Coronavirus

[Historian]

While they did and do fight on land, in the days of sail wasn't their main function to give small arms fire in close ship-to-ship engagements, often from the masts ['fighting tops' - see Wiki below], directed at key officers and men on the enemy ship? Exactly the sort of fire that picked off Nelson?

EDIT Wiki : Fighting top

A fighting top was an enlarged top with swivel guns, designed to fire down at the deck of enemy ships. They could also be manned by sailors or marines armed with muskets or rifles; Horatio Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar by a sniper firing from a fighting top of the Redoutable.

Again, yes quite correct. The French were keener on sharp-shooters. British Marines did help man fighting tops and acted individually on deck. However, they would also line the rail and use volley fire as well as using their muskets and bayonets to repel boarders. Marines also acted as gun-crew on the 'great guns'. You can see them in their roles as both sharpshooters and gun-crew in Turner's 'The Battle of Trafalgar, as seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of HMS Victory'.

[LMcD]

Absolutely appalling performance (and I think that IS the right word) by Matt Hancock on the 'Today' programme just now. He's obviously desperate for us to forgive and forget all the mistakes the government has made so far and their consequences, and equally desperate not to address such issues as PPE and testing.

[oddoneout]

Given the number of times information from the place is quoted, isn't it about time the BBC got the Johns Hopkins University name right? Now that the R3 news is a collective station one I've heard this several times.

[Dave2002]

Absolutely appalling performance (and I think that IS the right word) by Matt Hancock on the 'Today' programme just now. He's obviously desperate for us to forgive and forget all the mistakes the government has made so far and their consequences, and equally desperate not to address such issues as PPE and testing.

Harry Truman had a phrase "The buck stops here". I'm not sure that Matt Hancock is the only one to worry about. Mishal was still going on about "the peak". What part of "9000 people died so far is likely to indicate a total number of deaths considerably over 20,000 when and if this is finally declared over", don't interviewers and others want us to know about. It's not the peak which is the only thing to monitor - it's the area under the rate curve which indicates the total number of deaths. Other things being equal - identically shaped curves - the total number of deaths is proportional to the square of the peak value.

The excuse that the UK is a bigger country than Italy or Spain doesn't hold too well. Iran is bigger, and so is Germany.

Some of the efforts re this pandemic in the UK do seem impressive, ramping up production of equipment, and fortunately noticing that oxygen demand is significantly high, so managing to get enough generated - just. The PPE business is not great, but maybe the best which could have been done, under the circumstances. One does still think that an earlier lock down could have been effective in keeping deaths down, and there was time to implement that, and that the government has been following, rather than leading, events.

Sadly there are other issues, besides CV-19 deaths. Suicides have gone up, and the country could do with help in social and mental issues. The financial and infrastructure issues are also concerns. There was, and still is, a serious balancing act to do between different aspects of our lives.

[Bryn]

Fair enough then Bryn: an evocative memory recalled, thank you. However, although the Wessex Brigade Depot is long-gone, you may be pleased to hear that Wyvern Barracks is still operational.

That's good to know. The memories evoked by the images in that report! When I drove past a couple of years ago I got the impression it had been redeveloped as an up-market housing estate. I must have got my bearing wrong after all these years. Once this Covid-19 episode is over and I next head down to Shaldon, I will divert and take a more careful look.

[MrGongGong]

Absolutely appalling performance (and I think that IS the right word) by Matt Hancock on the 'Today' programme just now. He's obviously desperate for us to forgive and forget all the mistakes the government has made so far and their consequences, and equally desperate not to address such issues as PPE and testing.

I was going to say what I thought about it
but people are easily offended

[Dave2002]

I was going to say what I thought about it
but people are easily offended

Well, you don't always have to introduce your input by words beginning with "F',"C" and "W" - but I for one do appreciate your concerns.

There were a couple of good points raised in the Today programme today. David Blunkett made the point that the other issues besides the immediate health issues will also have to be dealt with, and will need serious attention, and there was an American who pointed out the need for global international, co-operation, and that a go-it-alone approach to vaccine production wasn't going to work well. There was also the "unfortunate" police interview with some people in their front garden. David Blunkett did make the point that such incidents did possibly have a benefit in making many other people more aware.

I hope that both the family concerned in that incident and the police officer can put this behind them. It didn't sound too threatening to me - though we only heard perhaps a fragment of it.

