    A demain. DV.

      3. Buy a live one in a small pot at the herb section and re-pot it into a larger pot (8″ or 9″ diameter) on a sunny window ledge and water every day. Constant pruning for cooking seems to keep it healthy. Just chopped half a dozen large leaves into me home made pizza sauce.

        1. I can buy in pots at lots of places; years ago, my niece grew it from seed, and the quality and longevity knocked spots off the supermarket stuff.

        1. I grow mine outside in a plastic trough in a raised planter.

          It grows like Topsy and we get sufficient to make our own Pesto as well as using it in salads etc.
          We find that the trick is to keep cutting out the growing points once the leaves are about the size of a beech leaf and keep harvesting.
          You’re right about watering. We water it regularly.

    2. Sap must be rising – read that first paragraph as finishing … sunny and warm and no breeze breasts.
      :-((

  83. From ZH: “American Farms Cull Millions Of Chickens Amid Virus-Related Staff Shortages At Processing Plants”:

    Pity – just when you think Chlorinated chicken might actually be good for one at this moment in time……

  85. https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt75d547f1bc18989e/5ea56018031eb067e8b4b20e/GettyImages-951833242.jpg?auto=webp&format=jpg&width=50&height=50&fit=crop

    ” ‘it is, quite simply, the Kardashians of geopolitics. The drama, the pictures and the subplots captivate us all – but we know very little about the inner workings of any of it. What seems true now is only a foolish-looking rumour a month later.’”

    Article is all speculation and not worth the effort.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/kim-jong-un-dead-or-alive-

  87. Well I’ve been into the village to do some shopping (Rain forecast for Monday and Tuesday). There were no queues at either Morrisons or Farmfoods. The roads looked pretty normal and the pavements had plenty of Cyclists, Joggers and Families out for a walk. All in all I would say this lockdown is just dissolving away. And a good thing too!

          2. Then they will soon bugger off and complain that they have not enough police officers to investigate real crime.

      1. “….spending a weekend with Miss Whiplash.”

        Some people have all the luck…{:¬))

  88. Off Topic

    I wish I had Bassetlaw’s photographic skills.
    There is a shaft of sunlight powering through one of the wild orchids as I look out of the window here.
    The purple of the flowers within the flower head is absolutely dazzling.

    1. Light can make amazing differences to a well-known landscape. When I was driving back from college I used to pass a whitebeam which lit up the scenery. One day, I couldn’t see it anywhere; the day was dull, with no sunlight.

      1. Last summer, we sat in the restaurant at Hall Farm, Capel St. Mary having breakfast; the light was just right, and looking across the valley, you could see why this area inspired Constable.

        1. Constable was an innovator. He not only made landscapes respectable as a subject in their own right (previously they had only been used as backgrounds), he was a step in the direction of impressionism.

        2. “…inspired Constable….” “Move along there – haven’t you ‘eard about the Virus?”

        3. I used to live in Capel St Mary in the mid-70s. It was still quite small then with just one housing estate although others were being planned. I don’t recall any decent restaurants and only one pub close to the main road to Ipswich. Capel St Mary’s claim to fame then was that Bobby Robson, the Ipswich manger, lived there.

          1. Thank you. I did a whole series of paintings entitled “Light on the Hills” in various media. I have a version in my dining room (I think I sold the one illustrated here). They proved popular, thankfully, when I was exhibiting. I still have an oils in my studio, but I’m not happy with it.

          4. It’s from his Wikipedia page. Most of the images on the internet are from his early work, which was Pre-Raphaelite inspired. The later work was a lot more modern and he was a master of colour.
            There are two museums with permanent collections, one is on an island in the Chiemsee in Bavaria, and the other is at his house south of the lake.
            The island one is fabulous, because you travel there on a boat, and the light over the lake is wonderful, and then you see work by painters including Exter who painted in this wonderful light.

  89. I shall bid you farewell, folks. I am off to cook myself something (don’t know what, yet) and watch a bit of non-Beeb TV.

    1. Sphagetti Ragu for us.
      Cooked (cocked?) by my own fair hands…
      Enjoy, Conners.

      1. That has been talked about ever since this thing blew up. Certainly worth trying but none at the chemist.

      2. 318591+ up ticks,
        Evening AA,
        No doubt, but there could be a new, up to date, batch of brown envelopes.

