Tuesday 28 April: Now that the NHS has spare capacity, the reason for lockdown has gone

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/04/27/lettersnow-nhs-has-spare-capacity-reason-lockdown-has-gone/

1,049 thoughts on “Tuesday 28 April: Now that the NHS has spare capacity, the reason for lockdown has gone”

  2. Good morning all.

    Hurrah! It’s raining at last & everything in the garden is standing tip-toe.

    1. Good morning from a very dull and slightly damp Derbyshire Dales.
      Looks like only a light shower here so far.

      1. I’m sure you can find something else to do. I’ve just marked a translation from one of my students.

          1. Have you looked in the fridge.

            I read a dozen chapters of a thriller last night. In one of them the heroine found her missing car keys in the fridge, so what they say is true.

      1. The triffids are guarding my car at the side of the house – strands of rambler roses hang around the car at head level with nasty thorns.

  3. VE Day is the perfect occasion to reopen our churches. 28 April 2020.

    Most organisations which are currently locked down by Covid-19 are lobbying vigorously for the restrictions to be lifted as soon as possible. It is rather melancholy that Church leaders do not seem to be among their number. The zeal of bishops to go further than the government regulations in keeping churches shut contrasts sadly with the wishes of parishioners.

    Morning everyone. This is only to be expected, the clergy have no religious affiliations; they are more the Cultural Marxist Party at Prayer than Church of England ministers. Obedience to secular authority transcends all their spiritual obligations. This attitude is exemplified in their leader Welby who is more Social Justice Warrior than Christian Soldier.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/28/ve-day-perfect-occasion-reopen-churches/

    1. I think Welby’s appointment came from a senior bishop at the Church of Davos.

    2. Welby’s leadership in a national crisis has been shown to be non-existent. Now there’s a surprise.

      1. Worse than useless. One could almost suspect that his aim is to manage the end of the Church of England.

  4. Good morning, all. No rain yet – but the radar says that it is not far off – thank goodness; we need it.

    1. We have had some, but I suspect we will need rather more than the polite sprinkle.

      1. True, Anne, but the forecast is continuous polite sprinkles for the rest of the week. So I’m happy with that. (Good morning to you and all NoTTLers, btw.)

  5. Morning all

    SIR – The idea of the lockdown was to create time so that the capacity of the NHS could be expanded to meet the expected initial peak of infections.

    The NHS capacity has now reached its target and there seem to be spare beds in general hospitals. The Nightingale hospitals are barely in use.

    The NHS is as ready as it is going to be. In which case why are we persisting with the lockdown?

    Peter Richards

    Lytchett Matravers, Dorset

    SIR – There has been discussion of when lockdown will end and whether it will continue to apply to people over 70 after ending for younger people.

    The answers can be found in the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020. By Regulation 3 the Secretary of State for Health personally (not the Cabinet or the Prime Minister) is under a statutory duty to keep constantly under review the need for the restrictions, and to conduct a formal review at least every 21 days, the current period expiring on May 7. As soon as the Secretary of State considers that any restrictions or requirements in the Regulations are no longer necessary as a public-health response to coronavirus, he must publish a direction terminating them.

    To “protect the NHS” is not a permissible reason to maintain a restriction in place.

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    The powers of the Secretary of State are to maintain a restriction or to terminate it. He has no power to modify a restriction or to impose new ones. So he cannot direct that some restriction apply only to those over 70.

    The statutory duty of the Secretary of State is enforceable by judicial review in the High Court.

    The Regulations themselves expire on September 26, whereupon lockdown will simply cease.

    His Honour Richard Seymour QC

    East Hanningfield, Essex

    SIR – I am 79 and living on borrowed time since a vascular operation in 2011, which I had only a 30 per cent chance of surviving. Happily, thanks to the surgeon’s skill, I am still here, but unhappily I am deprived of living life as I wish.

    There is no salmon or trout fishing this year; no golf, no holiday, no restaurants; no visits to the pub.

    Unlike the state of Missouri, I do 
not have the money to sue China, which I believe responsible for the state of my life. Many good months of my twilight years have been stolen and will never be regained.

    Ian D R Cox

    Aldeburgh, Suffolk

    SIR – It is probable that mistakes relating to lockdown, testing and PPE would have been made whatever government was in the driving seat.

    The incredible balancing act of getting back to normal will require brave decisions, some of which will be wrong – but let them be decisions we take as a nation without turning Covid-19 into a political football.

    John Waiting

    Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire

    1. Lots of sympathy, Ian Cox. Not being able to stop or rewind time, once it’s gone past, it’s gone.

        1. It gets to us all. Our plans for this year have been stymied completely. We will not be getting this year back. Worser still, it looks like being a bumper summer with lots of sunshine and long warm days into the Autumn.

        2. It did with me too.
          Given that older people have a more limited time in which to live the lives they want, they ought to be able to make their own choices as to what risks they take.

          1. Well said! I take the view I’ll either get it or I won’t. If I get it, I’ll either survive or I won’t. If I survive, fine, if I don’t I can’t worry, so no point in getting miserable about it. Besides which, I have a pretty good idea I’ve already had it and survived:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSa7WAKFQEE

    2. Well said, John Watling, but try telling that to Starless and his motley Opposition crew. With his constant whining about the absence of an ‘exit strategy’ one has to wonder what part of BoJo’s five tests he seems incapable of understanding. On the other hand, he could just be making mischief (Shirley Knott?) and relying on the old maxim that people will believe that there isn’t one if you say it enough times. In this respect he can rely on the Broken Broadcasting Corpn for plenty of coverage (other biased broadcasters are available).

      ‘Morning, Epi.

      1. At least Starmer is playing at being leader of the Opposition. Corbyn couldn’t even be bothered to do that most of the time; his Opposition was his own party!
        Starmer has already proved his credentials as a destructor.

    3. Mr Cox, with your proximity to the sea and the river Alde estuary, I would get up at the crack of sparrow fart and go cast a line for an hour. What can they do to you, seriously?
      Edit; PS don’t forget to carry your fishing licence when you go.

    4. Well you see if we lift the lockdown we will have to face the unpalatable truth that people sent to NHS hospitals are going to die…

    5. ‘Morning, Epi, I’m surprised that Ian D R Cox of Aldeburgh didn’t end his letter with, “How Very Dare You!”

  6. SIR – We know from the entry of Sars-1 coronavirus into Hong Kong in 2003 that highly effective transmission can occur on lift buttons: 23 people in the Metropole Hotel were infected by one person via this route.

    Keypads and touchscreens are also likely to be a risk. By letting people go shopping, we allow them to touch ATMs and other keypads, door handles, handrails and so on. This would not matter if they did not then put their fingers in their noses and mouths. But the chain of infection can be broken by using hand-cleansing alcohol gel (or alcohol, or methylated spirits) immediately after contact.

    By failing to convey this message, the Government has missed an opportunity to block transmission. The lockdown cannot do so on its own.

    Dr Geoff Scott

    London SE1

    1. I tap my PIN code into the card machine with the corner of the card, and use my elbow to avoid as far as I can touching doorhandles. I try not to use the grab handles on buses, and avoid the bannister as best I can without tumbling down the stairs. I’m acutely conscious of sticky, sweaty, greasy surfaces, and have a good hand wash with antibac afterwards once I come in.
      Smart arse, eh?
      Morning, peeps. 🙂

    2. “highly effective transmission can occur on lift buttons” I think that might be a tall storey.

    3. 23 is a very exact number.
      Weren’t there a few ‘don’t knows’?
      “Well, now, I did use the lift on Thursday – or was it Friday? Honey, what day did we go see Aunt Mamie?”

    4. Well I can assure Dr Scott that I am not touching any ATMS or keypads, door handles etc. I touch them through a tissue that is then disposed of, or if I absolutely can’t avoid it, I disinfect my hands after touching these points of frequent contact.

      In the company where I work, you have to touch a door handle to open the fire doors to go between the floors. I’ve always thought this was an infection risk, and I am the only person in the company who makes an idiot of themselves using a paper towel to open the door. I can’t bear the thought of picking up everyone else’s colds and bugs at the best of times.

      1. One of our children does the same as a matter of routine. She has worked in China and while there she was most careful about every aspect of hygiene, touching nothing with her bare hands, especially on buses and in shops. The Chinese, she reports, have the vilest habits, one of the commonest being spitting, anywhere and everywhere. And, of course we have plenty of Chinese in this country now, as well as many, many others who are strangers to soap and water.

        1. Very sensible.
          About five years ago, I saw a Chinese tourist smoking on the platform of a Munich underground station, and casually flicking the ash onto the ground!

          1. ‘Morning, BB2, the other side of the coin is demonstrated in Singapore where there are ashtrays everywhere in shopping and transport areas and to drop litter of any kind results in $50 fine.

            Because it is so clean, I always advise anyone contemplating travel to and through the Far East, not to go to Singapore first – it will spoil you for the rest.

          2. My dearly beloved worked a lot in that region, and he says that the only decent country out of the whole bunch was Singapore. (I don’t think he worked in Japan though, which I would also assume is a country with high standards)

  7. Morning again

    SIR – It is not true that younger people are “unwilling to pick locally grown food” (report, April 16).

    My 19-year-old son has good GCSEs, a full driving licence, and was, until a few weeks ago, studying at college. He registered his interest through Farmers Weekly on March 23 and was redirected to an agency. He completed an online interview on March 31 and was told to wait for the agency to put him in touch with local farms.

    Weeks later, having heard nothing more, he got on his bike and found farm work himself. Do you suppose his is a unique experience?

    Maria Bird

    Densole, Kent

    SIR – Last week my son, who is on furlough and living in the Fens, applied to work on the land picking fruit and salad. He was rejected for being “over qualified”.

    Jacqui Baldry

    Saxmundham, Suffolk

    1. Jacqui’s son has found out that too many qualifications can be a Fens when it comes to manual work.

      2. When backpacking around Australia twenty years ago I got a job washing up in an Italian restaurant after my French travelling companion was turned down for having no experience. I still chuckle about that.

    4. Jacqui’s letter echoes my experience after I graduated and I wanted some work before I went back to college to do my PGCE. I didn’t want to go straight from school to university to college to school again without touching the real world. In the end, I enrolled with an Agency. They only wanted to know if I could do the job, never mind what my (over) qualifications were.

  8. SIR – I had a phone call from the NHS audiology department cancelling the appointment to have my new hearing aids fitted, but offering me a telephone appointment instead.

    Kate Ludwick

    Easton-in-Gordano, Somerset

  9. SIR – Government advice is to take vitamin D supplements (report, April 23) in the hope it gives some protection against coronavirus.

    In the recent sunny weather, surely sunbathing would have been beneficial if enjoyed in accordance with social distancing rules. Instead, sunbathers – even those alone on almost deserted beaches – were threatened with a £60 fine.

    Susan Ratliff

    Newcastle upon Tyne

    1. Yes, Susan Ratliff, many of us thought that the sunbathing ban was bonkers, too.

  10. SIR – We enjoyed an unexpected bonus when our supplies wagon didn’t have any tea bags. The replacement Ceylon loose-leaf tea took us back years.

    The ritual of warming the pot, holding the kettle high, stirring vigorously and allowing the statutory three minutes of mashing produced the most lovely cuppa, and brought back memories of Sunday afternoons with aunts chattering at the table and enjoying homemade cake. I won’t mind if I never see a tea bag again.

    Ron Giddens

    Caterham, Surrey

    SIR – Ours is not a manicured garden (Letters, April 20). Winter flooding dictates what we grow and where.

    Now lockdown may last a little longer here, as a wren has built its nest under the engine of my husband’s Land Rover, in spite of the unruly hedges and nesting boxes available.

    Jane Tourle

    Hellingly, East Sussex

    2. It’s more than mere “silliness” your Lordship; it is manifestly a waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned and severely undermines what is left of their confidence in the operation of government.

      ‘Morning, Korky.

          1. Started lightly then turned quite heavy and has stopped for the present. Very welcome, though.

        2. Yes, plenty of rain this morning, with more promised tomorrow afternoon. Garden looks a lot happier now!

    3. At least the mosque was in Egypt, not in London…I suppose Saudi foreign aid is paying for the ones in London.

    4. A bloke with a sensible, forthright way of speaking. A hard-headed commercial realist with business experience. He’ll be ignored of course.

    5. Foreign aid is publicly funded corruption. It greases the wheels of state sales. All the talk of anti corruption policies is nonsense. It’s just bribery.

  12. Yesterday I bartered 300gms of wholemeal flour for some yeast. There’s a lovely aroma of bread baking coming from the kitchen….

      2. Everyday for the past 4 weeks has been yeasterday (there’s been none to be had even for ready money!)

          1. Lang Lang? Isn’t he a Chinese pianist? Not sure who Doo bee doo is though (Scooby Doo?)

            ‘Morning Eddy.

          2. Lang Lang? Isn’t he a Chinese pianist? Not sure who Doo bee doo is though (Scooby Doo?)

            ‘Morning Eddy.

        3. It was the Carpenters wasn’t it? And if I may make a joke in bad taste, she was brown bread at far too young an age.

    2. One of these I assume, they are so convenient:

      http://sensorydecisions.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fresh-bread-smell1.jpg
      “Our proudest creation – and sometimes described as “bakery smell”, it truly creates a baking bread smell. We are the only known company that can supply a realistic fresh bread fragrance that smells exactly like freshly baked bread. It also works great with our coffee fragrance in the form of the popular house sale kit . As well as homes and businesses, this product has also been put to use in sales training, religious seminars and even a theatrical production of the play The Baker’s Wife .”
      http://sensorydecisions.com/fresh-bread-smell-fragrance-spray

    3. One of these I assume, they are so convenient:

      http://sensorydecisions.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/fresh-bread-smell1.jpg
      “Our proudest creation – and sometimes described as “bakery smell”, it truly creates a baking bread smell. We are the only known company that can supply a realistic fresh bread fragrance that smells exactly like freshly baked bread. It also works great with our coffee fragrance in the form of the popular house sale kit . As well as homes and businesses, this product has also been put to use in sales training, religious seminars and even a theatrical production of the play The Baker’s Wife .”
      http://sensorydecisions.com/fresh-bread-smell-fragrance-spray

  15. Morning all. 😕
    Excuse my apparent ignorance but….
    I simply cannot see the point of all this testing for the virus. For instance if a person was tested at say 2:30 this afternoon and found to be clear. Feeling safe, then went about their business and became unkowingly infected around lunchtime tomorrow. Went about their business again, perhaps as a result they would be passing on the infection to many more people.

    1. The only test of any use is one that confirms you have already had it and have immunity, they wont do that in a hurry because of the consequences when people realise that it was all for nothing.

    2. Good morning ECD

      I wondered the same as you, the question should be , will the test identify a super Covid19 carrier?

      The old myth about 6 degrees of separation must apply to testing as well?

