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A friend of mine has been taken into hospital with covid19 and put on one of those Dyson respirators, just phoned to see how he is and apparently he is picking up nicely!

I ordered a Chinese meal last night. Chinese driver came to our door and I walked out to meet him. He started shouting "isolate" "isolate" I said you’re not that late, I only ordered 25 minutes ago!

I managed to get out when the virus first broke, bought 1,500 rolls of bog paper and 150 bottles of hand sanitiser, thought I would be ok but my sister is coming to stay as she lives in a post office with her daughter’s family and it’s not a good environment for protecting her from infection, so I went out today to get some more bog roll and the shelves are empty, bloody idiot hoarders and panic buyers.

Last night the wife was wearing a sexy black Negligee for bed - I could see right through to the Cardigan!!

Wow! that's a major swerve/U-turn, Corbyn was your new 'messiah' a few months back. Talk about fickle! Anyway on to more serious things. Paul, in your self appointed role as the chief spokesperson for the Tories Are Wrong All The Time, (TAWATT for short) party, could you please enlighten the nation, (or at least the half dozen or so on here), by sharing a little of your vast wealth of knowledge. What would you advise the Government to do in the future, to fight this pandemic? Your expertise in epidemiology, ably supported by your 'experts' in the media would be of great value in this fight, and could bring some much needed solace, and reassurance to the people. Thanking you in advance, I await a reply with bated breath. John.

A suggestion Paul. Why don’t you write all this stuff down, and present it to your mp, or your favourite media source, when “this is all over”. That will ensure that there are “questions to answer”, and it will spare the rest of us having to endure your constant drivel, telling us what we already know! John

you pair should get married!

Watch to the end John

Was in the post office yesterday and there was a terrible panic when three blokes came in through the door wearing masks. Then one of them said "This is a robbery" and we all calmed down a bit.

I must have written at least a half dozen replies to comments on this thread, and then deleted them HV. This time I couldn't help it. To try and score some petty political points on the backs of the sick and dying, is as low an anyone can stoop, and I couldn't let it go. Every evening, as well as the horrific news reports, we get a facetime call from my daughter checking that we are ok. It breaks our hearts to see and hear the stress, danger and even abuse that her and her colleagues are subjected to every day, and they still keep smiling for the sake of their patients. We can't even give her a comforting hug because she insists on keeping her distance for fear of infecting us. I can't really put into words my thoughts on those that belittle the efforts of those who are trying to help us through this time, just to try and prove some pathetic point they obsess about in their sick and twisted, narrow little minds. Well I could put it into words, but it would probably, and rightly, result in my being banned from the forum. John.

In their eyes if they are given the power to decide it can show it has power by not doing what others want! English heritage has such power so they close the bridge in the village for repairs for far longer than necessary just because they can! Give worthless bits of skin power and they WILL use it

I'm not doing too bad myself John, apart from losing track of what day it is and twiddling my thumbs trying to think of something to keep me amused. I spoke to my doctor last monday on the phone as they have shut the surgery in Lichfield and they are doing phone appointments instead. I had a good chinwag with him as we are friends as well as him being my doctor. I have to see him every 4 weeks and have done for the best part of 25yrs, so we know each other well. He always tells me i'm his favourite patient as I always cheer him up, basically I wind him up and make him laugh. He's 84 and sounded rough on the phone and told me he has coronavirus, silly sod should be in hostpital not still working! Anyway he told me two of his patients had died that weekend of the virus and when I asked him what the situation was around Lichfield his exact words were "it's rife". I had to drive down there to pick my meds up as the pharmacy is in the surgery. I don't mind admitting I was petrified going in there knowing that the virus is in the building, eek! On a lighter note the tiny village I live in is all pulling together. It is tiny, you could walk from one end of the village to the other in less than 5 minutes, so most people here know one another to say hello. We don't have a shop in the village but we do have a pub They've closed up but are still doing meals and delivering them in the village, they are even delivering pints of draught ale and only charging £2, yippee! The nearest supermarket is just over 5 miles away and myself and a few others from the village have made it known that if any of the older folk need anything but are too worried about leaving their homes then we can fetch things for them, just a case of passing around a few phone numbers and it takes a little worry out of their lives.