  91. Just had an interesting chat with younger sister who lives just outside CapeTown , at Muizenburg.

    We spoke on Moh’s Iphone .. so amazing , reception excellent I was able to chat away to her , she showed me her lovely garden , and the mountains in the background , and I showed her the dogs and the runner beans and radishes, the lilac , ceanothus, yellow scented azalea and our blue sky .. We compared notes on how things are .. Things are more locked down over there than here . She lives 2 minutes and a jump to the beach, yet NO one is allowed near the sea or out and about apart from chemist or grocery .. no exercise allowed , 2 metre rules , that sort of thing

    She said the police are busy , there are raids on food shops and liquor stores , people have to wear masks .. and their borders further up country are being breached by Africans from other hungry nations .

    What I am trying to say is , all the chatter and pics and clarity from a small mobile phone .. we are always delighted and amazed at the advance in technology .

          3. When I was a teenager they once stopped their RR next to me to ask directions to a well known restaurant.

            They were so haughty I gave them careful guidance to a completely different place, miles away.

  92. Coronavirus: Raab says ‘not responsible’ to reveal lockdown exit plan – and vaccine unlikely this year.

    Just who the hell does he think he is.?

    1. It’s a pity that the UK government don’t feel the need to be open about things. Here in Norway, they have been very open, about advice, strategy, deaths, the lot, and as a result the Prime Minister, Erna Solberg and her government have a very high approval rating – and people are doing as asked, with little need for coercion, as they see the point of it and have an understanding why the restrictions are as they are. Openness and honesty are the best strategy.

      1. Blimey.
        Are you sure they’re really politicians and not aliens who have captured the real ones?

      2. Considerable evidence that countries with female leaders are handling things better. From Germany to New Zealand – they communicate better, and of course some will have experience in dealing with infantile behavior. A necessity these days.

  93. Oh dear. It just seems to keep on raining. My yoga exercises appear to have stopped working and i have had to re-attach myself to the Frankenstein machine again.

    £6000 on private doctors and the best they can come up with is long term Tramadol.

    Not once was it mentioned that an alternative therapy would work better. In my case a Tenns machine.

    If i needed any evidence that the batsards are in league with big pharma, this is it.

    I’m going to give them the clap on Thursday.

    1. Next week, our gym is going to start online classes using Zoom.
      Being generous, I believe that it is time to sit in front of the PC with a cup of coffee and offer the workers encouragement.

    2. My wife has been on very long term Tramadol to ease her arthritic pain. She was on 8 x 500 mg/day but under advice she has reduced gradually to 1 x 500 mg/day. She had trouble sleeping as the dose was reduced and the 1 x 500 mg is taken at night just before she tries to go to sleep. Last night she missed the dose and had trouble getting to sleep, a capsule around midnight solved her problem.

    3. I’m going to give them the clap on Thursday.

      Naughty Boy

      If you cannot get treated for cancer or heart attack, the chances of getting sorted for ‘The Clap’ is a no-hoper

  94. Much ado but about nothing much but it will be good to see Bonehead Blackford embarrassed.

    Nicola Sturgeon accused of ‘dereliction of duty’ for missing six Cobra meetings

    The First Minister did not attend five initial meetings in January and February as the virus made its way to the UK

    Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of a “dereliction of duty” after it was revealed that she missed six Cobra meetings during the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.

    The First Minister did not attend numerous meetings at the end of January and throughout February as the pandemic was making its way towards the UK.

    Ms Sturgeon finally took her place on March 2, the day after Scotland’s first positive case of the virus was confirmed.

    Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the first minister’s failure to attend the meetings in the build up to the pandemic “is nothing short of a dereliction of duty”.

    The revelation of Ms Sturgeon’s attendance record follows reports last week that Prime Minister Boris Johnson also did not attend five Cobra meetings in the weeks leading up to the coronavirus outbreak, which senior cabinet minister Michael Gove defended because “most Cobra meetings don’t have the Prime Minister attending them.”

    It was always nonsense to claim that there was a problem with @BorisJohnson missing COBRA meetings. The same applies to @NicolaSturgeon. But all the SNP MPs & MSPs making a fuss about this will feel rather foolish now. https://t.co/ADKkBVYDcJ
    – Murdo Fraser (@murdo_fraser) April 26, 2020

    However the SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford criticised the “complacency and negligence” of Mr Johnson’s actions as “jaw-dropping”.

    The news of Ms Sturgeon’s lack of attendance in initial Cobra sessions came as the first minister said she wants to have discussions with the UK Government on the powers she has to close borders to slow the spread of coronavirus.

    When pressed by the BBC’s Andrew Marr if she has “the power to close the border if you need to?” Ms Sturgeon replied: “I don’t have the power to close borders but these are discussions of course that we want to continue having with the UK government.”

    Scottish Conservatives leader Jackson Carlaw described the comments as “farcical nonsense”.

    “Nicola Sturgeon must know that loose talk from a minority government about shutting the border at Berwick is unhelpful and that any such action would cause further damage to jobs and our economy – rash statements suggesting such a possibility are irresponsible and can only spread wider alarm,” he added.

