East Kent Saint

To add to ant’s comments it appears the “friendly” media were briefed by the Govt so yesterday’s headlines were all about easing the lockdown and Boris to brief us on Sunday about all these new freedoms. All now denied by Rabb ! The emergency RAF airlift of PPE has gone wrong as the gowns don’t meet UK spec and were produced by a T shirt business , no further details are available !! NHS asking the Govt to stop over promising and under delivering .

Liverpool will tell him to play himself into the Prem at Saints first then he will walk into their first team , Ha Ha !

Jennick also ignored the stay home advice but he didn't resign !

The whole point is that since the Thatcher years with Kenneth Clarke ( of all people) the NHS has been slowly split up in competing sections just so private companies can get a slice of taxpayers money by offering services to the NHS (Cherry picking of course) . The total irony is just what you are quoting !! It started in the Thatcher years where there was central purchasing , by the NHS itself , for the very reasons you have quoted !! It is going nearly full circle except Deloittes will be running it not the NHS . They will now be creaming off profits , bonus payments etc at the expence of us taxpayers . As foggy says "you couldn't make it up" ( It's just the rest of what Foggy says that is wrong) Of course what the Govt are putting out sounds reasonable but like everything else they have done since this crisis started they are not actually delivering what they say they are . https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-52553430 for example.

Only by Mark Palios in the Guardian . He says " I believe there is very strong arguement that the exceptional circumstances of a pandemic and prohibition on all football activities mean players contracts have been frustrated in law . If this is correct , they are void and the clubs don't have to honour them . "

Legally it has been said that if the season is abandoned due to the Corona virus then the players contracts can be declared void . That would free up the clubs to stay afloat rather than furlough , lay off everyone but players. They couldn't claim the cash for the remainder of their fixed contracts as the contract is null and void , a bit of realisim would be introduced to the football business .

Good to see the Govt are using the virus crisis to privatise large chunks of the NHS . Regional health Authorities cannot now buy any PPE or equipment themselves , they all have to apply via a new central procurement system that will be run by their business mates !! Likewise the testing centres , the smart phone tracing app etc all run by their mates with an MP being a shareholder of the tech firm !!

Quite !!

Que ?

To any answer that it would be OK my late mother in law would say "but what if ........?" this went on until I would say " We'll all been wiped out tomorrow by a nuclear bomb so not worth worrying" "you are just being stupid" end of conversation ....

Not going to make the arbitrary target you set yourself a few weeks ago ? Then just include home testing kits that have been sent out rather than tests done , eureka ! target passed With space to spare . Your life in their hands ........"

Hooiveld with 4 apparently so 5 total !

3 , JWP got one and Hoedt 2 maybe !

OK I guess 6

No one is too sure if the millenium bug preparation expence was an excellent investment or there was no real issue that millions of £ and time were an overreaction . Having spare virus ward beds is probably good in this case . The more you read all the articles about stats from other countries the less clear it all becomes . Target setting is an overused business tool that has invaded all areas , generally they divert resourses and as things change become redundant but the target is still chased if it is a "performance indicator" as part of a reward scheme or people don't want to lose face.

It was not just about travel restrictions there are many factors but you do not want to go on and on. It is a good to see all peoples views on here and it does make me think ! This Govt need to back up announcements with action at the sharp end . I'm not confident that if a different Govt was formed after the election that it would have made a much better job , looking at most countries round the world .

The SAGE advisory group , which the Govt set up to advise it , has no Immunologist , intensive care expert , molecular virologist , nursing leader or expert in delivery of supplies. It has however 2 political advisers Appointed by Boris ! It is no wonder they are floundering. They kept the makeup of SAGE secret and now we know why , all about suppressing information the Govt wouldn’t want us to hear. NZ and Oz have new infection rates way below us and death rate in NZ is in single figures as they took action inc shutting down travel and those that arrived had to have 14 days quarantine at go return expense.

Excellent site , well done ! Funny how I can remember Paine , Davis , Sydenham , McGrath etc but it takes this site to remind me of the players I only remember when I see their names on this site .

According to an interview in the Guardian he felt dizzy and ill running round in circles so switched to the treadmill . I forgot he got seriously unwell after 5 days of his 7 day triathlon attempt .

Different approach to these scroungers !! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-52420392?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business&link_location=live-reporting-story

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-52425825 update

True , it seems any bit of seemingly good news put out which gives us a bit of hope is contradicted next day by scientists or doctors ! One of my old managers would ask when told something "where is that written down , show me the evidence" if it was about spares availability or similar it was " have you put your hand on it"

Is the Sgt someone you know ?

Re your article (‘Just not true’ we’re too lazy for farm work, say frustrated UK applicants, 20 April), we run a small soft fruit farm in Kent and have had about 700 applications for 50 places. There are a number of reasons we are not taking all UK workers. Our season runs from May to October, but many UK applicants will go back to their old jobs as soon as they start up again, leaving us with not enough labour to pick the crop. Guardian Today: the headlines, the analysis, the debate - sent direct to you Read more For physical distancing reasons we are minimising the number of people on the campsite, so we only have room for those who have worked for us before, but we are keen to recruit local people and have been in touch with many. In the past we had a high dropout rate with UK workers. I think we all understand that the main reason seasonal work is unattractive is that bills must be paid year-round. Many people also seem to think that, because we employ foreign workers, we somehow pay less than the legal minimum. All our workers are paid at least the national living wage and some will earn well above that. We would like to be able to pay more, but as labour is at least 50% of our overall costs this would mean a large rise in retail prices for fruit. Andrew Chesson Manor Farm, Ightham, Kent Copied from Guardian letters page .

Perhaps the Govt should give up daily briefings before everyone loses confidence in their ability to deal with the virus crisis.