Everyone fine in our house thanks. Its sunny so the sitting room carpet was washed with the vax to get rid of the grandkids odd crayon or pencil calamity and my unfortunate dragging in bits of vapourised car tire my son cleverly cut up with my disk cutter (some short cut making plant pots dont ask!) Hopefully after its over people will have little stock piles of items nicely rotated for the next one but i wont hold my breath! Once parliament start up again it will be the usual opposition slagging off the government for its failure never having to answer how they would of done it or indeed why was the system not changed to the better when they had the reigns so it didnt happen now .when things dont change they stay the same ,i dont expect change historically governments have reactions rather than proctions !buying stockpiles waiting for things that may never happen is quite sensible only if they do happen and the opposition quick to point out the 'waste' of tax payers money the years until it does happen! They cannot win whatever they do ,you cannot please everyone all of the time as the saying goes. The ministries will still exist in victorian england ,the buyers will buy things because the seller says they work (like certain metal detectors ) and because they go unpunished will cheerily do so ,its not their money after all. Hopefully everyone on here continues to be here in the near future ,cod will be cod, cory happily cavilling ,ken being ken and me being marmite . Long live AN and Elton and his family get well and continue to let us play ,amuse ,chat ,argue and contradict as we always have ,some things shouldnt change lol Nothing to moan about ,our pills and potions finally arrived ,i ordered all our repeat prescription a week early on the 22nd february ,they were rejected ,i said the app we use will crash both on the app and on the phone to the doc enquiring where it was because people will panic blah blah blah they said everything will be fine ,it did crash ,it still is so i cercumvented it going direct to the chemist who supplies it who did it direct but it was still late ,luckily we order when theres 2 weeks left so it arrived in the nick of time! Will the doctors go back to the old system that worked ,not a chance someone said this one will work it doesnt but no-one learns no-ones punished ,the british disease is alive and wel!l hopefully every one else will be! PS you cant remove politics its all around us ,it caused the problem hopefully it will eventually cure it

ALL - Someone notify an administrator Phone

I really thought this was "WOW" so thought i'd share. "Heavenly happenings at Charing Cross Hospital London tonight as a choir sings out and can be heard in the surrounding streets."

I’m so sorry to hear this Elton, here’s hoping mrs Elton has a speedy recovery, and your family can get back to some kind of normality. It must be hard with a two year old, they don’t understand what’s going on. My grandson who was 5 last week, and is, ( according to him), “grandads best mate”, can’t understand why I cant visit. When we FaceTime, he will often turn his back and not speak to me like he’s fallen out with me. It’s bloody hard, and probably the worst thing about this self isolating. Stay safe everyone John

Richard Horton is the same as every other wannabe politician and second or third rate ‘celebrity’ who is going to claim this and claim that, rather like the guy who shouts at the ref at a football match, they always know better and are obviously experts. In this case Horton needs to get his memory checked because the government wasting precious time during the onset of the virus, as he puts it, was because people like him were saying things like this and the Government followed the advice of the scientific community. Despite claiming this is not a political issue, your common or garden mouth piece will always make it so Ant at the same time agreeing that it is not political he will continue to post crap that supports his view. let’s just hope people will pull together and we come out from this without too much loss of our nearest and dearest. As for the ravings of a loathsome individual, well, there is a block feature on here, the site becomes readable and enjoyable again if you use it and leave the ramblings well behind a curtain.

I only wish I had a large pond in my garden with some Tench in it like the lucky blighter who lives up the road from me does. This weekend (Fri to Mon) the wife and I were booked into a Warner’s hotel near Hereford which has its own fishing lake (see pic below) but of course we’ve had to postpone our stay now till after the Conovirus lockdown. The fishing is good too, as well as the entertainment and food. At least when we do eventually get to take our break the river season might also be open so we might get to wet a line in the river Wye and catch a couple of Barbel and Chub. Hope everyone stays healthy and manages to avoid the Conovirus epidemic. Keith

My other half texted me the other night, as she was stopping at Tesco and wanted to know what we actually needed. "Just the essentials, love." She came home with two punnets of grapes, some firelighters and a box of hair dye!