    But health minister Jeane Freeman insisted that the first minister was referring to “international borders”, rather than the border between England and Scotland.

    Commenting on the reports that Ms Sturgeon did not attend the initial Cobra meetings, a Scottish Government spokesman said: “This is not news. The First Minister detailed Scottish Government attendance at one of her daily updates, but to recap – the First Minster has been chairing meetings of the Scottish Government Resilience Committee (our equivalent of Cobra) since 29 January.

    “In addition, the Scottish Government has been represented at all Cobra ministerial meetings on Coronavirus that we have been invited to (we often receive only limited advance notice of such meetings).”

    Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s failure to attend six COBRA meetings on the coronavirus pandemic is nothing short of a dereliction of duty.

    “The First Minister needs to explain what she was doing that was so important that she missed all these meetings, or is this merely about status and she won’t go if Boris isn’t there?

    “As questions continue about the seeming lack of preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic, the insufficient supply of PPE and the lack of testing, not attending the COBRA meeting seems like poor judgement on the part of the First Minister.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/26/nicola-sturgeon-accused-dereliction-duty-missing-six-cobra-meetings/

    1. Ah, “Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie”. Google this darling if you will, but be warned. She is the Scots equivalent of Diane Abbott, but less refined, less intelligent, and less black.

  95. Much ado but about nothing much but it will be good to see Bonehead Blackford embarrassed.

    Nicola Sturgeon accused of ‘dereliction of duty’ for missing six Cobra meetings

    The First Minister did not attend five initial meetings in January and February as the virus made its way to the UK

    Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of a “dereliction of duty” after it was revealed that she missed six Cobra meetings during the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.

    The First Minister did not attend numerous meetings at the end of January and throughout February as the pandemic was making its way towards the UK.

    Ms Sturgeon finally took her place on March 2, the day after Scotland’s first positive case of the virus was confirmed.

    Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the first minister’s failure to attend the meetings in the build up to the pandemic “is nothing short of a dereliction of duty”.

    The revelation of Ms Sturgeon’s attendance record follows reports last week that Prime Minister Boris Johnson also did not attend five Cobra meetings in the weeks leading up to the coronavirus outbreak, which senior cabinet minister Michael Gove defended because “most Cobra meetings don’t have the Prime Minister attending them.”

    It was always nonsense to claim that there was a problem with @BorisJohnson missing COBRA meetings. The same applies to @NicolaSturgeon. But all the SNP MPs & MSPs making a fuss about this will feel rather foolish now. https://t.co/ADKkBVYDcJ
    – Murdo Fraser (@murdo_fraser) April 26, 2020

    However the SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford criticised the “complacency and negligence” of Mr Johnson’s actions as “jaw-dropping”.

    The news of Ms Sturgeon’s lack of attendance in initial Cobra sessions came as the first minister said she wants to have discussions with the UK Government on the powers she has to close borders to slow the spread of coronavirus.

    When pressed by the BBC’s Andrew Marr if she has “the power to close the border if you need to?” Ms Sturgeon replied: “I don’t have the power to close borders but these are discussions of course that we want to continue having with the UK government.”

    Scottish Conservatives leader Jackson Carlaw described the comments as “farcical nonsense”.

    “Nicola Sturgeon must know that loose talk from a minority government about shutting the border at Berwick is unhelpful and that any such action would cause further damage to jobs and our economy – rash statements suggesting such a possibility are irresponsible and can only spread wider alarm,” he added.

    But health minister Jeane Freeman insisted that the first minister was referring to “international borders”, rather than the border between England and Scotland.

    Commenting on the reports that Ms Sturgeon did not attend the initial Cobra meetings, a Scottish Government spokesman said: “This is not news. The First Minister detailed Scottish Government attendance at one of her daily updates, but to recap – the First Minster has been chairing meetings of the Scottish Government Resilience Committee (our equivalent of Cobra) since 29 January.

    “In addition, the Scottish Government has been represented at all Cobra ministerial meetings on Coronavirus that we have been invited to (we often receive only limited advance notice of such meetings).”

    Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s failure to attend six COBRA meetings on the coronavirus pandemic is nothing short of a dereliction of duty.

    “The First Minister needs to explain what she was doing that was so important that she missed all these meetings, or is this merely about status and she won’t go if Boris isn’t there?

    “As questions continue about the seeming lack of preparedness for the coronavirus pandemic, the insufficient supply of PPE and the lack of testing, not attending the COBRA meeting seems like poor judgement on the part of the First Minister.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/26/nicola-sturgeon-accused-dereliction-duty-missing-six-cobra-meetings/

  97. Good evening all. I hope that you have an a pleasant weekend in Covid paradise.

    Can I just say that I find it incredible that the Acting Prime Minister has informed us that “the Government is still doing its homework on how to end the lockdown safely.”