    3. Exactly. Possibly testing for anti-bodies would indicate that some (many, I suspect) people have already had the lurgy.
      So now, it is claimed that a prior infection doesn’t confer immunity.
      I feel a Mandy Rice Davis moment coming on. The petty Hilters enjoying their time in the sun (which they don’t want the rest of us to enjoy) will not give up that easily.
      Morning, RE.

    4. Test negative and no sign of having had it, ie no antibodies and you continue to be vulnerable and as you say could pick it up and transmit it. I don’t believe we know how quickly you become infectious after getting it.

      Test negative, but with antibodies and in theory you should be OK. But again, we don’t appear to know when you cease to be infectious to others, nor do we know for certain that you can’t get it again.

      Test positive and you will likley come down with it, but anything from mild, even asymptomatic to full blown “Good night Vienna.”

      One point of testing is that using statistical sampling, we should be able to get a picture of how many people have it, have had it or are waiting to get it. Which should have been done ages ago and doesn’t appear to have been.

      1. Well, the repeated blah about testing tells us nothing. There are separate tests for antibodies (“you’ll have had your C-19”), and antigens (“so how are you enjoying your C-19?”)”. The journalists don’t report what tests are being referred to and the spokesman of the day does not make any distinction either. If people are tested for having had the disease, and that have had it, then that’s that. The present assumption, which may be wrong, is that you can only get it once. The other assumption seems to be that there is only one strain of the virus.
        If you are tested and have the disease then medical treatment of some sort is likely, even if it is only to confirm the present instruction to “go home, stay at home, self isolate, take drinks and paracetamol, and call 999 when you can’t breathe”. Another box ticked, perhaps.

        1. False security.
          It’s about being seen to be doing something.
          My view remains that the most useful type of testing would have been sampling to get a feel for how widespread it is/was and what stages people were at within that sample. The number of tests did not need to be huge.

          1. That would have required tests that worked. If they had been on the ball the Government could have hired a private lab (or even Porton Down)to carry out just such sampling. They could even have sent to China for samples of the virus for comparison etc..
            As yet nothing sensible seems to have happened. What are they doing with the test results?

          2. What are they doing with the test results?

            Trying to find the most disadvantageous way of presenting them to

            A justify continued lock-down
            B prove they were correct to have done what they did

      2. Thanks Sos nobody in the media has really explained that.
        It’s would be frightening to discover that the tested was found to be a carrier, with only minor symptoms.
        Good news…….
        Lockdown in France eased, beaches open in Oz, you’ll soon be able so nip off to Sydney for a couple of coldies with the family. 🍻

        1. I hope my simplified explanation isn’t misleading, because there are other factors in play, but that’s essentially what is happening as I understand it.

          Let’s hope we’re on the right trajectory.

      3. Speaking of sampling…it is said that yer Germans are ‘going through the motions’ because this helps to identify the infection hotspots in the population. (No, not exactly a jobbie I’m after.)

        ‘Morning, sos.

    5. It’s a bit like the MOT. A car can pass with flying colours but the next day develop a fault which renders its use dangerous.

      1. And someone with a clean DBS check going back twenty years is only a bag of sweets and a van away from being a kiddie fiddler tomorrow.

  16. Morning all.

    Who’s going to write to Mr Clough and explain to him that what he wants already exists – several of them.

    SIR – Before the lockdown, I played duplicate bridge every Thursday morning. The average turnout (in one room) was between 60 and 80 people, with ages ranging from 60 to 90.
    Will this kind of gathering ever be allowed again? If not, please can some software programmers create a simple solution so that these mentally active “old” people can compete from home?
    Stephen Clough

    1. BTW, while this is good for your ‘bridge brain’, it doesn’t provide much in the way of the social aspect of bridge which is the reason many people play.

  17. I see that New Zealand have defeated Covid by completely closing their borders, lucky for them they are an island surrounded by sea, it could never happen here of course.

    2. As a people we belong to the John Donne School of Insularity rather than the Paul Simon one?

  18. Two immigrants have just arrived in the United States by boat and one says to the other, “I hear that the people of this country actually eat dogs.”

    “Odd,” her companion replies, “but if we shall live in America, we might as well do as the Americans do.”

    Nodding emphatically, one of the immigrants points to a hot dog vendor and they both walk toward the cart.

    “Two dogs, please,” she says.

    The vendor is only too pleased to oblige, wraps both hot dogs in foil and hands them over the counter.

    Excited, the companions hurry to a bench and begin to unwrap their “dogs.”

    One of them opens the foil and begins to blush. Staring at it for a moment, she turns to her friend and whispers cautiously, “What part did you get?”

  19. Nick Timothy: an awakening or a good payday?

    https://twitter.com/A_Liberty_Rebel/status/1254848815506567169

    To the point comment BTL

    J Hodson 27 Apr 2020 6:50PM

    Can we really expect better from the successors to Mao, who murdered and starved probably even more than Stalin, who himself murdered more than Hitler? This regime has in essence not changed since the 1950s and has no intention of changing. The prospect of absolute power over 1200 million people attracts some of the most odious specimens on the planet, all determined to climb the greasy pole better than the next guy. So the ones who reach the very top are ipso facto going to be the very epitome of cold, calculating and evil creatures who regard any hint of compassion or care as a sign of weakness.

    1. We never hear about his partner-in-crime, Fiona Hill, who, I gather, had a nasty mouth on her.

      1. Is her mouth nasty to look at like Laura Koenssberg’s or nasty for what it emits like Emily Maitlis’s and the mouths of virtually all the journalists (and especially the female ones) working for the BBC?

        1. I can only go by newspaper reports (yes, I know) but I gather she could be a bullying shrew.
          I’ve certainly not seen anything by or about her since May’s defenestration.
          And, immediately after that event, Nick Timothy shaved off his luxuriant Victorian beard; was he hiding behind it?

    2. Thanks Anne. I usually enjoy the RJ links you put up ut I found this article a bit long winded – not yer typical pithy RJ read. The same joke is repeated in twenty paragraphs.

      1. I wonder if he has to produce a certain number of words? You get the same with his 70’s pastiches.

  21. ‘Morning All
    This has to be one of the most arsed about face headlines I ever read
    “Has the government failed the NHS??”
    Billions for Public Health England
    Utterly Useless
    Billions for Procurement and Distribution
    Utterly Useless
    Oh and by the way I paid substantial taxes for 50 years in the expectation(Pah!!) that in need the NHS would protect me and mine not the other way around…………………..

      1. Many years ago my wife desperately needed a replacement knee but the waiting list was up around two years and we didn’t have the cash to go private. Her excellent rheumatologist had bed time but the orthopaedic surgeon did not, however, the latter did have theatre time. So, a deal was struck and my wife received her new knee which is still going strong along with the second one replaced a few years later. Although the outcome was very welcome for my wife such wheeler-dealing shouldn’t have been necessary in the NHS.

        1. Maybe you and your wife should have nipped across to Calais and boarded the next mothership with dinghy attached.
          When my cousin had a house in France, she swore that the best way to get her knee fixed was to ride on the axle of Eurostar and claim asylum when it reached Waterloo.

          1. About 20 years ago, on a Friday, I went to see a surgeon in Dinan about a bad knee. He said that this was a problem with a miniscus and that it needed trimming by a keyhole procedure and he asked me whether Tuesday or Thursday next week would be more convenient. The French medical service has also removed my gall bladder and fitted me with a brand new titanium hip. I have also had the most excellent dental work done in Turkey – which is still completely in place fifteen years later – at about 15% of the price I would have had to pay in the UK.

            I think we British are deluding ourselves if we think that the NHS is superior to anything else in the world.

          2. It isn’t. Whoever said it was is lying. The problem is it’s all we have. People think it’s great because they can’t afford – because they don’t know how much the NHS costs – an alternative.

          3. This was way before Eurostar. It’s quite clear that the surgeon was a master of his profession as was the manufacturer of the replacement for it to last so long.

        2. Sadly it is. This black market is what happens when any real choice has been removed.

    1. ‘Penis Morgan’

      You surprise me, Rik.

      I hadn’t realised he had his own, I thought he
      shared one with his fellow ‘gobby’ doom-mongers.

      Good morning

      1. ‘Morning G
        I am not by nature an envious man for example I do not envy Jeremy Clarkson his wealth or fame
        I do envy the fact he got to punch Morgan

          1. You cannot deny his bravery. I wonder how many other TV journalists would be prepared to face this? I would like to see Emily Maitlis, Jon Snow, Cathy Newman and Laura Kooennsberg face Bret Lee for an over.

          3. Kevin Peterson and Piers Morgan certainly both have the same ability to infuriate people though the former was a better batsman!

    4. Is there a source for that NHS image?

      As these are supposedly nurses on a bed – beds which we are told are in short supply.

      They’re not heroes. They shouldn’t be lauded. They’re just doing a job.

      1. Yo Elsie

        Are you the Fifth Columnist,that the list was designed to unearth

        Hheheheheh

        1. No, I am not the 5th columnist, I came 4th and won the Booby Prize. (In fact I thoroughly enjoyed the post – very funny!)

  25. DT Article today

    Genes determine how severely people get coronavirus, study finds

    “NHS England figures released last week confirmed that black, Asian and minority ethnic patients face a disproportionately high risk of death from Covid-19.”

    I think that many of us have noticed that in some families those who get Covid 19 have relatively light symptoms whereas in some families every person who gets it is very ill and may die. I mentioned a case yesterday of friends of mine whose daughter, her G.P. husband and two children all got the virus without being seriously ill and the fact that my wife’s sister got the virus but neither her husband nor her son living in the same house were affected.

    And this ‘genetic selection’ by the virus seems to hit BAME people harder.

    Of course the left cannot accept this just as they have a severe aversion to ‘true’ facts of any kind. I almost wonder if it is not their fault and that such people are doomed to be left wing at birth by their genes?

    .

    1. What will be very interesting is the outcome of the figures for the off-spring of inter-racial marriages/partnerships and their descendants, in the very unlikely event that such research would be permitted.

      1. Like any other gene mixing, I suppose. There will probably be a category for “mixed race” but that isn’t particularly precise.

          2. Politics now ensures that sensible categorisation eg for medical purposes, is either “racism” because you categorised people or “racism” because you didn’t categorise people (and they died).
            Good thing we have learned from history, isn’t it…oh wait…

        2. From personal observation only, and obviously this is a small sample.

          I have noticed that children of mixed race parents seem to be much more vulnerable to many illnesses and allergies than their peers, some of them potentially lethal.. This cannot be put down to racism on the part of their contemporaries.

          1. That does surprise me. Usually mixed genes tend to be stronger don’t they, as in mongrels being healthier than pedigree dogs?
            There are a lot of allergies in Britain, far more than in other parts of the world I’ve been told – and it’s true that I never saw peanuts or any other nuts being banned in French or German schools.

          3. Re dogs, I suspect it depends what one is breeding for and what one defines as stronger.

            Again, sample size disclaimer.

            Many of the children I’ve met do better at school, although some do a lot worse and there is certainly an element of “class” which affects it, educated parents encourage their children more. How much is nature and how much nurture is open to debate.

          4. Our local plumber’s daughter married a a man from Africa and they have two daughters who are doing tremendously well at school.

            The daughter of another Breton friend of ours who runs his own timber business went to Paris and got pregnant by a black man. Her parents, a delightful old couple, brought up her daughter in a remote Breton village as their own and, once again, she was always top of the class at school.

            A good friend of Caroline’s, a Philippine woman, married a white French builder, They have three daughters who are not only exceptionally intelligent but also extremely good looking. They also have a son, who is the same age as our elder son, got a good university degree in France and, like our son is working very successfully in the aviation industry as a design engineer..

          5. I am always slightly surprised by the number of families I see around here with mixed race children; what is very noticeable is how seldom one sees the father(s), perhaps they are all at work.

          6. In dogs it’s not that mongrels are stronger, it’s the pedigrees that are weaker, being the results of lots of in-breeding.

          8. Bulldogs and breeds of that ilk being a prime example.
            And who can forget the prizewinning Alsation at Crufts a few years ago?

          9. Richard Lynn, who used to be a professor but is no longer, as studying IQ is waycist, believes that up to 80% is probably nature and that the nurture part may be more to do with nutrition in the early years than education. It’s complicated of course because average IQs have to be studied in different age groups as well as different races etc, since IQ does develop and is in part fluid and down to nutrition and education/up-bringing and there is a fluctuation of around 10-15 points plus a certain degree of human development is necessary before it can be tested anyway!

          10. It was a sorry day when academic freedom started to be closed down by accusations of racism.

          11. As Antony’s old plain-speaking friend, Enobarbus, said: “That the truth should be silent I had almost forgot.” And as King Lear’s Fool observed: “Truth’s a dog that must to kennel. He must be whipped …..”

          12. As Antony’s old plain-speaking friend, Enobarbus, said: “That the truth should be silent I had almost forgot.” And as King Lear’s Fool observed: “Truth’s a dog that must to kennel. He must be whipped …..”

          13. “That does surprise me. Usually mixed genes tend to be stronger don’t they…”

            If it’s inherited, ‘mixing’ of genes doesn’t count for anything. Thalassaemia and sickle cell disease are common in people of various African, Asian and Mediterranean ancestry.

          14. Well that is a very imprecise way of saying that people tend to be less healthy if they are inbred.

          15. It’s a very precise way of pointing out that inherited disorders do not follow ideas of hybrid strength or nature versus nurture. Two people who marry and who come from places hundreds of miles apart could be sufferers or carriers.

          16. It’s a very precise way of pointing out that inherited disorders do not follow ideas of hybrid strength or nature versus nurture. Two people who marry and who come from places hundreds of miles apart could be sufferers or carriers.

          17. Yes that is true, but if you marry your tenth cousin without realising it, generation after generation (as many people in Britain do), then your chances of recycling said illnesses are surely going to be higher.

          18. The mating habits of a particular section of Britain’s immigrant population is a separate issue.

            Some children of mixed African/Asian and European descent will inherit the diseases mentioned.

        1. Talking of which what can be done to bring the report on Muslim Rape Gangs to light?

          Disclosure of the truth by politicians has never been ‘in the public interest’.

          A point that needs stressing over and over again is that repeated lying and repeated special, favourable treatment of Muslims is not going to stop Islamophobia – it is going to promote and increase it. Can politicians not see this?

          2. I think politicians live in a bubble that’s inside the Westminster Bubble that’s inside EU bubble that’s inside the Globalist bubble.

          3. Should have added that these bubbles are totally isolated from the real world.

      3. My husband’s nephew is married to a Sikh girl and they and their two sons were all ill last month but only for a couple of days, though the boys also had d & v , which does seem to affect children. None of them needed any treatment apart from rest.