Blimey, you can catch it anally now! Obviously the soap didnt work

Try again Dave & All. Was the same for us (3 weeks wait) But Yesterday slots appeared again with Morrison's!! Our shopping arrived this Teatime. May have put more drivers/pickers on???

Ant, My bad as well. I am now a product of being housbound for 5 days with the prospect of another couple weeks minimum. While I am indeed a "snowflake" under the proper circumstance I favoUr the death penalty. This virus thing is horrible Phone

My apologies Phone old chap. I should take that back as it was aimed more at a certain type of extreme left, the type we have in the UK that would bend over backwards to defend and excuse such lowlife. I myself would describe a lot of my own views and ideals as being leaning towards the left. My bad for my previous post on the subject.

What the hell are you on about Paul? You brought the subject of the corona virus onto this thread, with your link to the Scottish fishermen losing their exports. The only reason I bothered to reply was because you tried score some pathetic points and blame it on Brexit, as usual. To my shame and regret, I got suckered in again. I think that the government is making the best of trying to control what is, (and you at least acknowledged), an unprecedented situation. Johnson is using his ministers, and advisers, to try and judge when to bring in measures to try and slow the spread of this virus, and also gauge how severe those measures should be. Their biggest mistake has been to treat the whole population as responsible adults, instead of the mindless, selfish, morons that a significant proportion obviously are. They are trying to create the thing I've wasted so much time in trying, and failing, to get you to understand, a balance. I have to laugh at you, when the other day you were sarcastically complaining about how much money the Government managed to find to help the population through this crisis. Now you're complaining that they aren't spending enough, or it's not coming through fast enough! Sadiq Khan himself explained the other day that the plans to pay the self employed were there, but needed refining before they could be implemented. Of course they haven't covered every contingency in one go. There are always going to be groups that regard themselves as 'special' cases, and shout 'what about us'? They are getting sorted as they come to the surface, but everyone is going to suffer to some extent, sadly, some more than others. I would not like to be in the shoes of those in Government at a time like this, it's a no win situation especially when there are such as yourself, that gleefully trawl the media looking for things to crib about. We can all be geniuses with hindsight, and make the 'right' decisions after the event. Well most of us can. John. PS, I stopped listening to James O'Brian along time ago, IMO the mans an ****.

Big COD, The topic of this thread is Should we have left the EU? Left is used as the past tense and past participle. It is the VERB TRANSITIVE and VERB INTRANSITIVE - LEAVE If you leave a place or person, you go away from that place or person. (transitive) If you leave you permanently stop being a member of that group (intransitive) THE WORD "LEFT" means you have DEPARTED FROM -- - - - - - you're gone - Having knowledge is one thing but being able to communicate it to others is another kettle of fish Phone

We had a discussion on that other thread after Hammond proposed increasing NI contributions for the self employed, didn’t go down well with certain members, what was it Hammond was nicknamed? Rob the builder! I wonder how many wish they had gone along with a sensible proposal after it was explained that it was not simply a ‘bloody Tory tax on the poor’ but would enable self employed to access sick pay and holiday pay amongst other things. But still the bile is spat out, in this case you’d best swallow it back, the bile is of your own making.

Well i've joined the hoards and started stockpiling. I was in Tesco and wanted to fit in, got confused and panicked. I still don't have any loo roll or hand wash, but I have 6 new ironing boards, 24 packets of plastic clothes pegs and a ton of Brillo pads if anyone is short.

Yes you have the greatest impact on your mortality ,if you try to avoid things that will kill you younger you will live longer. There is no god to help you and no god that can smite you . You yourself have the greatest influence along with a great deal of luck! I fear death ,i wont go to the light ,i will resist as long as i can jumping as many hurdles to prolong it as i can until i change my mind if i am bedridden or in vast pain THEN i may welcome it! With death comes the reality life was wasted ,you may have fun and do many things in life but it means nothing as you rot in the ground ,we have longer lives than the pointless short lives of dogs but they are still pointless in the grand scheme of things I did my small part i passed on my genes so my children can have pointless lives and do the same to theirs My whole life has been reaction to circumstances i never do life changing things because i want to if circumstances dont change nor will i ,i have no problem with that ,let others travel ,have fun and have notable lives i am happy with what i have and being given life even pointless i will hold on to it as long as i can its the only decent thing i can do to myself (or not) If you get reborn as who you were perhaps i will change but i bet i have had a pointless life for many reincarnations i think i am genetically to lazy to alter what is me ,you spend a lifetime building up experience then death takes it from you what the point of it?