    What exactly do we pay our legions of civil serpents for, if not to wargame and plan for every eventuality? This is not an alien invasion, but an eminently predictable and relatively mild pandemic. What exactly do these people do all day?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/26/inconceivable-schools-will-open-normal-warns-dominic-raab-government/

    3. I think the one thing this minor crisis has shown, is how inept the civil serpents and all the useless gravy train passengers who suck on the taxpayer teat are when it comes to doing any actual useful work.
      “Blame the government” got very old very quickly.

    4. There were some clues already about what to study: SARS, Bird Flu, MERS, swine flu… should have been enough of a heads-up even for the snivel serpents.

      1. They have also held regular and frequent “exercises” where the various possible scenarios were played out.

      2. There is the old adage

        A sensible man learns by his mistakes
        A wise man learns by the mistakes of others

    5. Weekend? How do you know it’s weekend, one day rolls I to another.

      It’s not just the UK, most governments seem to be clueless about what to do next and when. Despite all of these scientific mathematical models that they all claim to have, they are just waiting for some other leader to blink.

      1. Re how does one know if it is a weekend, there is a lovely letter in today’s Telegraph which says (roughly speaking) “I always wondered what a month of Sundays looked like. Now I know”.

        (Apologies is this remark has already been made.)

    6. Yo J K

      The problems we have now with our Government, is that few MPs/Ministers (if any) have had ‘proper jobs’ where they have authority over finance, budget, personnel, planning, etc.

      With all that comes RESPONSIBILITY. ie they carry the can for their decisions, as wot appens in the Forces

      Now, they prevaricate, suffer from sloth, lie anything to avoid making decisions, to which they can be held

      A Quorum of Nottlers could do a better job

      1. I reckon a large part of it is the effect of Brussels. No original thought, no planning, no initiative, just unthinkingly follow the diktats. The only thing they have done for two generations is manage the implementation of regulations. Unlike the French they haven’t even had the nouse to select what is good for the country and what they will ignore and bin.

      2. Indeed. And none of them have any ‘skin in the game’ i.e. they are more interested in protecting their careers and taxpayer-funded salaries than in making decisions and taking responsbility for them. Most have never set up and run a business, they are simply cogs in somebody else’s machine.

        It seems that any decision on ending lockdown has been postponed until Boris comes back, presumably because nobody wants to take the blame if it is goes wrong. Any competent organisation should have a business continuity plan, so if the CEO is out of action then key decisions still get made. Our government? Not so much.

    1. Why isn’t it being used for all the CV patients? Then the hospitals could treat the urgent cancer patients.

      1. Because they’re being sent back to care homes to infect the aged residents.

      1. If the NHS had reliable fast-turnaround testing they could split hospitals into COVID and non-COVID ones, where the latter could be used for standard procedures.

        1. If the NHS had not gone down the route of building huge multipurpose general hospitals on PFI it could have been different. With four or five specialist hospitals per NHS Trust, for maternity, surgery, medical, A&E and very specialist for Ear, Nose and Throat, and Eye hospitals, it would have been much easier to rededicate one of these to Covid-19 treatment while the others continued.

  100. 318591+ up ticks,
    Seems like the virus threat must be topped up on a daily basis,

    UK: DOZENS MORE ILLEGAL BOAT MIGRANTS BROUGHT ASHORE DESPITE CORONAVIRUS

      1. But it is simple enough for our ignoramus politicians and Police Service to understand and act appropriately?.

        A couple of weeks ago I suggested that the Border Farce, the customs and any other people patrolling the English Channel should be issued with self-deflating rubber dinghies guaranteed to sink in a quarter of an hour. The boats picking up the illegals should then steer to within 100 meters of the French coast and cast the immigrants loose so that if they want to live they will have time to land safely back in France and if they want to drown that is their own decision – why should we be responsible for their lives if they are not responsible for them themselves?

        1. 318591+ up ticks,
          Afternoon R,
          I believe that to be very humane of you as many would go more for a type of time igniting fire barge.

        2. Just punch a hole of the required size and it’ll deflate within a reasonable time.
          glub, glub, glub.

      1. 318591+ up ticks,
        Afternoon A,
        I am sure that will be inclusive along with the NI number.