        1. We have similar in our family and so far they’ve avoided the bug altogether, long may that continue.

    2. As I mentioned last week a friend who has COPD and Pulmonary Fibrosis was taken to hospital 3 weeks ago with difficulty breathing and, initially, put in a ward with other suspected Covid cases. He was tested and found not to have Covid and moved to a ‘clean’ ward. As he was about to be discharged they took his temperature and it had spiked to 39. Back to the Covid ward, tested again, negative, back to clean ward. Then temp spike again and back to Covid ward.

      He said he wanted to go home but a doctor said no. However he also said that if he had tested positive he would have been more comfortable at home. Madness. He finally escaped last week.

      Despite his ‘underlying’ health conditions, he’s terminal, he didn’t get the virus despite the best efforts of the hospital and 3 people dying while he was in the Covid ward

    3. I do wonder how many of the older white patients had their tonsils automatically removed around the age of 10.
      The tonsils are there to catch bugs and viruses and prevent them travelling further into the body.

    4. You’d almost suspect there were other differences between different races apart from skin colour, wouldn’t you.

      1. Blood conditions like sickle cell anaemia and thalassaemia are not diseases that afflict northern whitey.

  28. 318667+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    Merkel Ally Tells UK: Extend Transition Period Until up to 2023

    The boris to take charge of brexit talks.
    What’s the betting ?

    1. At a £1 billion a month plus the ‘extras’ they’ll discover and when the economy is going through the floor? Political suicide, even for Johnson.

      1. 318667+ up ticks,
        Morning KtK,
        Could be his” last ditch stand then”
        He does seem to have a ditch fetish.

    1. So you’re saying, Maggie, ( Cathy Newman) that motorcyclist don’t bother to replace their divots?

      1. What a relief; one friend is so bored, she threatened to go out and plant weeds to give herself something to do.

      2. I tackled the front borders yesterday, Ndovu. To be honest, my garden has never been so deprived of weeds (apart from the ground elder, of course, which will have to be weedkillered).

    4. Just a few drops starting now, 9.1C. Have just put a whole bag of Levington ‘farmyard manure’, which I think is mainly peat substitute, round the Lomomyrtus Lechleriana, a Chilean Myrtle with an extraordinary spring scent, in the front garden. I grew this from a seedling I found under the one in the back garden and it’s flowering for the first time this year, encouraged by last year’s rain.

    1. It will go ahead. The leak is timed to ensure that the bed-wetters at the DoT have time to back-track and say that it has all been a misunderstanding and that it was never their intention to cancel. Lessons have been…

    2. As usual my mentor put it very succinctly in King Lear:

      O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars
      Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
      Allow not nature more than nature needs,
      Man’s life is cheap as beast’s.

    3. FFS. Why was it ever suggested then because nothing has changed? Now that’s one tribute I would applaud. Not all the other virtue signalling that’s going on. And I’m relieved to see that most Nottlers are of the same opinion!

    4. GRRHHHHHH Don’t that just sum up the Bedwetter Bureaucrats!!!!!!!!!!
      %$$&*££W”^&* you swine

      1. The BBMF has six Spits to play with, so one of them ought to be able to do it (weather minima being suitable, of course).

    7. That was a private company out of Biggin Hill. They are going to let the BBMF (tax-payer funded and part of the military) go ahead. They is diffrent, natch.

    8. Sums up C21 Blighty.
      My inner Eeyore would like to know where the money has gone.

      1. When the total was above £10,000,000 or so there was a discussion on LBC about the company that runs the website taking a substantial amount in expenses; not popular with the later callers to the programme. Haven’t seen or heard anymore on the subject.

        1. I read that they’ve waived their admin charge.

          It’s usually based on a percentage. In this case the charge would have been embarrassingly large.

          1. That’s welcome news, thanks. The figure discussed on LBC was, IIRC, well into seven figures, so as you write, embarrassingly large.

  32. Morning all,

    Late checking in today as I was too busy getting angry with Amazon for charging me for things they can’t deliver and that were cancelled at the request of the seller. Grrr! Then this arrive by e-mail…

    Dear colleagues,

    There’s a minute’s silence at 11.00 today to pay tribute to frontline workers who’ve lost their lives while trying to protect and comfort others during this national emergency.

    We’ll be marking it on BBC One, the News Channel and across our radio networks too.
    All our thoughts are with their families, friends and communities.

    Best wishes,
    Tony Hall
    Director-General

    BS, no? They’ve got me stuck at home on my own so if me, myself and I feel like having a at chat at 11 am, we darn well will! Are we going to have a minute silence every day from now on for the 1600+ who die in the UK on any normal day?

    1. Sitting under house arrest I’m having almost 24 hours a day of silence, never mind a minute at 11 am.

      My wife keeps checking to see if I’m still breathing.

      I think I’ll rattle some dishes in 10 minutes just to break the monotony.

      EDIT. Oh, bugger. I missed it.

    2. Good morning, Sue.

      Please, pretty damned please, don’t set me off.
      I cannot even be bothered to be sarcastic.

      You will note what time you receive this!!!!!

    3. Yo Sue

      It is fine chatting to yourself……………it is if you reply to yourself,that the arguements start

        1. Talking to oneself does guarantee a better class of conversation, though, I find 🙂

    4. I have just ordered a new set of boots for my dog (he’s ancient and needs protection for his hind feet as he can’t pick them up properly any more). The last time I ordered (a different pair) they cancelled the order. I am hoping that this time I shall get what I need. They are the same as I ordered on a previous occasion and they came with no problems (and free delivery) then but that was pre-lockdown). This time, I have chosen, to save money, a collect option at my local post office. We shall see what happens.

    5. EDIT: Our posts crossed, Sue E. Otherwise, I would have appended my post as a reply to yours.

  33. Right, folks, must go now. It’s ten to eleven and I want to brew a cuppa before I get out my spoon and pan and start bashing it on the doorstep at 11 am to show my gratitude for… Oh!

    1. I got genuinely confused by your post Elsie.
      Right, they want us to be quiet now. Wish they’d make up their blasted minds!

  34. UK to hold minute’s silence for key workers who died. BBC 28 April 2020.

    A minute’s silence will be held across the UK later to commemorate the key workers who have died with coronavirus.

    I don’t clap to order and I am not going to be emotionally blackmailed into joining this farce which is nothing more than the Government riding to popularity over the bodies of the dead.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52450138

    1. Considering that the minute’s silence was put in place to commemorate the horrors of the Great War, not the doctors and nurses who died treating Spanish Flu patients, that is particularly crass.
      But when you don’t teach history any more, you can do what you want, I suppose.

      1. Morning BB. The Government doesn’t give a rat’s ass about these people. It is cynical political manipulation of the worst kind.

      2. “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ― George Orwell

    3. I’m not a clapper but at least it put a marker on one day of the week so I knew where we were. Now, I’m going to have to mark the days on the wall of my cell.

  35. Was David Cameron “leveraged” by George Soros into his sudden disastrous decision to topple Colonel Gaddafi which lead to the creation of ISIS ?

    New info suggests that he might have been !

    More later..

  36. 318667+ up ticks,
    Could the reason for carte blanche seemingly being given to the unchecked beach invasion / airport intake be that the NHS is showing availability in the bed department and this does not look good in the political power, manipulating, campaign.

      1. 318667+ up ticks,
        Afternoon M,
        Send for t b liar he is proving to be a shitterblockageshifter of outstanding quality,
        A german medical term I believe.

    4. It’ll be another brand name for Unite. Even selecting ‘about’ on the web page doesn’t tell you who is behind it.

    6. They’ve already got the eco-cups printed – in which country?
      But there is nothing about the founders of this would-be charity on the website.
      Is someone hoping to cash in on the wave of NHS worship?

  38. ONS weekly death figures out and they’re up to the 24th April, so 2 weeks worth of new data.
    Covid-19 Deaths for weeks 11-17 are 5, 103, 539, 3475, 6213, 8758, 12,238

    Right, I’ve just opened the Excel file up again and the week 17 figures are not there anymore. A little odd,to say the least.

          2. Back in ’69, when we had a J Company Camp at Wyke Regis, just on the outskirts of Weymouth, I remember seeing a Lambretta scooter running around with the faring stripped off and extended forks.
            It had “Lamb Chop” painted on the fuel tank!

      1. He comes pretty expensive though – his salary at International Rescue is eye watering! (What was Mr Tracey thinking??)

  41. “Mr Johnson, 55, has long struggled with his weight and in 2018 revealed

    he weighed almost 16 and a half stone, which at 5ft 9in puts him in the

    high risk category.”
    From the Dire Mail.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8264273/Coronavirus-affected-Boris-significantly-overweight-says-NHS-doctor.html

    But the doc told me in January I was overweight at 12stone dead and the same height at Bojo. I shall assume that I am not in the high risk category.
    Mind you the GP involved has a beard and is a cyclist…

    2. I thought he looks heavier than 16 and a half stone. However that makes him obese, a step up from overweight.

    3. With medics, you are always wrong. Doesn’t mattr how – too fat, to thin, drink too much/too little, exercise too little / too much… you get the idea.

        1. I don’t think he is of that persuasion. Mind you George Osborne’s sister converted, didn’t she.

  42. I wonder how many people copped it during the “minute’s silence” bollux…..

    On average, 1 person (in England) dies every minute….so with the plague it must be hundreds more (© Office of National Statistics – with “special thanks” to Professor Fergusson)

    1. Damp but not raining in this bit of Derbyshire at the moment.
      Hope it stays off for an hour as I need to walk into Cromford for the paper & a bit of shopping.

  45. 318667+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Now there’s a funny thing, 2005 the year that Gerard Batten warned of islamic ideology, warnings rhetorically & in book form.

    Maybe 2005 was the year that suppression was ramped up by self interest parties with other agendas,

    https://twitter.com/martingeddes/status/1254877481670258688
    Health & safety warning,
    The three monkeys, Submissive,PCism & Appeasement
    are ALL without doubt enamas of the state.

  46. Ahem………….

    “The daily Covid19 deaths reports, issued by the UK

    government, are generally misleading and being so misrepresented by the

    media they amount to little more than a lie.

    Each day, the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) releases a report titled “Daily number of COVID-19 associated UK deaths in hospital”.

    The media then report these numbers as the “daily death toll”, presenting the total as if all these people:

    A) Died of Covid19.

    B) Died in the preceding 24 hours.”

    Neither of which is true.

    https://off-guardian.org/2020/04/23/why-you-cant-trust-the-uks-daily-covid19-updates/

    1. Good morning, Rik.

      C) Those who died in Care Homes?
      D) Those who died elsewhere?
      E) What date did they die?

      It is an absolute ‘muggers buddle’

      ……Done deliberately to confuse us?

  48. Got to Cromford & back before the rain began, bringing a couple of lengths of tree home for hand sawing, but by the time I’d had a mug of tea, a steady rain had begun.
    Not heavy, but enough to get one unpleasantly damp!

    1. The rain has eased here. Lots on the radar coming this way – but it fizzles out before getting here.

      1. We’re supposed to be having “heavy” rain, but it’s fairly light, if rather persistent at the moment.

  50. “Staying with today’s papers: I’m fed up.
    I’m fed up with their agenda, namely how they see themselves as part of
    government, believing that they are tasked with incessant critique from
    the sidelines. It’s easy to snipe when one has no responsibilities,
    when one is unaccountable, when there’s no official opposition.

    During these Lockdown weeks
    it became blatantly obvious that ‘Our MSM’ were singing from the same
    hymn sheet, with the consistent theme that Johnson and his government
    are useless. You recall the “omigawd – more deaths than yesterday”
    headlines across the MSM, day in day out. No questions were ever asked
    about how these numbers were arrived at.

    Now that the numbers are falling,
    even according to the NHS and ONS, there’s no fanfare. It’s not even
    “look, the Lockdown must have achieved something”. No – we’re given some
    rearguard action reports about deaths in Care Homes (e.g. here)
    while Sir Patrick Vallance has now said that they told ministers about
    the probable effect of CV-19 on care home inmates already (link, paywalled). Well, maybe so – but it didn’t make its way into ‘Our MSM’, did it?

    ‘Our MSM’ are re-focussing their sights,
    back onto Johnson now that he’s returned. The latest battle fronts are
    being drawn. Some reporters are speculating what all might be expected,
    which restrictions might first be lifted: garden centres, yay! Recycling
    centres, yay! A ‘new normal’ with social distancing … (link).

    The very first headline I saw this morning
    told us breathlessly that Johnson will be speaking to ‘various
    sectors’, about starting the economy while trying to stop that ’Second
    Wave’ which is bound to kill us all, perhaps this autumn or winter (link).
    Gosh – is he really? How amazing: he’s going to do his job! I wonder
    though if Johnson has the spine to tell all those ‘industries’ that
    clamouring for more state handouts – which we pay for! – is not
    helpful.

    Meanwhile, there’s still “Teh Science” –
    the science on which government has based decisions, the science which
    we must trust and never question. I found this little piece in The Times
    quite extraordinary:

    “Sir Patrick was speaking after some of
    the names on the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) were
    leaked to The Guardian, amid criticism that Boris Johnson was claiming
    to “follow the science” while being opaque about the source of that
    science.” (link, paywalled)

    Oh dear! Don’t all these reporters know
    that the ‘source’ for this ‘science’ is SAGE, and that this is what is
    ‘opaque’, not Johnson’s use of it? It’s ‘government science’ after all,
    but don’t expect to find critical reports in ‘Our MSM’, nor any
    divergent opinions or indeed any critical questions, for example about
    how those ‘death numbers’ were arrived at.

    Those questions come from ‘covideniers’
    and must be spurned, even if they’re from internationally renowned
    doctors and pathologists, even if they’re published in well-known
    international MSM as opposed to ‘conspiracist blogs’. They’re all
    furriners so must be disregarded unless it’s to bash the government for
    ‘not doing like they do’.”

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-betrayal-tuesday-28th-april-2020-37th-covid-19-pandemic-special-day-36-of-lockdown-britain/
    Climate Deniers,Covid Deniers…………………
    Hmm dare to question the narrative and out come the perjorative language……………………

    1. I notice that the ONS weekly death figures haven’t been published today, so far at least at 0950hrs. Numbers not suiting them?

    2. ““Sir Patrick was speaking after some of the names on the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) were leaked to The Guardian,…”. Presumably the journalists of the Guardian are too stupid, inept or careless to actually look up the names for themselves.

      The names of the members of SAGE can be found from the Government website (I say again). It’s not rocket science -we gave that away to the Americans.

      https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fgroups%2Fscientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies-sage%23membership%3Am-zw9SNPvnh34zfQtLB7MnxBTAU&cuid=58523

  51. Nicola Sturgeon recommends improvising when wearing face masks in public spaces.

    I have a supply of worn-out Y-fronts with pinged elastic or holes where they got pecked by magpies when hanging on the line. If I put the leg holes over the ears, wouldn’t this be a cheap and stylish alternative to kitchen paper?

    2. I recommend she try a nice tight polyethylene bag. Good and strong, say 1000 guage.

      Nothing will get through that. She should wear one for about 5 minutes for pre-market testing.

