PaulT

Norman, very interesting articles - let's hope that there is a far reaching enquiry into the UK governments sheer incompetence.....but no doubt it wil be a private enquiry and placed on the same shelf as the Russia enquiry.

A couple of things: I wonder if this will increase online shopping long-term. Someone who has never bought online decides that they will wait and go to the shops when they open after lockdown. But lockdown has been extended so they order for the first time online. They find what they want, order it and it is delivered next day. Will they use online ordering again? Before retirement I worked for the NHS, so this applies to the UK, and was responsible for making annual returns onbehalf of the trust that I worked for. One section of returns posed the questions such as what plans are in place for: a failure of water supply a failure of gas supply a failure of the electricity supply etc and the actions to be taken listed....... I wonder if the government (whichever flavour is in power) has the same plans in place that it requires organisations answerable to it to have. If there is one for a pandemic it would make interesting reading, especially regarding obtaining supplies early on.

My wife and I made both English and French wills about 11 years ago - after my SIL dies and her husband discovered that without a will it does not all go to the spouse. The Law has changed and as a little PS an English will can also cover how French assets are disributed. If I remember correctly, an English solicitor charged about £190 for mirror wills for both of us. The French notaire about 100 euros. He wrote the will and we then had to go away, write them by hand and then return the to him so that he could register them. So, by our experience, a notaires fees are far lower than a UK solicitor. There is an official site for notaires and has information on the languages spoken by each notaire. You can choose one who speaks English who can then provide you with advice as well as acting in the sale. Do get correct legal advice. As your message indicates that your father is still alive he still has the ability to change his will if a notaire says that the existing one is not legal. Just to give a little indication of how things can differ, we wanted to leave money to a couple of animal charities. The notaire said 'I do not thing this one can accept a bequest, just a minute I will phone them'. And so it proved.

I go two or three times a week to the local Spar shop to buy bread and milk and go at about 07:15 when there is normally just myself or one other person. Last Friday, Good Friday, was different, a queue to get in to the shop - the only time before or since. As I live on the Lincolnshire Coast then I can only conclude that they must have been visiting their holiday caravans or houses or renting them. To my mind the police had been ineffective last weekend and should have turned away the holiday makers. At present, London is the hot bed of infection. There could easily have been holidaymakers from London who then have the ability to infect those in my locality. Those abiding by the 'rules' have nothing to fear. If the police are not taking action then they are being complicit in spreading the virus.

I think online shopping will continue to rise whether Covid-19 had or had not happened. SCENARIO 1 So you drive in to a town, go in to a shop and say 'I want....'. 'Oh, I have not got one of those, I can get one in a few days'. So you order it and a couple of days later you go back in to town to collect it. SCENARIO 2 You sit in doors, go on the Internet, find what you want, check prices of various suppliers, order it and next day a courier rings the door bell and delivers it. There will need to be a far reaching inquest. Do not know what the situation is in France but in the UK there is a lack of PPE and healthcare workers dying. Just read about one trust with 24 hous supply of gowns. Barbour and Burberry will gear up to make gowns. However, it seems it will take a couple of weeks to get the approval from the authorities that they comply and then they can start producing. A COUPLE OF WEEKS!!! The trust that is desperate for gowns has offered to indemnify the manufacturer for any claims but no they will not produce until they are approved - dare say with the bloodymindedness of bureaucracy that if the company did they would be struck off of a supplier list. Similarly, approval or rejection of proposed ventilators have taken weeks not days. Friends who were ex-military have told me about form FU1C - the last three characters standing for .... you I'm Covered'. Like her or loathe her my thoughts are 'how would Maggie have handled this'. Once she was convinced by the military to send a taskforce to the Falklands if I remember rightly GO was on a Friday and it sailed on the Monday......with this shower, they would still have been completing the paperwork from 1982 so it could sail.

As per the title. It seems a very strange situation in UK care homes. Now, I am sure that if a resident broke a leg they would be taken to hospital. However, if a resident has Covid-19 they stay in the care home until they die. The NHS puts out releases that it has spare capacity in intensive care and that some of the Nightingale ward units are not being used or have very few patients. Why aren't at the very least, those residents who are seriously ill with the virus being taken to hospital to use some of that spare capacity to put on the 'spare' ventilators to try and save them? Seems if the person is in a care home with Covid-19 the relatives need to call the undertaker because the NHS will not get involved.....no doubt due to a decision taken by the government.

Just had an email from a friend saying that France24 and Aljazeera are reporting that ebola is active again in Africa...plus the lttle matter of a fire making its way to Chernobyl.

I am, in this instance referring to Joe Biden and Bernie Saunders, in trying to become President of the USA. Joe Biden is 77 and Bernie Saunders 78 so not exactly in the first flush of youth and both are very wealthy. Surely, they could do something more pleasurable with their time than take on the responsibility for a nation.

Shades of HG Wells War of the Worlds except that the aliens did not come from Mars but from Earth. Perhaps, this was the ideal time for mankind to do nothing and only those that could survive the virus left to carry on. But human nature being what it is there would have been a fight to be king - or based on another thread that has a bit of 'man bashing in it :) - queen. Changes the story from Man destroying mankind in a nuclear battle to one of a microscopic agent causing the world to go in to lockdown as it battles to find a vaccine to counteract it......when will the next strike or a mutant version of Covid-19 that is immune to the vaccine and the one after that?