  101. Afternoon, everyone. The shed is now painted Harvest Gold – as am I, the dog, the greenhouse, the pear tree next to it and everywhere not covered by back copies of RAF News 🙂 It was dull and overcast so I thought I’d get on with it at last. Although I actually have a City and Guilds Certificate in Interior Decoration (I have a piece of paper to say I can faux like a pro – marble, wood, leather, you name it I can do it!), you would hardly have credited it as I struggled to cover the parched wood. I had forgotten how much effort was required in doing large paintings (I haven’t painted for ages and when I did, it was only small scale). I loaded the brush and the wood soaked it up immediately. It was incredibly difficult to lay it off properly. Still, it’s done and it looks infinitely better than it did. I only did three sides because a) I was tired with a K and my arthritis reminded me why I didn’t do large works any more and it got in the way of the manual dexterity I needed, b) the fence paint was running out and c) the south side is against a hedge and quite difficult to get to. The studio is next on the list if there is enough HG paint left. I have since rewarded myself with a couple of glasses of Aussie Shiraz and a glass of port. Apologies for any comments out of order or tipsy typos 🙂

    1. Good progress, Conway! A glass or three is my favourite reward too.
      Problem with hedges and similar, is that if you don’t do that side before the plants start sprouting, it’s really difficult later. (you’d a thunk I knew what I’m talking about…)

      1. At least, should the weather brighten up (it has since rained), I shan’t be looking at the shed and thinking ‘I must get on and paint that” 🙂

    2. Well done! I just pottered – tidied up some pots; trimmed up some of the geraniums and fuschias that survived the winter; planted up two new ones bought yesterday at Morrisons. OH slept – is now awake and making tea & toast.

      1. Thank you. It was dull and overcast here so I thought it was ideal for doing it. I bought a couple of hostas (cough – peddy and grizzly will understand that) the other day and I will get round to putting them in pots (to avoid the slugs) another day.

        1. Hi Phizz you should know by now that Trombetti need to be planted before 14:00 hrs

      3. Pole, Ndovu, lakini…

        …trimmed up some of the geraniums and fuschias fuchsias that survived the winter…

          1. Mine are sprouting well. I still have 8.5lbs in the freezer ready to make into (more) jam!

    3. Well done.

      I have just ordered 170 square feet of decking. I have a disused railway embankment at the end of the garden and i’m going to steal it. Nice sun trap too.

  102. I feel so angry and impotent.

    I watch as the politicians and so-called experts are calling the shots whilst always ensuring that they themselves and doubtless their families will be insulated from the fall out.

    My children and grandchildren will be paying for their incompetence for years to come.

    Thank God I don’t own a decent rifle, because I would be out hunting.

    1. I’m getting that way too. At this point I remind myself that my primary loyalty is to my family, that we can survive this time as best we can, as our ancestors came through difficult periods and worse governments thoughout history.

    3. It has always been so, Sos. Each generation pays for the ineptitude of previous governments, ad infinitum. But we shall survive somehow, always look on the bright side!!

      1. ‘Ave another
        Lady walks into a bar and asks for a double entendre.
        So the barman gives her one.

    3. BTL Comment:

      “They” don’t want you to find any cure. ONLY their vaccines will do ! 💉

    1. I’ve been busy all afternoon marking German written translations. Garden doors wide open, sunshine & rose scent & blackbird song streaming in, a tantalizing smell of roasting pork wafting now & again from the kitchen – should be ready at 7.

      1. We’ve got lamb tonight. With some more of the first asparagus I bought yesterday, some little carrots and some beans from Kenya. I try to stick to British produce where possible but Kenyan farmers need supporting too.

  107. Just given up on Shakespeare’s King Lear being shown on BBC 4 …..Would William have entertained Woke?

    1. A play that guilt-trips one of the main characters for being judgemental + the BBC cannot possibly equal a watchable hour!
      One long white guilt self-flagellation session, I’d imagine.

      1. Sir Laurence Olivier ‘blacked’ up to play Shakespeare’s Othello, why the actor playing the Duke of Burgundy couldn’t have done the reverse is beyond me…?

    2. Sigh…unfortunately I know the theory. My hairdresser did warn me on the phone that my hair is quite resistant. I have a little L’Oréal root retoucher stick that does work. Will just have to hope that said hairdresser feels able to work again soon. She’s freelance and not in a salon so will play it by ear but she’s worried of course. Her husband owns one of those full protective suits so we joked that she might have to wear that!

          3. Carrying considerable overweight! Top weight in handicaps was just under 12 stone. Arkle himself (or should that be Himself?) carried 12st 7 as top weight (a separate handicap was used if Arkle wasn’t running).

          4. A former Beeb colleague had a brother called Arkle. Their father really did name him after the horse.

          7. Fortunately for her, no. She’s Anne Marie. They were quite a large Irish Catholic family though and if Anne ever told me what the rest were called, I’ve long since forgotten.