        2. Too many holes in it. It’s no use. If she can breath the virus would get through.

          I stick with my 1000 guage poly bag suggestion. Much more effective.

      1. I keep the unwashed ones for visitors. Fr Jack Hackett is such a splendid role model.

  52. 318667+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    Was awondering what had caused the current fear department to up output in the Soylent green will be the next biscuit on the market manner then read,

    Government Reveals There Is No Clean-Break Brexit Planning.

    Is this the pro brussels damage limitations campaign
    coming out from under a rock ?

    1. Anyone with an understanding of graphs and the oft-reported fact that the daily headline figures were not in fact the daily deaths for the day in question would have understood this some time ago.

      We have been told often (but not in the headlines that are designed to keep us scared) that some of the ‘daily’ death records were several days and some several weeks out of date. This builds a lag in the bar chart and pushes the true peak to the left as shown here. That’s why it’s important not to look at the individual daily figures, but the trend of the curve, always bearing in mind that it is artificially weighted towards the right.

      The flat curve in the early days understated the problem. Once the peak was reached and the decline began the sheer weight of numbers ensure that the more recent results are over-stated.

      This site is updated daily. It shows not only the daily deaths, but when those deaths occurred. For instance, of the 3 hundred and odd deaths reported yesterday (27th), only a few occurred the day before (26th). The vast majority happened 2 days before (25th) with 3 days before (24th) having a similar number to the 26th. There were some deaths included in yesterday’s figure that go back to mid-March (17th).

      https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-death-data-in-england-update-27th-april/

          1. Cochrane review

            Jefferson T, Del Mar CB,
            Dooley L, Ferroni E, Al‐Ansary LA, Bawazeer GA, van Driel ML,
            Nair S, Jones MA, Thorning S, Conly JM. Physical interventions to
            interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. Cochrane Database
            of Systematic Reviews 2011, Issue 7. Art. No.: CD006207. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006207.pub4.

            The link was about hand disinfectant and covid-19

          4. What is clear from the chart that Rik posted is that both curves show the peak at about the same time, within two days (April 8th & April 10th).

            If you factor in the method of reporting, what looks like a slow decline is actually a nice bell-curve and good news indeed.

  55. ConWoman

    Which means that the R number is b*ll*cks (military term for items of

    dubious quality) and running the country to match an R number target is

    insane. All that matters is that the NHS is not swamped with Covid cases

    (the justification for putting the country under house arrest), best

    delivered by monitoring the number of empty ICU beds – with which the

    NHS is now awash.

    My advice to Boris:

    1. Fix a date for lifting the lockdown for all of working age. Next week would be good, the week after just about acceptable.

    2. Having incarcerated the population during a heatwave, suggest

    to the mayors, chief constables and assorted gauleiters that sunbathing

    is not a problem and that carparks for parks and green spaces should

    open as should remaining parks.

    3. Get a clear position on masks and the risks of transmission – which are less than flu.

    4. Change the message: the NHS is saved (mostly from itself).

    5. Write to ministers, Tory MPs, senior civil servants and police

    chiefs reminding them that the United Kingdom is a liberal democracy,

    not a command economy or totalitarian state.

    6. Adopt Bill Clinton’s mantra: ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’ But leave sorting it out to the private sector – it’s what we do.

    https://conservativewoman.co.uk/we-are-still-flying-blind/

  56. Politics latest news: Hancock refuses to apologise to son of dead GP for PPE mistakes

    Matt Hancock has refused to apologies for mistakes on PPE provision, only telling the son of a doctor who died from coronavirus that ” lessons
    were being learned”

    As much as I hate to say it, this is not Hancock’s mistake.

    “NHS England is the umbrella body that oversees healthcare. It is an independent body, which means that the Department for Health cannot interfere directly with its decisions. Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning healthcare for their local area.”

    The task for purchasing PPE rests with those employed to do so.. Hancock cannot be expected to order 20 bog rolls for a hospital in Ryhe Intrinsica

    The CCQ’s are responsible for directing what is required The Buck Stops with them,

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/04/28/politics-latest-newsgovernment-must-apologise-families-ppe-victims/

    1. 318667+ up ticks,
      Morning Olt,
      May one ask, by the same token who was responsible for the odious rotherham mass rape ? abuse issue, as in who was the overall overseers ?

      1. Ali’s Snack Bar users were reponsible, but it has been deemed, by the PTB, that the investigation findings were too Politially Sensitive to release

        A whistleblower is needed, but what happens/happened to Tommy Robinson will detet all

        1. 318667+ up ticks,
          Olt,
          The Jay report lifted the lid in no uncertain manner.
          Seeing as this is an ongoing issue ALL mass uncontrolled immigration
          parties must surely shoulder the blame,which brings into question are those supporting such parties
          acting in collusion with the mass uncontrolled immigration
          ( ongoing) party policies ?

        2. Funny how there’s nobody in the Home Office willing to leak this particular report, isn’t it, considering that so much stuff has been leaked in the last few years.

    4. Hang on. We have NICE, BMA, CCG, the entire blasted department of health, local trusts… the list goes on. They’ve all failed because none of them were capable and none will pay the price for their utter failure. We’ll just carry on with these massive monoliths all fully staffed with no sackings or complete shutdowns.

      This is why the NHS fails: it’s fun for arrogant, disinterested quangos.

  57. Funny old world
    The last few years,Brexit vote,Hungary and Poland saying shove your refugees where the sun don’t shine,Trump elected and the pushback against China and globalism
    The uppity awkward squad were finally gaining some traction………………
    Then this,I don’t even mean the virus,I mean the (over)reaction to the virus
    It all feels just too,too convenient for those that hate Western Civilisation
    I had hoped I could live my life out before the fall,I fear that will no longer be the case……………

    1. Reducing the process to its essence, a civilization declines when it has exhausted its physical and moral capital. A civilization begins with abundant resources, inspiring ideals, strong morals, solvable problems, and high morale. “Green and fresh,” it accumulates wealth and power. However, its rise to dominance also prepares its downfall, for although greatness brings “bustle and abundance,” it also entails scarce resources, faded ideals, loose morals, intractable problems, and, in consequence, lost morale. In addition, because “the general tendency of wealth and power is to enervate a people, to make them proud and indolent,” they succumb to hubris and become the authors of their own demise.

      William Ophuls, Immoderate Greatness: Why Civilizations Fail (pp. 65-66).

        1. I was just showing Oph Stephen. I’ve always been interested in the end of civilisations since I first read about the Romans in school. How could this highly organised state with its wonderful army just wither away in the face of gangs of primitives? It seemed to defy reason. Now being here at the end of what is in effect English Civilisation (Since it has dominated the world for three centuries) I’ve learned quite a bit. It comes from within. Late Rome, like the present day UK was a hollow force. At the end, as now, the people were as sound as they always are, but the elites were rotten to the core, cowardly and corrupt, useless and inept they could only think of themselves. When they came under pressure, as is now happening here, they folded and the Dark Ages and its inhabitants swallowed them. I think like Rik that end is not far off now.

        2. I was just showing Oph Stephen. I’ve always been interested in the end of civilisations since I first read about the Romans in school. How could this highly organised state with its wonderful army just wither away in the face of gangs of primitives? It seemed to defy reason. Now being here at the end of what is in effect English Civilisation (Since it has dominated the world for three centuries) I’ve learned quite a bit. It comes from within. Late Rome, like the present day UK was a hollow force. At the end, as now, the people were as sound as they always are, but the elites were rotten to the core, cowardly and corrupt, useless and inept they could only think of themselves. When they came under pressure, as is now happening here, they folded and the Dark Ages and its inhabitants swallowed them. I think like Rik that end is not far off now.

          1. If civilisation breaks down, (and the longer lockdown lasts the more likely that becomes as supply chains fail) disorder will quickly morph into martial law and we know where that leads….

          2. I ascribed the end of the Roman Empire to lead in the water (and cooking vessels) and the import of foreigners. Here we still have lead pipes (although our pans are stainless steel) and we’ve certainly “benefited” from the latter, even here in the sticks 🙁

          4. I don’t think the people are sound. I think natural conservatives are still sound, but those of a rabbit mentality have become convinced that there will always be enough grass for everyone. In all senses.

          5. Socialism was very clever.

            They saw that they were rejected at
            the ballot box….. so instead they conquered every apparatus of the
            civil & administrative state.

            Thus, elections have become pointless!

            The permanent government doesn’t change.

          7. Yes as Oggy never ceases to remind us it never changes. The whole system is sclerotic, the present fiasco is just one example of a state that is dead on its feet. Like the old Soviet Union we will wake up one morning and it will have ceased to be!

    2. I agree. The headline has missed the point of the lockdown. It is to keep us cowed, subdued and easily managed. The NHS was just a convenient excuse – after all, it’s the “envy of the world” and “our” NHS, so a sacred cow.

  58. A letter in the latest Private Eye from Dr PK Chatterjee he states laughter and sex are good for your immune system – presumably not at the same time and presumably not referrring to when a guy drops his kecks only to be greeted by peals of laughter from his partner.

    1. Thank you for posting your version of The House of The Rising Sun. As you know, I am one of your fans and always enjoy your music.

    1. What rubbish! She’s a weeping, wailing, virtue-signalling leftie!

      New Zealand is isolated from the rest of the world anyway – they’ve had a total of 1472 cases and 19 deaths. Most small towns in the UK have had more than that.

      1. She’s a weeping +25%, wailing +25%, virtue-signalling +25% leftie +25%! Total =100% – The Winner!
        (Runners up CCP 110%)

        1. The weight of having to shepherd all those sheep preys heavily on what passes for her mind.

    2. 2020.
      UK population 67,886,011 (officially)
      Landmass 93,628 square miles

      NZ population 4,822,233 (officially)
      Landmass 103,483 square miles

  60. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae22b046d321d4a48e897901dc04dcac51ab67e7f605eacf40cb5e4e42e2968b.jpg

    Bedford School , The Great Hall , with thousands of birthday cards for Captain Tom Moore who will be 100 years old on the 30th April .

    Thomas Moore, known as Captain Tom, is a former British Army officer known for his efforts to raise money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Moore served in India and the Burma campaign during the Second World War. He later became an instructor in armoured warfare. Wikipedia
    Born: 30 April 1920 (age 99 years), Keighley
    Education: Oakbank School, Keighley

          2. Similar to a giant clapometer?
            Live Aid
            Pudsey the Bear
            Eurovision song contest.
            Glastonbury

            Notwithstanding that , Tom has won many hearts , I do hope the money is used wisely.

          3. That is my big worry. ‘NHS Charities’ suggests a rather a wide – as in probably non-existent – field.

  61. Is it not time for Prince Harry to be disinherited completely and his passport – if he has one – to be thrown away?

    DM Story today:

    Did anyone ask the Queen? Prince Harry introduces 75th anniversary Netflix edition of his childhood favourite Thomas the Tank Engine – featuring the Queen and Prince Charles and an elegant loco called the Duchess!
    Prince Harry recorded a message to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Thomas the Tank Engine to fund his travel charity project before he and wife Meghan quit as senior royals and moved to America, it has emerged today. In video footage released this morning, the Duke of Sussex introduces a new program called ‘Thomas and Friends: The Royal Engine,’ which features his father and grandmother, Prince Charles and the Queen, as animated characters. It is not yet clear if the Queen sanctioned her image being used in the cartoon or if she even knew about the episode. Buckingham Palace will not comment on the footage. Proceeds from the anniversary edition are being donated to environment and sustainability projects under Harry’s Travalyst project. The 22-minute special – which will air in America one day before the UK – also features a royal train named the Duchess of Loughborough, in an apparent nod to Meghan.

    4. I didn’t realise quite what a crass idiot he is. He has let the Royal family down with a thumping great bump. He deserves no recognition at all.

          1. It’s so strange because he has a strong look of Prince Charles in his face, even small details, and the D of E. Photographs of Charles and Harry at the age of five are strikingly similar.

          2. I can’t see that. His brother, on the other hand, is such a lookalike for his uncle Edward. Someone who stamps his stock as prepotently as that would surely have done it with the spare.

      2. You didn’t realise? What, even after the “naked bar billiards” scandal?

          1. Shortly after the wedding of William and Catherine (April 2011) he went to New York and stayed in a hotel, inviting good looking girls to his suite to play “strip bar billiards”. His security guards tried to persuade him not to do that as (a) most people today have mobile phones which can take photos, and (b) the media will pay small fortunes for those kind of embarrassing photos. So the games went ahead and photos taken of him stark naked were splashed across the world’s press. Sorry I don’t have a link for you, but I am sure many, many NoTTLers will confirm my post. He was given a dressing down*** by his military superior, but the Press then took the line that he was just a “Jack the Lad” in high spirits, like when he arrived some years previously dressed as a Nazi.

            *** A comment below the report in The Telegraph said something like “When I read that at first I thought he had been given a dressing gown.”

          2. What an absolute waste of space he is and I used to quite like him for the Invictus Games. Sorry for the late reply but having trouble with replies to me.

  62. Raining steadily. No queues at Morrisons or Lidl. Still no flour..

    Gosh – it’s all gone everso quiet – what’s the time? Oh, eleven….Tell you what – clap during the “silence”.

      1. It struck a chord with many people in boarding schools though I had left Blundell’s by the time it came out.

        When I was taking my “A” levels in 1964 The House of the Rising Sun was No 1 in the hit parade.

        Can any other Nottlers remember what was top of the charts when they took their “A” levels?

        2. I was doing my ‘O’ levels that year. ‘A’ levels in ’66. Can’t remember what was top then.

          1. Same here; O levels in ’64, A levels in ’66. I think I didn’t have time for pop music because it was such a hothouse academically.

        3. Good afternoon, Rastus.

          I was on an educational cruise of the Baltic (Copenhagen, Leningrad, Stockholm) on M.V. Dunera, in July/August 1964. I can remember The House Of The Rising Sun sharing the No 1 spot with It’s All Over Now by the Rolling Stones. Those records were the two most frequently played singles on the ship’s juke box.

        4. Good afternoon, Rastus.

          I was on an educational cruise of the Baltic (Copenhagen, Leningrad, Stockholm) on M.V. Dunera, in July/August 1964. I can remember The House Of The Rising Sun sharing the No 1 spot with It’s All Over Now by the Rolling Stones. Those records were the two most frequently played singles on the ship’s juke box.

  64. Was David Cameron “leveraged” by George Soros into his sudden disastrous decision to topple Colonel Gaddafi which led to the creation of ISIS ?

    A fascinating article by Professor Frank Furedi in USA Politics Today and the Daily Telegraph suggests that is a possibility……

    The key words…..

    ”Some bragged about their influence in preparing the ground for the overthrow of the Gadaffi regime in Libya.”

    From USA Politics Today…

    ”Professor Claims George Soros ”Missionaries” Bragged About Toppling Governments”

    https://www.usapoliticstoday.org/professor-george-soros-toppling-governments/

    The same article appeared in the Daily Telegraph….

