“Fine words butter no parsnips,” as the saying goes.  Yet all we hear from  the government is words,  and many of them are far from fine.   It is no good telling us that a deficit in the testing regime will be sorted out (100,000 a day) by month end – 12 days as I write – when right now there is a shortage of protective equipment that means NHS staff are faced with a the dire choice of attending to their patients or themselves.

A couple of weeks ago, on 2 April,  I started entering daily figures for the virus for a number of countries into a spreadsheet.   At that time:  Italy had reported 13,915 deaths from 115,242 cases; whilst Spain had 10,348 and 112,065 respectively.  Yesterday figures for the UK were 14,576 and 108,692.  It seems more reported cases result in death in the UK than in either Italy or Spain.    Draw your own conclusions.  Or, as Pee-pee Patel might say “if you feel that is bad,” just wait and see what’s coming at you next…

…. and, as I have run out of time today, I am afraid dear Readers,  you will have to wait until tomorrow for that