          10. PS Foinavon (won the Grand National at 100/1 when Pophamdown lived up to his name and got rid of most of the field) was also named, with one letter difference, after a mountain in Scotland (Foinaven). Not a lot of people know that 🙂

          11. Having ‘met’ Foinavon – Arkle’s stablemate in County Meath, I placed a bet on her 100/1 win … Not a lot of people know that 🙂 !

          12. That’s interesting. My colleague’s dad definitely knew nothing about mountains.

    4. Hi OLT

      Stupid DT .. where can we access hair care products like the ones featured .. our little local chemist doesn’t do stuff like that. The DT is so unbelievable .. we are on lockdown , and even buying some factor 30 suncream is off the radar!

        2. I went to Morrisons in Weymouth for the first time ever a few days ago .. The queue around the carpark at Sainsbury was ridiculous .

          I had quite a list of stuff to buy , things like sugar free jellies for him who sits in the car , and other stuff that real fusspots enjoy.
          I raced around the shop , because he said be quick , so I didn’t have time to search for things for me .

          Morrisons was a real delight and surprise . I was searching for fruit and some decent veg and salady stuff . I even bought a large piece of pork .. to be eaten mid week . Instant soups , ham , mince, salmon steaks etc. Laundry stuff was a good price , hand soap and other bits and pieces . The spacing was good , staff were jovial , and it wasn’t a bad experience.

          Moh says he is in the at risk group, so he had a walk in the supermarket car park . I was in and out within half an hour!

          1. Really, T_B you should take time to look out for things for yourself. You need and deserve a bit of pampering. Don’t feel guilty because you have taken a little time for yourself. You will feel all the better for it.

          2. I like Morrisons – it’s not too big, and I don’t get tempted to buy lots of more interesting stuff, like in Waitrose. The staff are nice and most have been there for years. The fresh meat and veg are good – they only sell British meat. So no NZ lamb which we know is halal. Why is R more at risk than you are?

  109. Good night all.

    I don’t think that King Lear (BBC4) is the most appropriate Shakespeare play to be showing at the moment. What’s wrong with one of the comedies such as Much Ado…?

    1. Given the way we are being kept in the dark perhaps “Mulch Ado” would be a better title….

    4. Reading the blurb I think that rather than being King Lear it is ‘based on’ King Lear so I have given it a miss

    3. I think this situation exposes the weakness of overcrowded Britain’s high business, rate, big business model. In France and Germany, DIY stores tend to be smaller, and in villages, rather than these mammoth superstores that are only allowed to exist on industrial estates in towns. Also these two countries are less overcrowded than Britain.
      There are just more shops in France and Germany than in Britain, probably due to lower business rates, so there isn’t the same pressure on them.

  112. ‘Obesity at a time of Covid’ would be an interesting paper to submit to any post-pandemic public enquiry.

    1. The guidelines for any ‘Covid’ public enquiry have been laid down in the Upt’norf Child Grooming one

      I have had the email, back from Petition people, that accused me of race hate and that i would be shot, if I ever said anything against Ali’s Snac k Bar. users .ever

  114. On average 500.000 people die each year in Britain. or 1370 per day. Its a pity we are not given far more stats so we can compare.

      1. I would want to see deaths per day split into covid and others. Total compared to same day last year. then the same month to date and year to date. all split into covid and others. The media are just not doing this sort of thing.

        1. To sound like a record, stuck in the groove,:

          Deaths should be recorded as

          Died of Covin 19

          or

          Died with Covin 19, with the the actual cause recorded..#

          If Post Mortems are not carried out, it is a murderer’s paradise

          1. Wouldn’t just deaths per day be the least biased statistic? Compare it to previous years and if covid deaths are a big number, they will show up.

            Yes it is subject to bad weather related deaths and accidental deaths must be way down with almost everyone locked up but there is little room for masking the covid numbers.

            Apart from North Korea, a death is a death, if you just show a total count you can compare year over years from different countries as well.

          3. I wholeheartedly agree with you. All I want to know do the total deaths per day/month. What they die from/with is immaterial, especially to the deceased.

        2. The media’s objective is to sell more papers or increase TV viewers by asking leading/awkward questions of politicians at the daily press briefings, Johnny, and not to give us factual information to make our own minds up with. If the politicians spoke openly and frankly, then they would be bombarded with more leading/awkward questions from the media.

