East Kent Saint

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.

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 ..............