The performance by the UK government is so dire can you believe anything they say?

Perhaps, in the absence of wars that involve a large number of the population of the Earth and the resultant deaths reducing the population then to reduce the ever expanding population then viruses are a necessity. We also live in a too sterile world such that we do not build up resistances and are therefore prone to being affected by viruses etc.

We had never watched Last Tango in Halifax. However, the trailers for the last season looked as though they might be entertaining. So right near the end of the last season we thought we would watch it. Not having recorded it we went on to the BBC iplayer and found that there was also the previous 4 seasons there. So the thought was 'better start at the beginning'. Although there were so many plot lines we found it essential viewing and in a few days had viewed them all and then had to wait a couple of days for the last episode to be shown on the TV.

I suppose it is a good job that there is no hospital visiting at the moment - if all his children went to see him the hospital would be packed.

He certainly seemed very ill in the video on Friday. Would not wish it on anyone. Listening to a political correspondent yesterday and he praised Boris for being very ready to delegate.

Of course they have to carry on with their services.....how else would these preachers get their millions.

On the BBC News there is a 2 minute video of JCs achievements. I have not watched because it must be very padded out. Which ever party you support it needs a strong party in opposition. The extreme left must be very proud of their party getting the fewest seats since 1935.

Plan was to travel down to France in March and swap some furniture over between UK and France. January purchased a trailer, with the idea that once back from France it would be sold, and did some work on it so that the furniture could be safely transported. Also emailed friends to tell them that we would be bringing down a trailer did they want anything brought down. So in the garage there is 100 litres of emulsion paint, weed killer and bitumastic paint. In the study are plastic boxes filled with Shreddies, tea bags, jars of lime pickle, jars of mango chutney, baking ingredients etc etc. So each time I see the trailer and the heap of boxes it makes we wonder when we will get to France, when will I be able to get rid of the trailer, when will the study be empty and will I have to eat the glace cherries before they go out of date. All seems a little unreal.

The article states why it is a very worrying virus and efficient it is.

Lockdown must be a very difficult decision for the politicians to make. After all, it is going to wreck the economy. In the UK not really helped by Corbyn trying to score points by claiming that the problems with the virus is under funding of the NHS by the Conservatives! Looked up Spanish Flu and Swine Flu on Wiki and interesting how the population has increased so more contacts. In addition, I once put to a senior infection control nurse that a big problem is that we live in a far more sterile world so our systems are losing the ability to fight diseases. She agreed.

Lehaut, sorry you have got it the wrong way round, he chose God.

Does the ever helpful ALBF have insight in to Chancers business or is he basing his failure of Chancers business on the fact that Chancer no longer posts (well, extremely rarely) here? If this is the house that ticks all the boxes and is to be your final abode then go for it. Does not matter to you if it loses value...just those you leave it to. It does seem that gites can be a little precarious but you could always let on a long term basis. You will not get as much per week as letting to the holiday market but you will have extremely good occupancy rate whereas you may not on the holiday market. As others have posted to counter ALBFs mis-information service you do not need to be there. Perhaps, use a different notaire to the seller (no additional cost) and make sure that the roof replacement is legally tied up as a cost to the seller). As a final thought you may be able to negotiate a lower price with the current situation.

In an article on BBC News they stated that a lot of people get their lunch and snacks at work. If they are not working and / or reduction in number of places to buy lunch etc then they will be buying this from supermarkets and therefore increasing the amount bought.

In the UK they have said that if you think you have just mild symptoms do not contact NHS on 111 and self-isolate. All very good but it does mean that the actual number of cases is being under reported. Begs the question if it is intentional to understate the figures?

There we are next time you go to the supermarket and it is crowded cough a few times and groan and pant a little to get the supermarket to yourself.

Here we are Mint - sorry do not know how to make it a live link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohDB5gbtaEQ As for the comment about Bonzo also having to deal with Brexit well that is of his own doing and just to get up Cameroons nose who was for remain. Still, it could be worse and have Trump in charge. Shame the experts informing the Govt got it wrong and had to change tack. The ones I feel sorry for are the bookmakers. One is expecting to lose in excess of £100M because of the coronavirus.....but they could start taking bets on how many will die each day, that should help alleviate their hardship. Seems such a shame that Labour cannot say 'you are doing a good job ib the circumstances' instead of McDonnel saying 'we would have paid 90% of wages'. And yes, if comrade Corbyn had been in power....no, no, the left wing unions then their members would have also got a pay rise. It will only be after all of this is over that it will be known if the right decisions were taken but far better to make decisions than not to. I did read that experts are saying this could come back next winter....if this is over by then. It would seem though that there is co-operation between the parties as the media was reporting that measures would not require a vote because of this. Perhaps, the only other thing the Govt could do would be to require all bog rolls to be sent to Royal Mail and the postmen/women would deliver one each day to each household :) Is the UK going to follow France is having to go out with a piece of paper. Did also hear that in Belgium being out without sufficient reason renders you liable to a 4000 euro fine and / or 3 months in prison!