  115. Is it just me, or is everyone getting a Diqus quiz popping up? I tell them I am in Montana.

  118. Right, I’ll just check who has replied to me or upvoted me, then I’m off to bed. Good night all, sleep well, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

  119. We’ve been saying it for years, JB…

    Even this crisis can’t bust the pernicious myth of the “idle British worker”

    JULIE BURCHILL

    Coming as I do from an impeccably proletarian background – my mother was variously a cleaner, a shop assistant and a factory worker, my father a factory worker and a car park attendant – I’ve never had any illusions about exactly who keeps a country moving. I’ve never swallowed the propaganda about the British worker being lazy either – my mother usually worked two part-times jobs while for most of my childhood my father worked a night shift in a distillery and then at weekends acted as my entertainment co-ordinator.

    So it’s with a certain grim satisfaction that I applaud our key workers – from supermarket stackers and care workers to lorry drivers – every Thursday evening, wondering how many of my neighbours in the People’s Republic of Brighton & Hove previously viewed our working class from afar as a vague combination of idle estate-dwelling scroungers and hard-working immigrants fair game for naked exploitation.

    To some extent, it was sustained belittling of workers which led to our Brexit victory. But it seems some won’t give up their right to exploit labour without a fight, with the liberal media serving as their useful idiots. After controversy arose around reports of farmers flying in thousands of Romanians to help in the fields, despite a nationwide call for a land army to harvest imminent fruit and vegetable crops, the Guardian snipped that “thousands of British workers who responded to a nationwide appeal to help pick fruit and vegetables on farms have rejected job offers”.

    Another outlet smugged that “the rise in xenophobic public rhetoric surrounding Brexit has led to a decline in seasonal workers coming to the UK”. But many Britons complained on social media of an anti-Brit bias by farmers who have dismissed them as “picky”.

    A young woman who previously worked as a copywriter but was keen to apply her youthful vigour to a more physical pursuit posted on Twitter this week “The comments I’m seeing about British workers not answering the call for fruit picking make me sad – my partner and I and many others have applied and have either heard nothing or been told that farms are overrun with applications. Cheap labour is the real narrative here. I’m willing to put in the effort to learn how to be an efficient fruit picker fast so that I can support my country. The point is, the farms aren’t willing to invest in me.”

    Farmers have responded that it’s “skilled” work – but Romanian babies aren’t born picking strawberries, so presumably someone took the trouble to train them. If bosses offered a decent wage, and weren’t so partial to cramming four labourers into one dilapidated caravan and deducting “accommodation costs” from their pay, they might find Brits are not lazy at all. Meanwhile we leave legions of our own people laid off and locked up, going mad with inactivity.

    Cheap immigrant labour doesn’t just damage British workers, but also the people doing it. The hideous phenomena of modern slavery and sex trafficking come to you courtesy of free movement, assisted by the brotherhood of man and soundtracked with the Ode To Joy.

    It’s understandable that those seeking to make profits from relatively small margins might be tempted to employ labourers who work for peanuts and never complain. And, given Britain’s tense history of unionised clashes and general strikes, a certain unforgiving Right-wing attitude towards the “British work ethic” is perhaps, unsurprising. It is, however, a complete scandal that even now, in wake of the Brexit uprising and the coronavirus crisis – which has exposed working class key workers as the backbone of our society – a decadent and clueless Left still refuse to reassess their judgement on British workers.

    If Starmer wants to rebuild that Red Wall, he’d be wise to make a call for the country to employ our increasingly unemployed working class rather than rely on yet more cheap labour. But even now that Corbynistas and One Nation Tories have united in red-blooded Soviet-style worker-worship, one wonders whether our blue-collar–bashing days are really over.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/26/even-crisis-cant-bust-pernicious-myth-idle-british-worker/

    2. “cramming four labourers into one dilapidated caravan and deducting
      “accommodation costs” from their pay, they might find Brits are not lazy
      at all.”
      Just four?? You’re having a Laff,this speaks to the heart of the scam,I have read reports of hundreds of thousands in accom profits

      1. Appears that the gang-masters are still ruling the roost and making a killing via exploitation. Read somewhere last week that the Romanians are being paid the home country rate and the gang-masters are pocketing the difference; no evidence to show that it’s true but wouldn’t be surprised.

    3. Back in the ’50s and ’60’s I worked on farms alongside my parents and we were paid piece rates i.e. if we were picking peas we were paid per sack at the market rate. If there was a heavy crop then the price dropped. The same went for blackcurrants: I can remember the price per 12lb punnet changing during the day and we were issued with a different coloured token to represent the new price. If you worked hard you could make money but if you were a slacker you missed out. Market forces ruled.

      1. I worked on a soft fruit farm. There was next to no training. I was shown what to do and then the supervisor coached me a couple of times in getting up to speed, and “picking clean” that is on removing all the fruit and not just the obvious stuff.
        However, farmers have shown themselves to be very poor at negotiating prices with supermarkets, in respect of milk in particular and everything else. Form an agriculture cartel and put up prices. It is not that difficult. In the NFU they currently have the best Trade Union, and can walk into Downing Street any time.