    ”My Encounter With Soros’ Bright Eyed Missionaries Left Me Deeply Disturbed”…….

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/02/08/encounter-george-soross-bright-eyed-missionaries-left-deeply/

    As Professor Frank Furedi tells us…..

    ”It was later during lunch at a plush Budapest hotel that I encountered the full force of the arrogant ethos promoted by the Soros network of organisation. At my table I listened to Dutch, American, British, Ukrainian and Hungarian representatives of Soros NGOs boast about their achievements. Some claimed that they played a major role in the Arab Spring in Egypt. Others voiced their pride in their contribution to the democratisation of the Ukraine. Some bragged about their influence in preparing the ground for the overthrow of the Gadaffi regime in Libya

    I set quietly and felt uncomfortable with a group of people who so casually assumed that they had the right to play God throughout the world. At one point, the head of the table – a Hungarian leader of a Soros NGO – asked me what I thought about their work. Not wishing to offend, I quietly remarked that I wasn’t sure whether the external imposition of their idea of democracy on the people of Libya was legitimate nor that it would work. Without a second’s hesitation, my interlocutor rounded me with the response: “I don’t think that we have the luxury of waiting until the Libyan people come with their own Jefferson.

    To this day I remember the haughty tone with which she lectured me about performing the role of the American democrat, President Jefferson. I remain taken aback by the arrogance with which I was informed that if the Libyans were too slow to get their democratic act together, a Soros-linked foundation would step in to be their Jefferson. The disaster that unfolded in subsequently in Libya is in no small measure due irresponsible western actors playing the role of Jefferson.”

    ”Some bragged about their influence in preparing the ground for the overthrow of the Gadaffi regime in Libya.”

    So did a Soros-linked foundation step in to be the Libyans’ ”Jefferson” and might that have been Open Society London ”in preparing the ground for the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in Libya” through ”leveraging” of David Cameron” ?

    According to the Guardian…

    ”Cameron also convened a private meeting in Downing Street with Libyan experts and exiles to find out all he could about the country he was about to fight. They told him this was a genuine nationalist democratic revolt, and Libya would not descend into a tribal war.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/oct/02/david-cameron-libyan-war-analysis

    So were ”the experts” from Open Society who got the forecasts so wrong ?

    If George Soros and Open Society played any role in ”leveraging” David Cameron to topple Gadaffi, no wonder Soros was completely omitted from David Cameron’s autobiography !

    1. What a slur. I am just glad that they were able to find such objective contributors “at this difficult time”…..

    2. They don’t miss an opportunity do they.
      Again at lunchtime they seemed to be blaming the government for the deaths in the care homes.
      IMHO the government have managed this ciris as well as anyone could. I feel it was and is the sole responsibility of the care home owners to have made sure that the elderly people were safe. They were all isolated right from the start.

        2. I will answer my own question. it is the independent Care Quality Commision. that is where to place any blame, they say.

          “We’re the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England.

          We make sure health and social care services provide people with
          safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care
          services to improve.”

          A non event set up by one of our governments and probaby had all part support.

        3. I suppose they are self regulating as far as H&S and other government regulations are concerned as are smaller building companies.
          But despite all the statutary notices, posters and safety equipment I can tell you that there are so many working in that industry that ignore the obvious.

      2. I think the government missed quite a few tricks; firstly, close down the borders immediately and put new arrivals before the closure into quarantine. Test those who have had a ‘flu like illness between Dec and March for antibodies.

  66. Just for a moment , clear your mind and take a look at this ..

    President Trump’s claim that ultraviolet light could be used to battle the coronavirus was lambasted in the media with many claiming that ultraviolet lights were ineffective or even deadly. Not only do recent innovations in Israel confirm the president’s statement, but anyone familiar with the Bible knows that light is a powerful form of healing.

    https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/149236/trumps-recommended-treatment-for-coronavirus-sourced-in-book-of-isaiah-proven-in-israel/?fbclid=IwAR3__PUU1eQh4ocg68-2Sakkiv7vBQ_EYtx7dslUEZk5292G7gRknU9vcQg

    1. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. I see that at Mondays press briefing he shut down a question about the sudden increase in poison centre calls over taking bleach with “why would anyone do that”.

      Many of us have UV lights treating the woblies in our water system, if UV light can kill bacteria and virus there, why the sudden awakening?

    2. Our local hospital has a Phototherapy Department, which – gasp! – uses UV light to cure a variety of skin conditions.

    3. It has been used for years on fish farms to remove unwanted creatures from the salmon nurseries, as the small fish leave the eggs.

    4. Afternoon Belle. It’s just par for the course with Trump! If he came out and said E = MC Squared the Main Stream Media would all become Newtonians overnight.

    5. Sadly I didn’t study physics. However, I was told recently that there are several different wave lengths of UV only one of which kills viruses. I don’t know whether the UV generated by Sun Spots (Of which there have been very few over the past year) contains the virus killing wave lengths. Also we had a lot of Sun Spot activity in 1999/2000 but we also had a nasty bout of Flu with a high number of deaths in January 2000 in the UK.

      1. “Also we had a lot of Sun Spot activity in 1999/2000 but we also had a nasty bout of Flu with a high number of deaths in January 2000 in the UK.”

        Not much UV in winter with low sun and short days.

        1. I think this may have been the source of the comment:

          Sunlight or, more specifically, solar UV radiation (UV) acts as the principal natural virucide in the environment. UV radiation kills viruses by chemically modifying their genetic material, DNA and RNA. The most effective wavelength for inactivation, 260 nm (55), falls in the UVC range, so-named to differentiate it from near-UV found in ground-level sunlight, i.e., the UVB and UVA portions of the spectrum, 290 to 320 nm and 320 to 380 nm, respectively (51). Nucleic acids are damaged also by UVB and UVA but with lower efficiency than by UVC radiation (64).

          Two issues must be considered to determine solar inactivation of biothreat viruses: estimating the UV sensitivity of viruses for which there is little or no experimental data and estimating the solar UV at specific geographic locations.

          The overwhelming majority of published information on UV inactivation of viruses has been based upon exposure to UVC (UV254) radiation from a low-pressure mercury vapor (germicidal) lamp, with the primary emission at 254 nm. However, UV254 is not found in the sunlight that reaches the earth’s surface; the ground-level virucidal solar UV wavelengths fall above 290 nm (16). Fortunately, the primary photochemical processes that damage the viral DNA or RNA occur at all the solar UV wavelengths, varying only in the efficiency of the different wavelengths (55). Since there are few published data that describe the survival of viruses, and none for threat viruses, following exposure to solar UV radiation, extrapolation from UV254 data will be required for most viruses.

          https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1280232/

      3. I came top in Physics in my first year in Grammar School (in the A stream as well). Alas. we changed teachers for my second year and I a) lost confidence in myself and b) became much more interested in languages when I picked up :Latin.

        1. When I was in the top form in junior I got 100% for our arithmetic exam, and our class got a half-day treat. I went into secondary (same school) and I didn’t get a word of what the teacher was saying. As far as I was concerned she was useless. If questioned, she would simply repeat the same thing.

          Like “parallel lines meet at infinity”. Well, so what? From getting 100% I went down to my first fail, 40%. The school didn’t pick anything up from that. Useless – but then I believe that it wasn’t a very academic school.

          1. Surely they only appear to meet at infinity, they still remain parallel – or am I stupid? That’s the thing about perspective; lines which are parallel appear to converge in the distance.

    6. I always thought the virus was destroyed by UV, hence my spending so much time outdoors when possible.

  67. Climate experts call for ‘dangerous’ Michael Moore film to be taken down. 28 April 2020.

    The film, Planet of the Humans, was released on the eve of Earth Day last week by its producer, Michael Moore, the baseball cap-wearing documentarian known for Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine. Describing itself as a “full-frontal assault on our sacred cows”, the film argues that electric cars and solar energy are unreliable and rely upon fossil fuels to function. It also attacks figures including Al Gore for bolstering corporations that push flawed technologies over real solutions to the climate crisis.

    How’s Al Gore doing anyway? Is he still waiting for the Greenland Ice Cap to melt?

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/28/climate-dangerous-documentary-planet-of-the-humans-michael-moore-taken-down

    1. “Dangerous” film?
      They should build bonfires in the town square and throw all copies of the film onto them!

    3. “Climate experts”you say?? Greeniacs you mean
      Actually Moore is in real trouble,apostates are always more bitterly hated than mere unbelievers
      He’ll be lucky not to end up in a Wicker Man

      1. He’s Ok on that score the greenies wouldn’t dare light a bonfire – think of the reputational damage….

        1. Quite so. They could take him out to sea in a large racing yacht and drop him in the ocean.

  69. I have been struggling to follow the comments earlier about the ACTUAL number of people who have died FROM the virus (and not, simply, with it).

    Do I detect a hint that the PTB are not being entirely straight with us?

    Seems to me that some deaths are counted more than once.

    1. From what I have seen on the local news the majority (if not all) of care home deaths are being attributed to Covid 19, without testing being carried out. It was also reported, several weeks ago, that care homes were being forced to accept residents who were discharged from hospital and who hadn’t been tested, so they were probably Trojan horses. I stand to be corrected of course.

      1. The wife of one of my friend has just died (she had dementia) in a care home. We know it was nothing to do with C19, but what’s the betting it will be recorded as such?

    3. I still maintain that looking at the total deaths, whatever they died from, will be the best way to see the true picture. There could be a lot of box ticking as it’s easier.

    4. That was the note the ONS put on the spreadsheet that if somebody had a respiratory disease and also Covid when they dies it may have been recorded as 2 deaths.
      This is the quote from the ONS website:
      Note: Deaths could possibly be counted in both causes presented. If a death had an underlying respiratory cause and a mention of COVID-19 then it would appear in both counts.

      2. Sounds like a lazy design of spreadsheet/database and recording rules coupled with equally lazy search criteria. Any takers on designed deliberately to obfuscate the actual impact?

          1. I found it mostly illegible even when i enlarged it.

            Annie needs to go to Specsavers….or i do.

          2. I think that the picture file its self is low resolution. Enlarging the picture will not make it more legible.

          4. The IMAGE, silly. Do keep up.

            The mother of my children was born in that parish.
            Not many people know that.

          5. Acksherly, I did have a play with it, but neither Photoshop nor Word wanted to know.

    5. That’s not what the figures are about Bill. We don’t know and we won’t know how many beople have died with it as opposed to from it.

      It’s the allocation of the reported deaths to the day the patient died, rather than the day the death was reported. Even then the figures are incomplete. Many more people will have died either with or from it other than those who show up in the daily official figures.

      1. 318667+ up ticks,
        Afternoon R,
        And with so many role models to choose from, philby, maclain, burgess, blunt,etc.

    3. What a terribly sad case. How many of us I wonder wouldn’t crack under the strain of having that lady as our mother?

    4. It is very strange and probably because of something I was looking at elsewhere, but at the end of the YouTube of your post I see Bobby Fischer’s greatest games!

      Chances of the A-T family being in that league are probably lower than zero.

      1. 318667+ up ticks,
        S,
        It dodgy moves was a winner he would have beaten B Fischer time after time again& again.

    5. Diane Abott is a racist, hypocritical, nasty, unpleasant and not very bright woman. Those are facts drawn from how she has behaved and what she has said.

      However, I don’t think her home life is up for having a go.

      1. 318667+ up ticks,
        W,
        Then really she should not attract the spot light to it as in telling the peoples not to do one thing whilst doing it herself.

    1. Does co-operating with China include keying in the right co-ordinates for the armed drones heading for Beijing?

      1. 318667+ up ticks,
        Evening Ims2,
        In today’s political climate, rewarded is more likely.

  74. Toby Young makes a good point in this article:

    https://lockdownsceptics.org/

    At last Friday’s Downing Street coronavirus summit, according to the Telegraph, Boris quoted Cicero’s motto: “Salus populi suprema lex esto.” This has been widely translated as meaning “the health of the people should be the supreme law”, but a reader of this site begs to differ. He points out that the Latin word salus means a lot more than physical health. Among other things, it also means “a sound or whole condition, welfare, prosperity” (Lewis and Short, Latin Dictonary). In other words, the wellbeing of every aspect of human society, not just physical wellbeing. Cicero’s motto doesn’t mean physical health should take priority over everything else, including the economy.

    I should have thought Bojo would have known the real meaning of the Latin word “salus”. Deliberate mistranslation on his part, trusting that hoi polloi wouldn’t pick up on it? Or perhaps he’s not the Latin scholar he purports to be.

    1. Talk about health and safety gone mad.

      Move along now, nothing to see. You are alliwed out for exercise, not to gawp at planes.

      From Flightradar I see that the only plane near us is Trudeausprivate government jet, apart from that very little out there except a lot of Air China cargo flights on their way to New York

          2. In 1967, I was stationed at Biggin Hill and recall a small team from what became the BBMF arriving to ask if they could have one of the main wheels from the Spitfire gate guardian as they were having problems locating spares for what I think was just one airworthy BBMF Spitfire. I was a Sgt aircraft fitter at the time and no-one else seemed keen to give permission so I made an executive decision. The wheel was swapped for a Lightning nose wheel and no-one ever noticed the difference. I wonder what became of that aircraft!

          3. Oh yes. They are different marks. The BBMF also has one of the only two (the other is VERA in Canada) flying Lancasters, a Hurricane (it may be two now) and a Douglas DC-3 Dakota. Probably more aircraft in Coningsby than there are in a couple of contemporary RAF Squadrons!

          5. Fabulous. I know someone who organised the BBMF Lanc to fly over the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa when he was getting married. I can’t remember if he had the ceremony there or just the reception.

          6. Some years ago, when doing a Phantom engineering course at Conningsby, I was shown around the Lancaster – a truly iconic aircraft. Ref your last sentence, I was based at Tengah in the mid 60s and we had no less than a squadron of Hunters, two with Javelins and three with Canberras – almost as many combat aircraft as the whole RAF now.

          7. The Lancaster is an amazing aircraft. Considering it was developed from the failed Manchester it’s a bit of a miracle. If they’d only put self-sealing tanks in it, a lot more would have got back. I’ve been in Vera (on the ground, not had a flight although if we ever get out of lockdown I might book one). One of my friends, alas no longer with us, was the sole survivor of his crew; the aircraft blew up and he was blown out. He survived because he was the pilot and the only one wearing a parachute.

          8. Take a mediocre aircraft with poor engines, stick in Merlins and you have a world beater. It was the same with the Mustang.

          9. Indeed, but the Manchester was only a twin engine job, so in this case it was double the power with decent engines 🙂

  76. Many care homes are so overcrowded.. really crammed in , I mean it .. They charge a small fortune for their residents , but elderly people are herded in like farm animals.

    I visited many before I selected a dementia home for Moh’s mother , who died 4 years ago . she was a resident for over 3 years .