A W.H.O. spokesperson when asked to explain this global shortage quoted an article in The Clod National Diatribe that showed the bloody Tory party were responsible for everything, adding “despite the fact that the Labour Party introduced Student Fees and abolished the grant system which had paid for all of their degrees in Law etc it was still the fault of the bloody Tory party.”

Talk about confirmation bias ,if a newspaper said aliens landed because of brexit you would believe it lol

I agree with both cameraman and phone, it can be fantastic, but would advise a degree of caution. I would talk it over with your wife, check your finances, and how much early retirement would impact your final pension. I don't think you drive, so check where you can get to a water either on foot, public transport, or have a fishing friend you could travel with. I didn't have transport, having had the use of a company vehicle for so long. I bought a car to enable me to go fishing, and carry my grandson, (who was born a month after my retirement), to the many hospital visits he needed in his first couple of years. Without my grandson, or the car, I think I would have stagnated at home, but they got me moving, and gave me something to focus on. My wife is one of the 'waspies' that got stung over her retirement age, and is still working. I run her to work and back each day, but she has the option to retire this year, and is undecided whether to go part time, or retire completely. It's partially the money, but unlike me, she loves her work, and the social life with her workmates. That's another thing that I would consider, whether you would prefer to take a small part time job, to ease you into retirement, it's worked for a few people I know. We are all different, and have different needs, and lifestyles. I, for instance, have always been a bit of a loner, with just a few people that I would call friends, and I was mostly fine with my own company. Over the years, I have lost contact with many people, especially angling friends who chose a different 'commercial' path to me. I now find that I sometimes miss having them around, it's probably an age thing. I might sound all 'doom and gloom', but I've known many people over the years, who have longed for retirement, but found that the idea, and the reality, don't always match. They have found themselves 'lost', and have fallen into depression. Some have eventually found something to focus on, be it part time work, a hobby, and in the case of a widower neighbour, a new lady friend. Other have not been so lucky, and have deteriorated both physically, and mentally, into a 'different' person. I hope it doesn't sound like a 'trying to teach my grandma to suck eggs' thing, I genuinely believe it's not always an easy thing to adapt to. Whatever you decide Martin, I hope it works out well for you, and your missus. John.

Mr Bush Civilian control of the military how naive! Civilians only control one thing the box they tick when voting ,then they are in the hands of those that get elected. After that they control little but when to breath in and out. As to the military they are not voted in so cannot be voted out ,if you riot its the military that will be shooting you like 1969 and 1970 i class the police as military they just kill in the home country whilst the army are free to roam worldwide. We do the same we are not innocent of killing the masses in northern ireland ,the police and army had a fine time! strange we had no control over it ,i saw no box to tick saying stop shooting innocent people Cods point the elderly being expendable its probably the right choice if there is a decision between someone with little chance of surviving and someone with more, being elderly myself i try to avoid being part of that decision by doing all i can not to get involved! Didnt the young sacrifice themselves in the war to save the old? The government pretty well ordered the young to do it ,few complained

He smells of fish ,i dont need two! Lol

Its a review about a bedsheet

Good God this is hard work, you say I defend or deny Military Cuts, to prove this you call me a liar and post a link to a fricking newspaper that is nothing to do with me. READ THE QUOTE, I got it from a children’s site as I thought keeping to key stage 2 levels might be better, if and when your Son obtains the Queen’s Warrant he will be addressed as Sir, to his face anyway, by junior ratings, he will NOT BE an ‘Officer’ as defined by just about every armed force in the World. You are becoming more confused each time you post, again, I do not deny cuts to our armed forces, it has been going on for decades and is not attributable to any party or government.