    4. The reality is that non-white immigrants and, very important point, their descendants exhibit consistently higher levels of unemployment per capita than the white natives. Here not to do the jobs we won’t (allegedly) do.

      It’s safe to say this 72 year long social experiment has run it’s course. Time to end it.

      http://www.irr.org.uk/research/statistics/poverty/

      https://www.open.edu/openlearn/people-politics-law/politics-policy-people/economics/economics-explains-discrimination-the-labour-market/content-section-3.2

      And an endless list of further links if anyone wants to search. . .

  120. A very pleasant afternoon out in the sun sharing a few beers and a big bowl of herby paprika wedges(mine own) with fellow members of the awkward squad,it was a real pleasure to chat face to face (albeit at a distance) I was relieved to find I hadn’t totally lost the art of conversation
    Now a home made pasty and a bottle of Rioja call…………………..
    I may be some time.

    1. I was at Duxford a few weeks before their big airshow when several pilots were practicing their routines.

      Just seeing a plane fly straight at you was enough to give the old ticker quite a kick, heaven knows what it would have been like when they were trying to shoot you as well.

      1. 1980 I was walking out of one building on a site in Northumberland to go into an adjacent one. For no real reason I looked over my left shoulder and a chill ran through me.

        I was looking directly into the air intakes of a Harrier as it flew towards me at 250 feet altitude and about 500mph, so the sound of its approach hadn’t yet reached me. It passed directly over my head. The thought that ran through my mind at that moment was ‘Jesus, that must be what it’s like for some poor sod in a foxhole somewhere when he just looks up for no real reason, hearing nothing, and that is the last thing he ever sees’.

        I was positive that the aircraft was simulating an attack on our isolated buildings on its way to the Otterburn range. It still chills me when I think about it.

        1. When we lived in East Lothian we lived in a house in a dip. The Tornadoes would pass over us at very low levels. We heard nothing until the last few seconds before they flew over the ridge 100 yards away. Then a tremendous roar, then gone, to do wheelies over the Cheviots.

      3. Years ago (about 1985), a Spitfire best up the airfield at Cranfield. The aircraft lived there, so it could have been from the Battle of Britain flight, or one of the private ones. We all piled out of the buildings as this Merlin roared over the roof, and I’ll never forget seeing the aircraft in plan view at speed as it banked steeply to pass between the poplar trees at the end (not too distant) of the road, by the College of Aeronautics hangar. A view that lasted almost no time at all, he was really motoring, and was at bugger-all altitude.
        Absolutely magnificent!

  122. Persuaded by the wife to watch ‘Van der Valk’ on ITV, I have abandoned it** after it played every woke card imaginable during the first 10 minutes. Can’t recall the original from the 1970s being like this.

    ** The abandonment is permanent or until the entire production and scriptwriting team are shot.

    2. Talking Pictures are running the original on Friday nights. The revival was dire.

    4. Ah, Lewis. Thank you for that; I had assumed they were filling up the schedule with repeats. I will cancel the recording.

    5. At least he was a white, heterosexual male. They are as rare as rocking horse droppings in TV police dramas these days. Otherwise he was typical TV police detective – sex with a witness, scruffy, total lack of leadership skills, bullying subordinates, favouritism, disobedient and insulting – all the qualities that are needed to be promoted to senior rank at a ludicrously young age. Oh yes, and his team love him!

  123. My neighbour is an executive at Marshalls Aerospace in Cambridge. Chatting over the fence his wife tells me that he works one week at the factories and one week from home, alternating with others of the 300 odd workforce.

    Apparently Marshalls are making sophisticated kit for the NHS. Traditionally they maintain Transport Aircraft for the RAF and Swedish Air Force and others. The company also make or adapt military vehicles.

    My neighbour was an RAF pilot and has boundless energy. He would not dream of staying at home when there is vital work to be performed. His wife, a committed Baptist from Atlanta, is busily working from home raising funds for the world’s poorest and has visited more than fifty countries in assisting them.

    It was uplifting to speak with neighbours who are actually doing something positive. Like me they abhor the silly virtue signalling of those clapping and clattering cooking pots every Thursday.

  124. Good morning from Saxon Queen
    Just about to leave for the once a day walk, which is birdwatching in the local woods.
    Heard a nightingale last time .

    1. I’ve not heard a nightingale for years.
      When stationed at Perham Down, a pimple on the backside of Tidworth, I used to go for evening walks through the ranges to the pub at Kimpton and heard them regularly.

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