    I am not surprised that the death figures for care homes are so excessive .

  77. Is this new scare coincidence or design.?

    Around 8 in every 100,000 children develop Kawasaki disease in the UK each year. Research carried out in England from 1998 to 2003 found 72% of children with Kawasaki disease were under the age of 5. The condition was also shown to be 1.5 times more common in boys than girls.

    The cause of Kawasaki disease isn’t fully understood, but a child may be more likely to develop it if they inherit certain genes from their parents.

    Infection
    The symptoms of Kawasaki disease are similar to those of an infection, so bacteria or a virus may be responsible. But so far a
    bacterial or viral cause hasn’t been identified.
    As Kawasaki disease isn’t contagious, it can’t be passed from one person to another. This makes it unlikely that it’s caused by a virus alone.
    Kawasaki disease can affect children of any age. It can be more serious in children under the age of 1.

    1. No it’s the End of the World. Just like John Wyndham’s book it’s starting off easy and the next thing you are up to your neck in Krakens or Triffids or whatever!.

      1. Let’s hope we don’t end up with extra fingers or toes.

        We’re already being mesmerised by a blank-faced, long-haired teenager.

      3. Children of the Damned, obviously – do they feel the need to buy a Japanese motorbike?

        1. No that was the Aftermath of the Big Bang wasn’t it? Still his best book though!

          1. I didn’t think it was stated, more implied.

            I thought so too, it must be well over 50 years since I read the book.

    2. From Wiki…
      Kawasaki disease affects boys more than girls, with people of Asian
      ethnicity, particularly Japanese and Korean people, most susceptible, as
      well as people of Afro-Caribbean ethnicity. The higher incidence in
      Asian populations is thought to be linked to genetic susceptibility.

      .
      Incidence rates fluctuate from country to country.

      More unwanted imports.

          2. You know what ‘thought’ did?

            He thought he had a motorbike and found he only had the horn.

    3. Somebody has been scratting about to find something to keep us scared. It’s easy work for them and keeps the headlines rolling. Since they’ve linked it to little children that’s even better from their point of view.

      They were researching it over 20 years ago and we’re just hearing about it now for a reason that’s probably got nothing to do with the disease.

          1. I have had two of these mowers and they never run properly, it works okay but I leave it half on choke the throttle has no effect.

          2. I remember. Those Qualcast engines designed in the 1920s.. A really crude advance retard mechanism. There are a couple parked here in a shed, unused for 20plus years.

  78. They just have to stir, don’t they?

    From The Grimes

    “Doctors’ groups have called for Trevor Phillips to be removed as the leader of Public Health England’s review into the disproportionate number of black and ethnic minority people who have died after contracting coronavirus.

    The review was announced this month and Mr Phillips, 66, an antiracism campaigner and former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was appointed last week.

    Sixteen organisations representing tens of thousands of ethnic minority doctors, including the Muslim Doctors Association and the Association of Pakistani Physicians of Northern Europe, expressed concern in a letter yesterday and called on PHE to “withdraw [his] participation”.

    The Times understands that the doctors’ groups are concerned both about Mr Phillips’s lack of a medical background and comments he has made about Muslims and Islam.

    The letter says: “A suitable candidate who would be trusted by healthcare professionals from a BAME background must be sought. Any experts supporting this important review — and thus associated with its credibility — must have a distinguished track record in successfully engaging with BAME communities, earning their trust through solidarity and advocacy, and have academic credentials that are necessary for a robust analysis.

    “The recent Windrush and Grenfell reviews have shown the importance of credible engagement — it is these very communities who have been at risk from Covid-19.”

    JS Bamrah, chairman of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, said: “To do the review justice it ought to be somebody who is in an authoritative position on the complex issues that arise from Covid.”

    Dr Bamrah added that people in positions of responsibility must make “credible comments”.

    Mr Phillips was suspended as a member of the Labour Party in March over his past remarks, which included criticism of Muslims who did not wear poppies for Remembrance Sunday. Mr Phillips responded at the time by accusing Labour of “shutting down genuine debate”.

    The Muslim Council of Britain criticised his appointment to lead the review as insensitive.

    PHE has yet to respond to the doctors’ letter. Mr Phillips has been contacted for comment.

    Just over one in 10 people in England and Wales are black or Asian, according to the 2011 census. Data from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre this month suggested that 34.5 per cent of critically ill coronavirus patients were from ethnic minorities.

    The Health Service Journal published an analysis last week showing that more than 70 per cent of NHS healthcare professionals who had died from Covid-19 were from such backgrounds.

    On Sunday Yvonne Coghill, director of NHS England’s workforce race equality standard unit, tweeted that “many should follow” the example of Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in including staff from ethnic minorities in its “vulnerable and at-risk group”.

    Managers at the trust, which oversees Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, said: “While we don’t yet have any conclusive research or national guidance, we feel that this is the right approach to take.”

    Members of the vulnerable and at-risk group are prioritised for checks on the fit of respirator masks and guaranteed tests within five days of developing symptoms of the disease.”

    5. Funny how they’re all completely on message on both sides of the Atlantic:

      https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/28/democrat-marcia-fudge-coronavirus-proves-systemic-institutional-racism-exists-in-u-s/
      Democrat Marcia Fudge: Coronavirus Proves ‘Systemic, Institutional Racism’ Exists in U.S.

      I’m getting so very, very tired with all this race baiting bs.
      They don’t like us. We’re all so very racist and horrible to these people. So why do they stay here?

      2. Hear bloody hear.

        If the USA, Western Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc etc are so awful for them, why don’t they piss off to countries where they would better fit in?

        And if the places mentioned are so Gawd-bloody-awful, why are they being invaded by MBAEs from all over the planet, where the MBAE stands for Majority Black & Asian Ethnics

      3. The Democrat party in the US does contain some of the world’s craziest politicians!

    6. The Chinese are incredibly racist; maybe the virus picked up on its childhood influences.

    7. “…Yvonne Coghill, director of NHS England’s workforce race equality standard unit, tweeted that “many should follow” the example of Somerset NHS Foundation Trust in including staff from ethnic minorities in its “vulnerable and at-risk group.”
      Another opportunity to be a victim! Is there no BAME type who isn’t a victim these days?

  79. Countess Bathurst left feeling ‘violated’ after thieves broke into garden to steal 20 cannon balls
    The cannon balls were stolen from underneath two cannons, which sit in front of Countess Bathurst’s Cirencester Park stately home
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/28/countess-bathurst-left-feeling-violated-thieves-broke-garden/

    “Since the theft Countess Bathurst has learnt that the cannon balls are in fact replicas and worth “only the scrap metal”.

    “So someone has gone to an awful lot of trouble for nothing,” she said.

    Countess, the pikeys nicked them for the scrap metal!

        1. Can you get that here? Yer French are very into it. Endless adverts on their TV.

  80. HAPPY HOUR – favourite Beatles songs.
    I love early Beatles numbers even though they were influenced by George Martin
    later on with Sgt. Pepper…etc.
    From A Hard Day’s Night I’m torn between ‘If I fell’ and ‘And I Love Her’ or possibly
    ‘No Reply’
    ….do NoTTlers have a favourite Beatles song?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgFo9STa70E

    2. ‘If I fell’ is one of my favourites, sweetie; I enjoyed singing a choral version with the Scottish Opera choir a couple of years ago … x

        1. Perhaps some kind soul will download ‘If I fell’; I tried and failed!

          The splendid four-part harmony lends itself to choral interpretation …

    5. Great as the Fabs were, they would not have achieved their superb heights without George Martin.

      1. George Martin although known as the fifth Beatle choreographed many of their hits however they achieved fame before recording at EMI studios.
        When the Beatles split George composed some heart wrenching tunes ” Something” his most memorable among them….My Sweet Lord. Lennon/McCartney wrote some of the most memorable songs together. When they split John excelled on his own…Imagine etc. Ringo I feel was less talented however the Beatles wouldn’t have been the same without him.

          2. What did you think the article?
            I thought it was refuting the comment.

            I liked the band and when they split, (Yocko Oh No spit.) I thought all four separately showed just how much talent was there.

            There must be other groups that have split up similarly but I can’t think of many who produced so much individually.

    7. Not a favourite song as such, but I reckon that if you took ‘Drive my car’, ‘The word’ and maybe ‘Run for your life’ away from Rubber Soul, what remains is probably their best album.

      Take ‘Yellow submarine’, ‘And your bird can sing’, ‘Doctor Robert’ away from Revolver and what is left is also their best album.

      Dead heat after a photo finish.

  81. ‘The Nation will not forget you.’

    As it doesn’t forget every other British man or woman ?
    ….who dies in the course of their duty……
    To serve their Queen, Country and fellow man; more often without
    praise or acknowledgement.

    Are we to remember such as Lee Rigby?

    We need to get a grip!

  82. Since we are all loafing (see, below, passim), my loaf – with the changed process – turned out more loaf like than most recently.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4928a98e849533fb4a5d2ee03bae4c560073bb5a357260cc470216c9d0500d62.jpg

    I have always used Doves Quick Yeast – which one simply adds to the dry flour at the start of the dough making. That product has gone the way of all useful things. I managed to find some dried yeast (in a 500 gms packet) online. I was very suspicious of it – (a) the price was fair (b) the quantity too good to be true).

    Today, I put the dried yeast into the warm water and sugar before adding it to the dry ingredients. Worked a treat – in all senses. I shall carry on with this.

    If any baker wants to know the brand of yeast, just ask.

    3. Oh Bill, Bill, Bill…Wifey have unfortunatly killed our sourdough starter by staving it to death.
      Tried to get some flour on Sunday, from a mill near Stratford-upon-Avon, but the Ministry of Pointless travel turned us back at Bromsgrove.

      1. Perhaps she was praticising … with you in mind…{:¬))

        Bad luck about the flour. That’s the Stasi for you – now, had you been in a rubber boat and of colour (or, better still, praying) they would have escorted you there and back.

    4. Even if you don’t eat it all in the next five days the toast you make from what is left, next Sunday, will still taste sensational.

        1. And apparently if you have no yeast you can use beer as a starter when making bread.

          Never tried it myself but I wonder if Gin would work?

          2. That is why I have not tried it.

            I also wonder if the sterile insipid lager style beer that they sell over here has anything left that would ferment.

          3. And apparently if you have no yeast you can use beer as a starter when making bread.

            Not if it’s filtered and/or pasteurised.

      1. Just be glad that only the loaf is showing. I am wearing old cords – what a French chum called my “tenu de combat”.

      1. Yeah, that’s the stuff I use – link in post below. It lasts for years too. I’ve just finished some ordered in 2016

        1. Properly vacuum packed and excellent. Their flours are good too, when you can get them now.

          1. Got a 25Kg sack on order from them, surprise surprise a local shop had some last week.

  83. https://order-order.com/2020/04/28/panoramas-ppe-investigation-party-political-broadcast/

    PANORAMA’S PPE INVESTIGATION WAS PARTY POLITICAL BROADCAST
    Last night John Ashton was once again wheeled out by BBC Panorama to attack the government with the editors, who can’t not know, failing to tell viewers of his longstanding left-wing, anti-Government views and proud half-century of Labour Party membership. While Ashton took up one-third of the show’s interviews with British medical professionals, Guido wasn’t at all surprised to quickly unearth the left-wing, activism of each and every one of the show’s other NHS interviewees. Guido summarises his research…


    The others featured on the show were all far left Corbyn supporters. Quelle surprise.

  84. Just been checking the Channel traffic. Plenty of tankers and containers ships as well as ferries going back and forth. Can’t see any Border Farce vessels, hopefully they now have the sense to turn off their AIS equipment.

  85. Goodnight, all. I’m off to watch TV and forget about my woes – I shall give the Beeb a wide berth, obviously.

    1. “Look for the bare necessities
      The simple bare necessities
      Forget about your worries and your strife”
      The bare necessities being a glass or two… of wine.

      2. Hmm, or three, or four. I am starting to get concerned about my drinking habit. I keep thinking, ‘I’ll have a dry day’ and then something happens and it’s a case of, ‘maybe tomorrow will be less stressful’! I’ve just put my recycling box out and I was shocked by the number of wine bottles in it (admittedly it’s a fortnight’s worth, but I am the only one who drinks it).

        1. Ours went out last night. The bottles made a sort of pyramid higher than the box sides.

  86. Gosh – it has passed 6 pm and I haven’t got a glass in my had. Must rectify that.

    See you all tomorrow – another day in the cells. You can’t even count down the bloody days till release.

    Stay safe – clap a lot … TTFN

    1. You haven’t got a glass in your hand? Sure you haven’t put it down somewhere and forgotten where you put it?

    1. I am trying a slightly different approach this morning. Time will tell whether the change has worked.

      1. Are you not letting the dough rest? After all they say a change is as good as a rest……….

        1. More tedious detail to follow.

          I have been making bread for years. Each loaf is different. Practice makes imperfect.

    3. Mine is on a couple of times a week to make gluten free bread – it’s so much better than the bought GF bread which is like cardboard with the taste removed. I also occasionally make ‘herby’ bread by adding some garlic powder, marjoram, basil and thyme – eaten straight out of the machine with crumbly Cheshire cheese……MMmmmmm

      2. I sometimes add fennel seeds so that the bread when toasted and spread with butter and marmalade tastes divine

        1. When I’m cooking Basmati rice by absorbtion, I fry off a good spoonful of fennel seeds in the oil before the rice goes in.

      4. I occasionally mix in some sun-dried tomatoes and a little minced garlic.

  88. SWMBO has, yet again, come up with a ‘Point To Ponder’

    Why, apart, from Boros (who has Hedge Bakkurdsitis) does everyone who appears on the Telly, seems to have just stepped out of the Barber’s Shop

    Since haircutting/styling facial etc have all been banned, are they going to be prosecuted for breaking the Lockdown Laws?

    As Mt T would say “Just Asking”

    1. This week I’ve had to start using a comb again for the first time in over 15 years.

      I can no longer let my hair lie where the breeze leaves it.

    3. That is a darn good question. Has any NoTTL-er developed a way that can be used to keep hair down to a reasonable length without having to use specialist equipment or relying on an assistant?

      1. Electric clippers with No.1 comb , just go all over your head, it’s not hard to do the back

        1. Same worked for me. The mower cost the equivalent of about £20 which is only twice the price if a haircut in these parts.

          No one has laughed out loud at our efforts and by the time the hairdresser opens, the damage will have grown out (or we will all be dead)

      2. I took the kitchen scissors to my barnet the other day. Not a pretty sight, but at least my hair is off my collar 🙂

  89. I have just realised what ONS stands for:

    Office of National Smoke ‘n Mirrors.

    1. Talking of smoke, when I took the dog for a walk earlier, there was a discarded cigarette packet on the pavement (smokers here are a lot of litter louts). The latest warning is “smoking harms fertility”. Yay, send loads of packets to Africa and we might see our way to looking after the planet after all!

