East Kent Saint

Dexter Blackstock in paper today , ex QPR , Forrest and briefly Rotherham, left football at 31 and is now in medical supplies. His company Mediconnect he set up to have a transparent supply line so it was known where the items came from . In news as using crowdfunding to supply PPE to Hospices , care homes and councils. No mention of Saints but I assume it’s the same person .

Careful what you wish for !

NZ PM and cabinet take 20% pay cut to show solidarity . UK lords want £323 daily attendance allowance for signing on to virtual Lords at home. 2nd home owners who flipped their 2nd home designation from residential to business (must advertise for rent for 140 days a year) don’t pay council tax and are now in line for £10k Govt handout for small business due to coronavirus.

Of the 36000 that expressed an interest in fruit & veg picking only 6000 agreed to an interview , as yet no final figure on the number actually going to start. Problems cited were , it's not part time , childcare and alot of jobs required living on site for the duration etc. I can't imagine it happening but we need to change our business model , reassess the cost cutting cheap is best explotive culture .

It’s the 04:30 start that put most applicants off , after the initial rush they were left with only a few that would give it a go. The farmers rep said today on the radio.

Tadic had some great games but a lot of not so good games which could be put down to being played on the wrong wing. Pelle was always trying something , a lot of shots were off target but we missed him when he left. Mane made a number of wild shots , slices etc in the early days and took a while to become a good player . Towards the end he played well against prospective buyers but turned up late etc. Redeemed for me by funding a medical centre in his childhood village and now a school . The kids worship him but he tells them to go to school before football.

Will your season ticket count ?

Hancock had a bad day yesterday , trying to blame people for not getting tested to explain low test figures , not so say NHS . Scientists now say UK needs more than just lockdown and social distancing if it wants to lift restrictions , testing , tracking etc They now say that less than 10% of people will achieve immunity in the time taken so far. 15 000 people flying onto the UK daily and not being tested. Facemasks for all ? where would we get those ? or will homemade ones do ? not many seen wearing them around here.

Laura Kuensberg and Nick Robinson are said to be tory voters . Charter flights to bring in Romanian fruit and veg pickers ! ........

We have been told by Cameron ( May Home sec) that they would reduce immigration to a set figure. They soon realized they had no system and no staff in Border Force to do this . May then tried to get down to the made up figure by restricting student visas ( reducing Uni income !) and trying to deport the Windrush generation and members of their family that have lived and worked here for 50 years . We don't have much chance of repelling illegal immigrants as our coastline is not covered except by a few retired coastguards who do it as a hobby and only 6 (I think ) main control points around the coast. There are a large number of small air strips with no proper control . There dosen't seem to be any checks carried out at Heathrow before the flight ban in our experience. Take back control of the borders ? We have never had control throughout history and we certainly don't now nor will have . I think Shengen was a big mistake by the EU , no more Day of the Jackal" style border checks or passport registration at hotels etc to evade !!!

I see Boris is now using his second official home , one rule for ..... (a joke)

Ralph has agreed a 3 year contract in principle , say The Sun !

The Govt are not making an effort to collate and pass on stats about deaths of NHS staff as it needs the staff to keep on working . Remember that the Govt have hired a right wing campain advisor from NZ to "get their message across" so what they say in pubic has been carefully thought out to put them in the best light (most of the time) so it is no surprise that how/where NHS staff have been infected has been put in doubt . This message is then repeated on places like here and before you know it black is now white . So NHS staff didn't catch the virus in their hospital and if they did it wasn't because of lack of PPE it is because they used too much PPE so they didn't have enough to protect themselves , then went shopping on the way home and caught it there .

You are a very strange individual “quote”

Point taken , it was the globalisation that means we don’t produce so many items in this country . In a crisis we have to start from a very low base , this is true around the world (apart from China) . In America it seems nearly everything is made in China .

I was stunned when Hancock tried to shift the blame for lack of PPE onto nurses , doctors and care workers using them when they “didn’t “ need to . It didn’t appear on line in the reports of the briefing but the front line workers are making their voices heard today . He is still trying to defend his comments today , of all the people to criticise they are the last to pick on . Globalisation is showing the cracks now , if it’s all made somewhere else you are vulnerable, a bit like the ERG saying poor people will be able to afford food after brexit because UK can import cheap food from around the world that they could Buy , so goodbye British farmers.

It was quite a battle to get a refund a year ago when our flight home was cancelled hours before it was due to depart ! The chances of getting one now must be pretty slim. I suspect this years flights , which are already booked , will be rebooked a few times before we actually get to fly .

Believing Trump ? you couldn't make it up ! Not sure any of the election promises we were given in December would have actually happened but this pandemic will totally change the economy , HS2 could be the first thing to go .

The ministers look bewildered because they haven’t got any answers . The journos are trying hard not to criticise the Govt at this time. Don’t forget Boris has already excluded journos who asked awkward questions before the virus outbreak and refuses to appear on Various programs , radio and TV . Trying to control the media by giving Facebook “interviews “ .

apparently title does not carry a set rank , First Secretary does not automatically outrank other members of the cabinet unless the PM has elevated the position , in the past the Chancellor has been the next highest after the PM etc ..............

But Rabb was still pretty vague when asked and was telling us it was collective cabinet responsibility and now they are saying Boris is still very much in charge of the government!!! Meanwhile back in the real world we are going stir crazy and resorting to football team forums for entertainment.

He is just a stand in , if Boris becomes incapable he does not take over automatically etc. No doubt constitutional law experts could enlighten us but without a written constitution no one can say absolutely. By firing the Chancellor’s advisors Boris has concentrated power in No10 . All way above our pay grade , as they say.

It's a bit mind boggling that when the PM is ill there is no deputy to take over that is in the loop 100% of the time . Nice of Batman (of all people) to tell us there are odd people on here Ha Ha .

"And it’s not just what Johnson is saying that’s causing confusion, it’s the way he’s saying it. There’s a carefree lightness to his tone, the familiar bluster and bumble seemingly making it impossible for him to stress the seriousness of the crisis we all face. Less than three weeks ago, Johnson was enthusiastically telling the nation about his visit to a hospital. “I can tell you that I’m I’m I’m I’m I’m shaking hands continuously,” he said. “I was at a hospital the other night where I think there were actually a few coronavirus patients and I shook hands with everybody, you’ll be pleased to know and I continue to shake hands”. Johnson has never been a great orator, struggling to keep to script and relying on bluster and jokes to get by. This is no time for either." This report about daily briefing on 23rd March. (via Google) and yes I hope he pulls through as well !

It would help the players reputation if , even now , they donated a regular sum to help the non playing staff . They would still be paying their tax (or whatever tax they haven't managed to avoid) . However the clubs may see that as a way of not paying their share so managers and others should also contribute. The PFA have been under scrutiny for some time for not doing enough for players and for the massive and ever increasing pay of Gordon Taylor , perhaps this is the time for him to go but I suspect he will hold on to power for as long as possible.