Paul, I have no problem with the truth. I defend your right to have your own version of it. But you are like a dripping tap, on and on and on, just repeating yourself. Anyone with even half a brain can see that not everything is the fault of brexit, you apparently can’t see it. You fit in well with your hero Corbyn, all I’ve heard from him are attempts at cheap point scoring. Ffs, there are people dying from something that is unprecedented in modern times, and all you can do is nit pick over bloody brexit. Grow up, and open your biased, closed mind to the real problems facing the world. That’s the REAL world, not the twisted personal one you seem happy to wallow in. Every post of yours should carry a health warning, and a link to the Samaritans. John

Thanks Martin, will do. If not my daughter, then certainly one of the team. They are a great bunch, and I've had plenty of calls pleading for a lift when they've been stuck after a night out. Because many of them were only in there early twenties when they first moved to Leeds, we've always been there if needed, and are called 'adopted second parents' by some. My brother was diagnosed with prostate cancer about 6 or so years ago, and was treated there. Obviously my daughter wasn't allowed to treat him, but he said that the team told him that they had been warned to take special care, because they'd have to answer to Helen if they didn't , he couldn't praise them enough. It saddens, and sickens me to see and hear what they, and the rest of the NHS staff are having to endure at the moment, often with little, or no appreciation from some that they treat. A simple thank you, can so often make a difference. John.

I panic buyed over many months lol Most is down to living a mile from the nearest bus stop ,you cannot just pop to the shop if you run out of anything ! Saying that we now have a village shop but your pension wont go far shopping there! With the bridge closed for a year they have not been buying new stock as the passing trade has gone ,i dont think they will last until it opens Our biggest problem is we have something in one of our sheds that knaws boxes with food in but can eat the bait in two different electronic mouse killers and remove the bait from old fashioned mouse traps without seeting them off.one of the traps has 3 electric plates so it must be wearing tiny rubber boots!

Chesters1, I was reading into the wee hours. Not an uncommon occurrence now days but I am a dedicated napper. Phone

Not been out for 3 weeks (as in shopping in town) been trying to get solpadeine max online to no avail (about the only thing i can take) even my daughter cannot get it and she works in a chemist! Apart from that can last for months its a great excuse to use up the freezer contents! i think when things are back to normal i may rethink repackaging the new stock as the original packaging allows the contents to get freezer burn ,a vacuumed sealed bag would be better! Made a nice loaf out of cotswold crunch today very nice! just wish i had stockpiled butter! Plenty of frozen marge but its not the same

Sorry, i'm going to hell, I know. I had a splurting coffee over my monitor moment.

Tigger, You need thumped on the noggin. LL Bean $300 Phone

Yup, that's the one Ian. The fish we used to catch in the Leeds Liverpool canal when I was a kid, were nearly all afflicted with this parasite, and in severe cases, they were blinded. Some were blind in one eye, some in both, and other than the blindness they looked healthy enough. It used to fascinate us how a completely blind roach, could still find our baits, but they did. The canal was almost over run with snails. If you picked something from the canal bed, it always had several snails on it. Leave a keepnet, or landing net in the water for a while, and you would find several attached when you lifted it out. The water also had a lot of gulls patrolling the lengths, so had all three of the requirements to complete the life cycle of the worm. When I've fished it in recent years, I've found that the snails are not there in such numbers, and the black spot is seen on fewer fish. There are also some waters I know, where there are loads of snails, but few fish with that with black spot. I don't know if there is a specific snail that is prone to carrying the parasite, or it's the water quality that curbs it's numbers, but there seems to be fewer waters that have are as affected as the canal used to be. John.

Everything Mr Phone says is true. Absolutely. Except I wasn't on 6 figures unless you included the pennies.

Due to the rivers round my neck of the woods being in flood for a some time now and not fit for float fishing, today was my first time out trotting for a spell. I only set off to the river at 2pm as it was a spare of the minuite decision. Whilst the sun was out it didn't feel so cold, but as soon as it went behind clouds and started to set the wind made the temp of 6.5 degrees feel like minus 10! Anyhow I did manage five chub and lost two to hook pulls as I played them upstream in a powerful flow. Here's four I caught in one swim...