  90. Well at least one positive has come out of the virus, remainers wont have to worry about jobs or the economy falling off a cliff when we finally leave the EU.

        1. Panasonic’s ‘sourdough’ recipe involves a starter made from flour, water, yeast, sugar & balsamic vinegar. Leave for12 hours, then bung half of it in the breadmaker with more flour, yeast, sugar, salt and water. I decided, as yeast is beginning to run out, to ‘feed’ the remaining starter. Which had a half-hearted rise, and this was the result. Not my best effort. Tastes OK, though.

  94. Lady Sara Bathurst slams ‘twerps’ who stole 20 cannonballs from her Cotswold mansion

    Lady Sara Bathurst, 55, said she was ‘not amused’ by the latest crime which comes just months after she found a burglar behind a curtain at her Cirencester Park mansion in Gloucestershire

    Lady Bathurst later confirmed that officers had not attended the scene after suggestions she was receiving privileged treatment from the police.

    She added: “They (the police) have been extremely kind. They treat everyone the same.

    “I suspect we won’t get them back and I hope not too much time is spent on it.

    “Resources are stretched enough as it is. There are far more serious crimes being committed.

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/lady-sara-bathurst-slams-twerps-21941355?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

          1. I never saw them thus, but as I’ve posted before, L&L were outstanding in that environment.

      3. Someone with a vessel and some 32lb cannon wanting to give a broadside salute to the HoP.

    2. “I hope not too much time is spent on it”
      Investigation of theft of metal for scrap?
      Don’t worry, no time will be spent.
      We mustn’t harm community relations.

    1. So a Muslim wouldn’t take any notice of being told to go forth and multiply during Ramadan.

  96. I’ve just affixed a new spice rack to the kitchen ( an expansion ) and have been sorting through all the various bottles and boxes to sort out the duplicates and tired dried herbs and spices, asked why I was chuckling by SWMBO I pointed out the results of my endeavours and said – look , It Was the Best of Thymes; It Was the Worst of Thymes. Once again she said “you do talk a lot of bo**ocks”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3f3dd1de6d7df96c9a0df6bdb24a9821051ad87af03bb583bd65e8001023db8b.jpg

  97. Well, that’s the medicine cabinet sorted. Not as bad as I feared.
    No Eye of Newt with BB Date of July, 1594.

          3. “Too derivative.”

            Hmm. I suppose there is something of Jimmy Pursey about it…

    1. Reminds me of the story of the young girl who feared she was pregnant after a party at which there were many Eastern European young men.

      When her friend asked her if she had had a check up she replied that she thought he was Romanian.

  100. Wasn’t that the most amazing article by Professor Furedi about the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi in the ”Daily Telegraph ?

    ”Soros NGOs boast about their achievements. Some bragged about their influence in preparing the ground for the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in Libya”.

    ”Their influence in preparing the ground for the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in Libya”.

    Who overthrew Colonel Gaddafi ?

    David Cameron !

    George Soros’ Open Society. Just a short distance from Downing Street.

    Wow !

    It’s all just a perfectly innocent random coincidence of course and there’s nothing to see here at all.

    Is there ?

  102. I note from yet another of the Bullshit surveys that 2/3 of Britons think the lockdown should continue until the virus is fully contained.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8263323/Boriss-PMs-lockdown-easing-plans-council-tips-reopen-weekend.html

    Well, I’ve got an idea:
    Cancel all furlough pay, stop anyone being paid more than £26,000 pa equivalent for the duration of the lockdown and tell them the money won’t be made up later and then ask the question.

    1. Always remember that 50% of the population is below average intelligence.

      They think that staying in the house will wipe out a disease.

      1. I used to say something similar to my children.

        ” You know all your really stupid friends? Well, they are mostly I00+ IQ. The seething masses of the population are far stupider.”

      2. In theory it would, as it would deprive the virus of new hosts.
        But people can’t remain locked up indefinitely, destroying the economy in the process. Or for people’s sanity and physical health.

        1. In theory it would only so long as the entire population of the world remained in the house, including the people who run our electricity supplies, our food supplies and our hospitals and everything else that is essential to keeping a population alive.

      4. But the government said that everyone could go to university and be above average.

      5. I used to say something similar to my children.

        ” You know all your really stupid friends? Well, they are mostly I00+ IQ. The seething masses of the population are far stupider.”

      6. If you listen to any parent talking about their little darlings, you will conclude that 100% of children are above average intelligence

    2. Most people think this is the only virus out there. Most people think they’re clean if they have a wash. That bacteria are things you can wash off.

      Those same Daily Wailers think that tax income increases if you raise taxes. They think that big companies making use of tax laws should pay more taxes – not know that they’ll pass those taxes on to them, the customer.

      This isn’t just Wailers. Guardian readers think much the same. They’re morons. When faced with a shock, such as the Home Office comprising 35,000 bureaucrats and the NHS hiring diversity managers and realising that hospitals not only have expensive governing boards but also five or six quangos above them they look askance at the waste.

      People are ignorant, stupid and can’t spell. They are a dead weight on society.

  103. Yer French are allowing very limited déconfinement from 11 May. Primary Schools to reopen – attendance voluntary – max 15 per class. You can move but ONLY within your département (county) and no more than 100 km. No crossing borders to go to the next département – unless for work or exceptional family reasons. Cafés, bars and restos not to reopen until June; Beaches closed till June – at least. Not much prospect of holidays in July. Cinemas, small museums to reopen 11 May. Places of worship to remain shut (yah boo yer slammers).

    Everything can change at the drop of a chapeau should there be a second wave.

    Bloody thankful we managed to escape….

    By the way – Mélenchan (like him or loathe him) is a fantastic orator. He was on BFMTV live five minutes ago. Spell-binding (mostly bollox…but still).

  105. Almost repeat post

    Matt Hancock says call for care home apology unreasonable as he insists support is ‘front of mind’

    Matt Hancock has refused to apologies, again.

    As much as I hate to say it, there is nothing for Hancock to apologise for.

    H&S is the responsibility of the care home owners/managers

    1. My wife worked in a couple of care homes doing entertainment for the residents. She loved the elderly people and was sad when one died. She also admired the carers. She thought the management mostly grasping and incompetent. These were Asians or more precisely Indian and Pakistani families.

      At the last care home the Indian management decided to be rid of the animals, several cats and a parrot. They threatened to have the animals put down and invited care workers to adopt them. My wife brought home a very small but beautiful French Blue/ Persian Cross. We were amazed to find she was micro-chipped in 2000. Needless to say we were obliged to sort out her teeth and other health issues at our own expense which we do not regret.

      Of course the elderly patients appreciated having pets around the place. They humanise the place. To the owners these pets, often brought to the care home by elderly patients, were an unnecessary expense.

      1. Privately run no doubt where the bottom line is all that matters. NHS care homes are great, at least the one my wife is in is. All the NHS care homes I know up here have various animals visiting every week – even a donkey (it wears a nappy thing), local schoolkids come in to talk to the residents and I play the keyboard in all the homes within a 90 mile radius , yes it is sad when one dies because you (and the carers) form a bond with them. It gives me as much pleasure as my music appears to give them and I have a following of 90 year old groupies who are after my body but can’t remember why

        1. Well done you. I feel that generally our elderly folk are not treated well.

          We employed live in carers for my wife’s parents. The quality of care was very much dependant on the actual carer assigned by the care company. These carers were a constant problem. They were replaced fortnightly so you could have an efficient and knowledgeable middle aged South African followed by an ignorant Hungarian twenty year old more interested in themselves.

          We sacked the first company, Bluebird, and engaged Christy’s who were very much better, both in quality of carer and in attention to our family.

          I imagine others have experienced similar nightmares. The costs, needless to say, were astronomical and amounted to about £4500.00 every four weeks plus the costs of food provision to suit the tastes and demands of carers and the cost of filling in for them when they are given 2 hours per day rest periods which are an additional cost not accounted for, and then the cost of giving them free board.

          The whole care system for our elderly is a disaster. Those who can pay will have to pay, others who may have contributed nothing gain the benefits. Yup, life was never fair.

        2. The lovely home my dear old mum was in is run by a charity. A friend’s late husband was in a privately run home owned by a local family. That home was very basic but the family live in a large and beautiful old house and put all four children through private schools…..

          1. The family that own the home my mother in law is in also make a very comfortable living out of the dozen or so homes that they own – well sort of own, they have many mortgages.
            They probably don’t overpay staff but they must be doing something right because many of the workers have been there since MIL moved in three years ago.

            However, she is well cared for which is all that really matters to us.

          2. My mum was in a non-profit- making home in Southwold. There were about 12 residents in total. It was originally run as ‘holiday home for impoverished gentlewoman’ back in the day, but there aren’t many of those around today, so it turned itself into a residential home to suit the requirements of the Will of the original owner. It was a lovely place, overlooking the common and down to the sea. All food was cooked on the premises. It still exists today, twenty years later.

          3. My Mum’s home also had their own kitchens making good quality food. My Mum even put some weight back on there. The staff treated the residents like family too, such a welcoming and homely place. The staff were all local women (and a clue of males too).

        3. Hee hee, I have a few wrinkly ladies who try to dance and things with me at music nights at the pub. They’re shocking, widows all.

        4. Well done you. I feel that generally our elderly folk are not treated well.

          We employed live in carers for my wife’s parents. The quality of care was very much dependant on the actual carer assigned by the care company. These carers were a constant problem. They were replaced fortnightly so you could have an efficient and knowledgeable middle aged South African followed by an ignorant Hungarian twenty year old more interested in themselves.

          We sacked the first company, Bluebird, and engaged Christy’s who were very much better, both in quality of carer and in attention to our family.

          I imagine others have experienced similar nightmares. The costs, needless to say, were astronomical and amounted to about £4500.00 every four weeks plus the costs of food provision to suit the tastes and demands of carers and the cost of filling in for them when they are given 2 hours per day rest periods which are an additional cost not accounted for, and then the cost of giving them free board.

          The whole care system for our elderly is a disaster. Those who can pay will have to pay, others who may have contributed nothing gain the benefits. Yup, life was never fair.

      2. I agree ,

        Some of those care home owners are Asian millionaires, they are as heartless as many Asian landlords . They care not a jot.

          1. And many of those carers really care for the residents.

            If anything comes out of this mess, the real workers should get some recognition – not a clattering of saucepans either.

            Not just healthcare workers, many manual workers deserve better than they get.

          2. Those who keep our water, gas and electricity going; refuse disposal workers, supermarket staff and taxi drivers are just some of the people who have jobs that are either unpleasant or involve the risk of infection. I am very thankful for them all!

        1. I’m sorry you feel the need to apologise for someone’s else’s apologies.
          Why don’t you grow a pair, and then cut them off with a rusty knife?

          Then perhaps, just perhaps, I’ll accept your apology…

          And after that you can pass me the knife, to do unto myself what I wish upon others, for apologising to you for your soon to be inadequacies.

    4. The procurement managers/executives of NHS and BHE have had 4 years to get their act together since the ‘pandemic’ excercise – like most civil servants at that level they do f’all until their forced to. Why do we pay these prats so much for so little

      1. ‘Why do we pay these prats so much for so little]

        Why do we pay these prats anything?

        Good evening, Alec.

      2. Two of the problems with the Civil Service are that it is risk averse and the buck has only a downward direction. To a large extent that is the result of the certainty that the mantra “a mistake is a learning exercise” means “it’s only a learning exercise if I or someone above me made it, otherwise you are to blame” and also the reality that a big mistake will have the witch-hunters out in force.

      3. I probably need to go back to that well known opticians – I read it as “pinko and bacon bits” – very adventurous!

  108. Good afternoon, everyone. What a difference a day makes; wet, dull and drizzly here. I decided I’d light the Rayburn, only to fail miserably and the oil boiler is back on. The washing machine also gave up the ghost last night, which with lots of sheets to wash is the worst possible time. I don’t know quite how to get that sorted; the fridge freezer that was ordered and paid for before the lockdown still hasn’t arrived. Even if they deliver the new washing machine to the house, they wouldn’t bring it in and I don’t think I could get it up the step into the hall and through to the kitchen without help. Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep last night 🙁

    1. What a dreadful carry on all this is turning out to be. The launderettes are open of course but is that any consolation? I use my local one, where “social distancing” is impossible because it’s too small, so people are just doing their best not to breath on one another. It’s a farce really.

      1. I don’t see how moving house would help (that’s supposed to be put on hold during the C19 excuse anyway). I’d still need a new washing machine and lockdown has made even simple things virtually impossible!

    3. Try contacting your local Churches and ask them if they can help or put you in touch with someone who can.

      1. Don’t tell Corim, but I’ve been in touch with the local Masonic Lodge about various things I need.

      1. Would have to drive to a launderette – is your journey really necessary? Answer, probably not as I could soak the sheets in a large washing up bowl and hang them outside to drip dry (when it isn’t raining, obviously). If only I had kept my mother’s dolly tub and posset together with the tin bath! 🙂 Actually, I have since had an offer of help with the manhandling of the machine. It’s getting a delivery that will be the problem now. As I wrote earlier, I have had a new fridge freezer ordered and paid for since early March and there is no sign of it. The local shop where we bought it has closed as being non-essential.

        1. Given your situation, I would say that you are entitled to help. Maybe your local council, ward councillor or GP surgery could give you information about who to contact.

          1. I don’t seem to be entitled to much in the way of help. I shall try ordering from Argos and see if there is a place to put “please help as we are vulnerable”.

    5. I am so sorry to read you are at sixes and sevens with everything ..

      Delivery of things is a real pain. Stuff is taking ages to be delivered.

      Perhaps they could deliver a new machine and install it if you were in a different room.. We are entering strange times and we have to explore some quirky new methods.

      We have a roosting jackdaw in our traditional chimney, a near neighbour told us that they also had one in their log fire heater chimney , and were worried about all sorts of things .. They had to find a chinmey sweep who was willing to come into the house , and climb a tall ladder to investigate their problem .. They managed to get some one from nearly 24 miles awy, it cost them a small fortune .

      We are leaving our jackdaw alone , if it succesfully raises a brood , so what . although they might fall down the chimney though if they are careless!

      1. We had a bird guard put on one of our chimneys just before nests were built. Cost £120 but stops the mess and noise. Worth every penny.

        1. Alf didn’t mention that he rang a chimney sweep first who said he wouldn’t touch it if they had already started building the nest, which they had. We knew they had because we kept hearing bits of twig falling down the chimney. However he contacted another bloke who wa snappy to come and put a guard up. Turned out he was a fireman!

        2. I wish we had done the same . We had the chimney swept last April . Jackdaws have never ever been attracted to the roof before .. they started to take an interest last month .. after lockdown .One fell down the chimney .. and flew around the living room .. and my head.. the dogs were outside at the time .. My poor parrot shrieked like hell!