The Today programme does seem to be more useful than the TV briefings. I haven't heard it for some while, but it does seem to address other issues rather well, and be sensibly focused. Perhaps, sadly, the UK population at large is less used to listening to the radio, and when it does it probably doesn't always listen to programmes like that.

[Maclintick]

Absolutely appalling performance (and I think that IS the right word) by Matt Hancock on the 'Today' programme just now. He's obviously desperate for us to forgive and forget all the mistakes the government has made so far and their consequences, and equally desperate not to address such issues as PPE and testing.

I almost felt sorry for Hancock in this shambolic, stumbling and incoherent appearance. Performances such as this and Raab's recent utterances are opening up gaping cracks in Johnson's inexperienced cabinet -- one in which he is ranked 9th in length of ministerial service, incidentally -- all of whom were appointed for narrowly ideological reasons to do with the now unmentionable B-word...

[MrGongGong]

Well, you don't always have to introduce your input by words beginning with "F',"C" and "W" - but I for one do appreciate your concerns.

.

To quote the great Billy

"A lot of people say that it's a lack of vocabulary that makes you swear. Rubbish. I know thousands of words but I still prefer 'f---.'"

[Bryn]

To quote the great Billy

"A lot of people say that it's a lack of vocabulary that makes you swear. Rubbish. I know thousands of words but I still prefer 'f---.'"

In my youth, my father would object to the use of "strong language". Not so much the words used as the term "strong" being applied to them. He opted for "weak". That held until, returning on leave after attending an Army Outward Bound course, I let slip the "f" word. The immediate shock was followed by much easing of vocabulary restrictions at home.

[Old Grumpy]

Not really. However, as this topic has now reached over 1500 posts I don't feel too guilty about a little diversion every now and then.

EDIT:Although if am responsible for derailing this thread (or even just being annoying) then please accept my apologies OG.

No apologies needed, I was just putting a POV in the context of the BBC using the term "military boats", that's all. I have no problems with derailed threads, however serious the initial content. That's part of the fun of these forms, IMV.

OG

[Dave2002]

In my youth, my father would object to the use of "strong language". Not so much the words used as the term "strong" being applied to them. He opted for "weak". That held until, returning on leave after attending an Army Outward Bound course, I let slip the "f" word. The immediate shock was followed by much easing of vocabulary restrictions at home.

Our daughter was very good until she passed 20. We used to have a hanging basket outside our front door - with soil and flowers in it. Some people would "encounter" it at head height, and indeed we had a few knocks. One day said daughter got out of car, "bumped", for want of a better word, into it, and let out a loud "F***". She said that it hurt for a long while. We also had a post lady who had a bicycle sometimes, but we thought that perhaps her hefty helmet was to protect her from that basket. Eventually we took it down.

[cloughie]

Should Jenrick resign as a prominent ‘do as I say not as I do’ practitioner?

[ardcarp]

Whilst still on a vaguely military theme, I received this from an old friend of ours who is Belgian but who lives in Brittany.

The Brittany coast is totally out of bounds even to the locals known as “Riverains.” Yet my nephew in Ostend is allowed to go for a walk on the promenade providing he keeps to the prescribed distance from fellow walkers and does not just sit on park benches. Access to the coast otherwise is out of bounds to all inland visitors. It reminds me of WW2 when we were never allowed near the beach or promenade and needed a special pass to visit relations out in the country.

I would add that our friend spent his childhood in occupied Belgium and has some poignant memories of that awful time. He also sent me a copy of the Attestation de Deplacement Derogatoire form which all French people have to download and sign each time they set foot beyond the door. They do love their paperwork over there! Plus:

Just to show you how the authorities here impose the rules on confinement, anyone caught without it [the form] risks a fine of 270€ + 200€ for a subsequent offense, then 1000€ for late payment of the fine or a prison sentence for disregarding the current measures altogether. Enjoy your partial democratic freedom!

I don't really see the point, since everyone can download them...except for the really elderly who don't know how to do it. They're really stuffed!

[LMcD]

Should Jenrick resign as a prominent ‘do as I say not as I do’ practitioner?

Good question. The New Zealand PM demoted her Health Minister and took away his secondary post, while making it clear that, but for the coronavirus emergency, he would have been sacked. The Scottish Medical Director resigned when it became impossible for her to remain in post. I suspect 'Jenrick's Jaunt' may encourage other 'trips taking medicines to parents' - a claim which might prove difficult to disprove.