Wanderer Vagabond

I have no opinion of how the virus came to be contagious to humans since I have no specific knowledge on the subject (much the same as Dan Bogino of your earlier link) but it isn't as though it was the first, neither will it be the last, so I don't think the jury is so much as 'out' as they will never get sufficient information to form an opinion. The threat of zoonotic infections has been with us for a long time (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/zoonotic-diseases-why-are-infections-from-animals-so-dangerous-to-humans#An-evolutionary-arms-race) and sadly will continue to be, probably getting worse over time as we encroach further and further into the environments of the remaining wild animals. It may well be worthwhile for Governments to expend some research into the potential future hazards from the zoonotic sources after this one becomes history, or perhaps like previous pandemics, we'll just have a Commission into it, get a load of information and then file it.

It's not really a case of 'saving having to carry' more a case of if I can make some I don't have to try to go out to buy any. I get a couple of loaves from a kilo of flour when I can find some so the weight difference is minimal, the next loaf will be with the only flour I could get when out last time, Khorasan flour (at £3 a kilo!!!) never used it before, but you have to accept what is available these days. It does show how quickly the weight of shopping tots up, a kilo of flour, a kilo and a half of potatoes, half a kilo of apples, 2 litres of milk..... and that was before the 'essentials' of three bottles of wine and four bottles of beer!!!! (I'm assuming that alcohol is considered an essential since off licenses are open).

I can't say it sounds 'reprehensible' it just seems that the criticism is based on the assumption that the person concerned has a car and is able to convey their week's shopping in one hit. I'm in the position of having no car, no wish to travel on any public transport and the nearest shop with a reasonable stock is nearly a mile away so what I buy I have to carry back to the boat uphill. This limits just how much it is possible to carry as weight soon builds up (2 litres of milk alone will come in at about 2 Kilos). For this reason I had to split my week's shopping between yesterday and today, not by choice, but because that was all I could carry. As regards bread, it isn't that much of a skill to make it, I am happy to do it regularly, but have you seen any yeast in your area? there's none around here (and very little flour).

It is much the sort of thing I'd expect from Fox News to be honest. The relevant bit that you highlighted didn't start well, to quote,".....Scientists confirm......the virus most likely came from the horsehoes bat...." that isn't a 'confirmation' it is an opinion, had it been a confirmation it would have said something like,"...Scientists confirm that the virus came from the horseshoe bat..." subtle but important difference. Once that is taken on board, all of the rest becomes speculation predicated on the initial 'opinion'. It then goes on with the expected conspiracy theories that do so well on the Fox News base followers. You have also to bear in mind that the Russian conspiracy theorists made pretty much the same points concerning the Salisbury Novichok poisoning and the proximity of Salisbury to the UK's chemical warfare centre at Porton Down. Do I believe that Porton Down poisoned the Skripal's? no, so why am I going to believe the Chinese infected their own people? To continue on the fact checking path, the presenter of this drivel, Dan Bogino, does seem to 'big himself up' a lot. He claims a CV including working for New York Police Department, true as far as it goes, doesn't mention it was only from 1995 to 1999, so 4 years, hardly an experienced Officer then. He mentions his period in the United States Secret Service but once again fails to mention that it was only from 1999 until 2002 after which we went into training and what was essentially admin. He claims access to high level Presidential discussion that his Secret Service colleagues throw some doubt upon. The man sounds like a bit of a butterfly to me; I have worked with a few like that, their CV sounds really good until you find that they never stay anywhere very long, or should I say long enough to be found out. The somewhat worrying thing I find with Fox News is that is seems to be where the Orange one gets his 'intelligence' from in preference to his own intelligence agencies so he will no doubt be Tweeting this stuff as 'fact'.

I couldn't agree with you more. When you've taken someone who has done the wrist slashing sketch (as in not doing it the 'proper' way) to casualty and there are no psychiatric trained staff available; giving her a good telling off achieves very little, although as you say nurses are human and it is often good (for them) to let off a bit of steam. The side effect however is that when you pick them up a couple of weeks later having done the same thing again, they now don't want to go to hospital despite leaving a trail of blood around. The option then becomes either leave them to their own devices with the potential that they may commit further self harm, possibly overdo it and not wake up the following morning which then becomes your 'fault', or go through all of the palaver of trying to get them 'Sectioned' knowing full well that it isn't going to happen but at least it covers one's *rse. The failure is the absence of a functional mental health service.

Perhaps if you could learn to read it may help,"...I have also seen how some NHS staff 'treat' those who have self harmed...". They were less than sympathetic to the girl concerned, basically telling her off for wasting their time.

To use your driving analogy, am I also supposed to express sympathy for a drunk driver or reckless driver who crashes his car? So why am I supposed to sympathise with someone who fails to take his own advice? I am neither responsible for the medical treatment of a drunk or reckless driver, nor the medical treatment of the PM (if he needs any) so the comparison with any refusal to treat is an irrelevance. I have also seen how some NHS staff 'treat' those who have self harmed, it hasn't been edifying.

This from someone who hardly ever posts an anti Labour comment🤣🤣. if you dislike anti-Tory comments, think about what you, yourself are saying.

He fails to abide by his own social distancing advice and I'm supposed to sympathise???

I'm surprised that you 'celebrate' the increased popularity of Macron(https://www.france24.com/en/20200321-france-s-macron-gets-popularity-bump-from-coronavirus-response) or is that not what you meant when you said 'everything is going to plan'? The French appear to have a bit more confidence in him now, at least in comparison to 'pull a sickie' Johnson over here?

It probably has brought out the 'best' in Alexander but bear in mind that the bar for him isn't that high. I just wish that they would come out with some proper leadership instead of crap soundbites, this isn't a fricking election campaign. The Scottish Chief Medical Officer,Catherine Calderwood, has proposed that about 13 weeks is when she would hope Scotland may be able to wind down the lockdown, that sounds both realistic and giving a genuine account of how long we are going to be in this position. The Downing Street 'proposal' is that they are going to '..review lockdown measures after Easter Monday...' (less than two weeks away) what damn planet are they living on!!!! One of the projected dates for the highest number of deaths has been suggested to be April 12th and Downing Street are seriously considering 'reviewing' the lockdown on the following day. It all sounds to me like WW1 Generals kidding the troops that it would all be over by Christmas, only now they replace it with Easter. If they gave a genuine analysis of 13 weeks and managed to create improved conditions before then, grounds for celebration, but to come out with clearly unachievable goals, and repeatedly failing to achieve them does nothing for anyone's morale.

Since posters on here seem to love 'conspiracies' here's one they may like; nothing at all physically wrong with the PM except that things have now got a bit tricky, good time to 'pull a sickie' one might think (since he can't fly off on holiday to Mustique whilst it all blows over). Isn't this what charlatans do?

A lot of of the recent claimants were working before the latest disruption, they don't need some patronizing *rse from DWP to 'show them what work is like'.

If you had watched the recent broadcasts by Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall and Anita Rani you'd see that a lot of it,sadly, goes to landfill anyway. We need to cut down use rather that hope for recycling.

If you are in a bricks and mortar house the local authority are still collecting, you don't need to go to the tip, unless you have probably the only local authority in the country that doesn't pick up recycleables from the street.