Off Topic Coronavirus and NOTHING to do with football thread

I know I have written in the past about the huge open air market that takes place on the 29th of each month in a village about three miles away from here. There are stalls selling fruit and vegetables as you would expect to find in a French market, but this one caters for those who wish to order a 24 seater dining table and chairs, replacement parts for a tractor, a headstone for your grave, tiny pieces of lace as underwear, or pedigree puppies, rabbits chickens, ponies, goats, and lamas. I haven't been for almost a year when I wanted some vegetable plants to plant immediately, but in normal years it attracts tourists en masse. Trying to walk between the heaving mass of people where the street narrows is difficult, but that has all changed. No tourists, no money taken, not worth going seems to have been the result from reports. At this time of year numbers going are naturally down, but this year only a fraction of stallholders and customers have been seen. It is all a spiral downwards, and the commune that does rather well from the proceeds might well have to pull its horns in. The bar in the village must be desperate to see people back, and the stalls set up to give you a taster of their chateau wine hoping you will buy some will be stuck with too much stock.

 

Not sure that this is appropriate use of a 'United Kingdom government account' - but it does give an insight into the high-level discussions that take place in Tory cabinet meetings. And I also now know what COBRA stands for:
Custard creams
Or
Bourbons?
Rate
Away....

 

NASA's Perseverence rover has just landed safely on Mars.

Martians say that it wasn't essential travel and have placed it in quarantine for 14 days...

 

I've just snorted wine down my nose...

 

The government that has sort to hide details of contracts awarded to "mates" for the supply of PPE equipment, has lost it's arguments that a law firm and three MPs brought against it. Despite trying to frighten off the Good Law Project that is crowd funded with ridiculous costs of £600,000 for a one day hearing, they went ahead on behalf of all tax payers. Of course all the costs of the hearing will have to be paid by the government, but they will not be asked to pay personally, just take it from the public purse.
https://goodlawproject.org/update/t...dium=social media&utm_campaign=uc win tw 1902

 

Really need to hammer them for this, this cronyism has gone on for far too long. And I mean stripping of peerages and prison.

 

And the repayment of monies in those cases where the PPE paid for was never supplied, or failed to meet the required standard.

 

This is not good news.

More than one in 10 Covid patients died within five months of being discharged from hospital, while almost a third of those who survived the virus had to be readmitted, new research has warned.

Papers released by the governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) also revealed half of patients in hospital with the virus suffered complications, with one in four struggling when they got back home.


Younger patients under the age of 50 were more likely to suffer complications.

The reports presents the first substantial evidence that Covid could be the cause of significant long term ill-health, with the virus attacking the body’s organs and causing diseases of the liver, heart, lungs and kidneys.

 

Not surprised. I knew someone who died in such circumstances. I know someone else who is convalescing but is not expected to be able to return to work ever.

 

Prison for this ilk never seems to be the 20-30+ years that the Yanks dish out willy-nilly. 6 weeks in Ford Open Prison is deemed ample deterrent!

 

As Hancock won't make the decision to resign by himself, a petition has started to encourage him...

http://chng.it/xSDr82Mhwy

 

July 31st seems to be the target date to get everyone over 18 vaccinated.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-5614186

I don’t think everything will be re opened till then tbh but we meet more people outside .

 

Vaccine passports are a no, no we are told. but the government is looking into issuing Covid status certificates. Maybe I am suspicious, but this sounds like the same thing with a different name.

 

The latest BoJo Bright Idea - a roundabout under the Isle of Man... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-a-roundabout-under-the-isle-of-man-cg9523lxp

 

He probably wants to sink it now that the IOM is starting to align with the EU.

Brexit rebellion: Isle of Man goes rogue on fishing - EU ships welcomed in 'petty' move

 

I wonder if the BBC will ever find the spine to ask questions of leading politicians again.

 

The sorry tale just rolls on and on.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56167916

 

Speaking of sorry tales - this article reads like a compendium of Tory corruption since 2014. How they have managed to get away with it is anyone's guess - and I suspect it would take a revolution to stop them.

https://medium.com/****-britain/the-bumper-uk-conservative-government-corruption-thread-26d6e0fcd673

 

Every day I read of people living in France who have bought things via the Internet from the UK, and when the items are about to be delivered find that they are going to be hit with large additions charges before the delivery companies will hand them over. Someone ordered tea bags to the value of £19 and were asked to cough up a further £18 before delivery. They refused to accept them, so the seller had to pay up to have them returned, or destroy them.
I have avoided buying anything from the UK this year, or so I thought. Buying a small low value item from Amazon.fr I checked that the company had a .fr email address. When the order was confirmed I found out that the company was actually in Jersey, which as far as I know is still part of the UK. The delivery date quoted was far longer than normal, so I assumed it would be slowed by all the problems of groupage.
It would seem that Jersey has a direct route into France as my parcel turned up today four days after placing the order, and it had been on a route taking in Paris, and only had a invoice with it, no customs paperwork. So my thought is that The Channel Islands have been annexed by the EU. It would make a lot of sense for islands that are nearer to here than the UK. So quite what is happening I am not sure, but it seems that I can order from the CI if not the UK.

 

No tears please: Weatherspoons: Britain’s Most-Loved, Most-Hated Pub Chain Is Fighting for Its Life. According to Bloomberg it is in serious danger of collapsing.