        3. I am looking to get one put on my drawing room chimney. It’s the grate that is used the least.

          3. Make sure the mesh does not clog up with soot, we had that happen a few years ago and the house got thouroughly filled with smoke when we tried to light the fire.

            The sweep can get the brush up so the chimney appears to be clean but the mesh doesn’t necessarily get totally cleared.

          4. Thanks Sos but it’s wide gauge and we have gas fires and, therefore, very little soot.

      2. Chimney sweeps cost a small fortune anyway; I have three chimneys that are regularly used and get a discount for bulk when they are swept, but it still costs an arm and a leg. Make sure you have a securely fastened fire guard over the fire in case the fledglings manage to evade the damper. They make a terrible mess of the room if they get in (I speak from experience here!). Even the local white goods shop wouldn’t install the new washing machine and I have no chance with Argos. They won’t even take the old one away.

          2. Our nearest is nearly 30 miles away… They supplied and delivered and installed (before the quarantine) a new one – and took the old one away.

            Honestly, I’d have a shufti on line. Our new one (replacing one that was 35 years old) is a JLP own brand. Works OK – and, unlike its predecessor, is almost silent.

          3. Ah, the apposite phrase is “before the quarantine”. I could have ordered one at our local white goods shop before the quarantine, had it delivered and put in the kitchen and the old one removed. Alas, they are closed due to the lockdown and being deemed “inessential”. Incidentally, I think you would have to add a nought to your distance for a JLS here.

          5. I have, thank you, Bill. Rather more expensive than I can get elsewhere more locally (with free delivery).

          7. When i bought my latest washing machine the deal was that they would take the old one away. The two delivery guys weren’t prepared to do that so i refused to sign for delivery.

            They took it away and i signed.

            I find blackmail can be useful at times.

        2. AO and Appliances Direct are still Delivering. Any chance you can get a local plumber who is still working to install?

          2. Julian is brilliant and since he likes me he will put off other clients to come to my aid. What Sandy would say, I dread to think 🙂

          8. Plumber not necessary, thankfully (although I do have a good one on tap, if you’ll excuse the pun ). All it needs is to unscrew the leads from the old one and screw the new connections onto the correct water pipe fittings (I have seen it done before and even I can do it).

        3. I lined my chimneys with stainless steel chimney tubing. We can clean the chimneys – to both of which we have attached woodburning stoves – ourselves without making a mess using rods to which a rigid bristled brush of the appropriate diameter is affixed. One of our stoves is a Clearview, the other a Woodwarm. Both have airwash systems and as we wait until our logs are properly seasoned before using them we never have to clean the glass

          I have cut enough logs by hand tenon saw – as I hate chainsaws – to keep both stoves going for the next two years. This has kept me relatively fit during lock down though my legs get more tired than they used to do.

          1. Are you certain that’s OK with your insurers?

            We understood that it was necessary to have an annual certification from a registered ramoner, although that may vary by insurance company.

    1. A “surprise” that’s all over the Twattersphere? Good job they weren’t organising D Day.

  110. I bet most of these peope going around wearing a face mask have tested Corvid positive.

        1. If you take them off incorrectly and get your hands all over the material, yes you could get the virus on your hands. That is the virus that you would have breathed in if you had not been wearing a mask.

          Wear them properly, wash your hands after taking the mask off and the medical folks are now saying that this could help avoid catching the bug. As an added bonus, a mask stops you touching your nose and mouth, reducing the risk further.

          Air Canada already requires passengers to wear masks, it is quite simply no mask, no fly. Expect other organizations to bring in similar requirements where you will have no choice if you want to be out in public – the UK police have not exactly excelled at sensible enforcement of lockdown rules, I bet they would be quite happy to apply any rules.

      2. I have just ordered some today – I can see the day will come when we will not be allowed out without wearing one, they seem to be back-tracking all the time now on their supposedly aforementioned non-usefulness. And if one waits until then, they will be gone.

        Edited.

          1. https://www.medisave.co.uk/surgical-face-masks-type-iir-x-50.html This is the site I got them from, have a look on the site, there may be others. I don’t trust Amazon for this sort of thing.

            To some extent I agree with lotl’s comment below, but ‘they’ have backtracked on an idea I thought was sensible in the first place – the thing is not to let these masks lull you into a false sense of security. I do the shopping too, which is why I thought I would get them – I can see the day coming when they won’t let us out without one to go into enclosed spaces such as supermarkets. I do think when out in the open they are pointless, I have seen cyclists wearing them. Having said that, I wish joggers would wear them when they come pounding down the track behind me with their germy breath leaving me to walk in its wake!

          2. They’re ok as ,long as people realise they are to prevent the wearer from spreading germs and not from catching them.

    3. Face masks as potentially proposed by our exposed government are the greatest gesture signal of the lot. Even greater than howling at the moon at 8pm on a Thursday.

      They serve no practical purpose other than showing you are ‘doing your bit’ and keeping people in line, apart from also indicating those in the supermarket queue who have been frightened out of their wits, such as the person I saw last week wearing one on her chin, with nose and eyes exposed (I notice that everyone has conveniently forgotten that these droplets can also be taken into the body via damp corneas).

      In the meantime a now bankrupt country will be diverting huge costs from taxpayers’ money into manufacturing or importing 60 million items a day in a world where there is a global shortage of said items.

      All to make people feel cosy and get certain people off the hook.

  111. Long, but worth reading

    https://outlook.live.com/mail/0/inbox/id/AQQkADAwATY0MDABLTgyZDQtYjRkMC0wMAItMDAKABAALutnKP2zK0%2BYdtes5ylD7w%3D%3D

    One thing that struck me was the emphasis on hygene, in our Western countries. OK, so we can always improve (wait for the water shortage in Summer due to all the handwashing) – but how about telling, nay demanding – that the Chinese clean up their act.

    I don’t mean their political act because nobody with half a brain has believed anything the CCP has issued or said for decades. I mean their personal cleanliness act. The Chinese called us Gwailos (foreign fiends) in Hong Kong in 1980, and they said whites smelled. Well the Chinese do worse than smell – they stink. Their ghastly habits have killed thousands if not millions of people in the world, not once, not twice…But the CCP want to make money from that, selling (not giving) so-called protection masks etc.to the West (and which are defective anyway), to combat something that they created.

    1. I know nothing about their personal hygiene habits but their abuse of wildlife in their disgusting markets; their crap TCM using bodyparts of tigers, lions, rhinos and other endangered species makes me sick. Not to mention the hideous treatment of bears caged so they can milk them for bile, also recommended by TCM for treating CV-19, and the vile “dog-eating festivals” such as Yulin, where live dogs are beaten to death to make them more tender.

      All of this makes me reluctant to buy anything made in China, thhough some of it is hard to avoid if you want electronics, or some of the things we sell at fundraisers for the hedgehogs – don’t know when we will ever be able to do that again!

      1. If the sentiment against Chinese products grows, I can see China setting up assembly plants in nearby countries; I’m sure Vietnam and the Philippines would be glad of the jobs screwing together Chinese components.
        Like the ‘Italian’ handbags assembled by Chinese workers from Chinese leather in Lombardy.

    2. I still believe as was mentioned early in this crisis, that animal carcasses used during the production of this disgusting virus were removed from the laboratory in Wuhan and sold as meat on the cities market.

    3. I was unfortunate to have to eat opposite a Chinese businessman in a B&B – his table manners were appalling, the noise was horrendous and I got covered in bits of his food. I told the proprietor if he wanted my business then I was to be seated as far away from this Chink as possible. I was!

  112. On the plus side the relentless exhibition of cheating and fabrication, otherwise known as the Premier League, has hopefully been consigned to the dustbin of history.

    I for one remain sick of the sight and sound of Gary Lineker and his supporting cast. Why cannot these idiots just fuck off and die viz. do the decent thing?

    1. I haven’t seen or heard him for years. I enjoy a good footy match, but why involve him?

        2. Would you say that to me face to face? I bloody doubt it. You have just finished my evening in a horrid way.

  115. Wasn’t that the most amazing article by Professor Furedi about the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi in the ”Daily Telegraph ?

    ”Soros NGOs boast about their achievements. Some bragged about their influence in preparing the ground for the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in Libya”.

    ”Their influence in preparing the ground for the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in Libya”.

    Who overthrew Colonel Gaddafi ?

    David Cameron !

    George Soros’ Open Society. Just a short distance from Downing Street.

    Wow !

    It’s all just a perfectly innocent random coincidence of course and there’s nothing to see here at all.

    Is there ?

    1. Gaddafi like Saddam Hussein killed thousands of people every year – they ruled by oppression..
      Since they were killed off more people have died in Libya & Iraq inter tribal / religious fighting.
      There was law and order+ state brutality – now there is chaos, poverty, ill health, mass murder & more deaths.

  116. Council tips may be reopened BUT: “However the experience of visiting the tip for many is likely to be different from normal with householders being asked to book time slots online and produce a bank statement to show where they live to gain access. Is the government unaware that with on line banking statements are paperless (and from my memory current ones don’t have home address on them!!)

    1. To use the tips in my local council area one must produce proof of address, such as a driving licence, council tax bill, utility bill etc.

      1. Hmmmm, I think he’s done that before. There was a certain expertise there with that wigglng shuffle.

    3. Our council issued badges to go in the car windscreen a few years ago. They’ve now scrapped that idea because people outside the area were photocopying them. Now we just show our driving licences, which contain photo and address.

      1. Some of us have driving licences dating back to the stone age – no photo ID. However, my local council issues waste permits to households. The permit has an in built hologram to prevent copying….

        1. You have to apply for a new driving licence when you reach the age of 70. They are the new-fangled photo ones.

      2. That really did not help us when clearing my mothers flat. Every trip to the tip ended up with us having a discussion with some not too friendly bureaucrats.

    4. Gordon Brown’s tax on waste caused a lot of the fly tipping we see today. And then there lazy people who after loading their vehicles with their accumulated tat. Can’t be bothered to take it to the tip for the reasons set out above.
      Why do we have to put up with all this continual and absolute nonsense in the UK ?

      1. I seem to remember the EU had a hand in the introduction of charges to reduce the amount of waste going to Landfill…

          2. The problem here is we throw back (dead) undersized fish, whereas they eat ’em on the continong.

        2. Well it use to be easy to take waste to an open tip for recycling. Construction was charge by weight.
          I took 4 2ft by 9inch redundant glass shelves to the local recycling tip last year in the front of a small van. The skip nazi went berserk. I complained vociferous at the time. And got in touch with the local authorities who in turn passed my complaint to the private contractor who informed me that at the time I could have been issued with a simple permit. It seemed the staff are as thick as several planks.
          I went back later with the shelves in the car. How green is this i angrily pointedly asked the dullard. Adding, no wonder people dump rubbish at the side of the roads !

      2. All part of turning the UK into a complete dump, along with trashing its history and culture. And all part of a carefully crafted plan, made to look like incompetence.

        1. Sadly I totally agree with you.
          I’m sick of it and I feel for my family who will survive me. National pride, our history, heritage our social structure and cultre is being slowly and deliberately destroyed but the younger generation do not seem to realise this.
          The bbc and probably our ‘woke’ uninversities are playing a major part in all of this.

    1. Good morning, John. Now that you have (presumably) sobered up, I invite you to review your numerous insulting posts last night, and withdraw them. I’m reluctant to cast anyone into the wilderness in these troubled times, but there are limits. I’m leaving them in full view for now, in the hope that you’ll have a “My God! Did I really write that?” moment…

    1. ”We build strong relationships with officials, politicians, NGOs, and other actors”.

      ”Other actors” = The BBC

    4. ”We build strong relationships with officials, politicians, NGOs, and other actors”.

      ”Other actors” = The BBC

  119. Okay Boris. You are evidently and according to reports ‘back on the block’.

    Here you go then:

    1.0 Announce the abolition of the BBC Licence Fee. We will applaud.

    2.0. Announce total reform of the NHS and abolition of useless management posts such as ‘Diversity Managers’. We will applaud. Whilst at it announce that all PFI contracts are to be null and void. It does not cost £200.00 to replace a 13 Amp plug on a bloody kettle, so get real you arsehole.

    3.0. Announce a commitment to securing our borders, including the return to France of unwanted pseudo-refugees being towed here from France. Give a commitment to building more powerful Border Force frigates and fast gun boats to deter invasion forces prodded to go to sea by the French.

    4.0. Be honest about the origins of Covid-19. We believe this virus was created in a Wuhan laboratory. Just tell the truth. Obfuscation no longer works, be warned.

    5.0. Discuss urgently with the USA retaliatory measures against the Beijing Junta and enact prosecution ASAP.

    1. 1.0 love it, so it’s unlikely to happen.

      2.0 Contracts are two-sided agreements. If the government unilaterally exits contracts there will be expensive exit clauses and the real problem would be getting the private sector to work with you again at least at a reasonable price.

      3.0 Nice thought. Near impossible in practice.

      4.0 Lol. We decided we know it started in the Wuhan lab so say it started in the Wuhan lab and blame China publicly. Despite all evidence saying it’s a natural evolution of a bat coronavirus which has allowed it to jump species.

      5.0 Where would you prosecute them and for breaking which international law?

        1. The government employs Corim building design services for a funky new office building in Central London. They sign a contract. Corim spends ages designing this wonderful building, organises the construction, watches the build to make sure everything is to plan and on spec. A day or two before the new building opens the government asserts its sovereignty and decides not to honour the contract. Corim doesn’t receive anything like the amount of money specified in the contract. Corim has to take on debt to pay costs and employees. Government moves into shiny new office building then decides to design and build a new hospital. They call Corim building design services….

          1. Are you either drunk or else drug-addled. You otherwise appear to be a complete idiot.

            Edit: evidently a couple of idiots have upvoted you, you cretin.

          2. Yes it was very simplified missing out competitive tendering and exit clauses but the essence remains right. When you say assert your sovereignty what you are really saying is screw the private sector over and cost a few people their jobs. Then the government will want to use that private sector shortly afterwards and no one will work with them because you’ll have caused the breakage of rule 1, government cheques don’t bounce.

        1. Insults are unnecessary and reflect badly on the poster. Argue your point logically. Or not at all.

        2. Insults are unnecessary and reflect badly on the poster. Argue your point logically. Or not at all.

    2. 6.0 Publish in full the report on the Pakistani Rape Gangs whilst simultaneously investigating and taking action against officials shewn to have blocked taking action against the rapists.

    3. I’ve got one (or three) to add.

      Close the borders, deport the invaders, crush the traitors.

    1. Having read the history of that period, I don’t think many people realized then how closely Gordon Brown was following the policies of George Soros.

      I doubt Mrs Duffy did. Shame really, she could have called him out because that was the basis of her problem with him.

      1. Mrs Duffy was invited to 10 Downing St if I remember correctly, and went away singing Brown’s praises.
        It’s a pity Brown didn’t come across you instead, Polly – he wouldn’t have been let off nearly so easily!

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