Both major parties complain about the BBC. They always have and they always will. On the one hand, they both demand impartiality - which means criticism where it is justified - and then complain bitterly when they are criticised.

For decades, even centuries, we British have prided ourselves on being the free-est people in the world, subject only to the laws passed by our democratically elected parliament. But can we really go on preaching what has now become a canard?

IN A long lifetime I have never seen our old country in such a comprehensive mess. Health issues apart, our entire economy is being systematically dismantled. The damage being done will take a minimum 10 years to repair and parts of it will never return.

THE GREAT majority of us like it when the things we are being told actually make sense. I certainly do. So when the scary bulletins and instructions pouring out of government do not do that, I experience "red light" syndrome.

AMONG the many foolish vanities to which Mankind subscribes is the belief he can foretell the future. He has been trying since time immemorial. First there were chicken entrails, then animal bones, progressing to the stars, palms, crystal balls, tarot cards and tea leaves. All methods were consistent to 90 per cent - they were all bunkum and remain so. Now overtaking them all is the pseudo-scientist/boffin.

THERE is a fact of life that permits no rebuttal.

THERE seems to be a growing mood in public and media to the effect that lockdown has now gone on too long and is probably doing more harm than good. I wholly agree.

O TEMPORA! O mores! One of the most senior figures in the Civil Service, Sir Philip Rutnam, calls a press conference to denounce his Minister, in this case the Home Secretary herself. How times have changed from when civil servants were anonymous and Ministers took the flak when things went wrong.

IT IS TIME that political interference with the police and the CPS ceased. One might have thought that after the ludicrous Operation Midland , the lesson had been learned.

I have been grateful for the restrained response of this government towards the coronavirus outbreak but the new proposal to lock down every single person over the age of 70 for three months, regardless of health and strength, seems woefully lacking in logic.

THIS is a story of two businesses and of two very different approaches to our current exigencies.The first concerns my local laundry CleanCall, which devised a means to keep going and contributing to the economy.

SO, BORIS, where is your land of liberty now? Where is proportionality and reason?

I'M QUITE enjoying this lockdown but I know just how blessed I am. I actively like solitude. I have the moors on my doorstep, a large garden, a job which I can do from home, a dependable pension, good health and a keyworker neighbour who can drop off fresh milk, bread and veg.

OH, FOR pity's sake! Death is stalking the country, the NHS is over-run, the economy is crashing on a seismic scale but Ofcom is pontificating about broadcaster Piers Morgan's mimicry of a Chinese accent calling it "offensive and racist". Get a life, dears!

BACK ON Wednesday, March 18, I wrote that as the overwhelming majority of people who were dying were reported as having underlying health conditions it would make sense to lock down anybody with such a condition and let the rest of us get on with keeping the economy and the volunteer effort going.

BY AND large I resist the temptation to roar at my TV screen but a few days ago, I did just that, when the tearful sister of twins who had died from the virus commented that she could not even be with her parents. Why the hell not? I shouted, feeling close to tears myself.

AT LAST there appears to be some momentum gathering behind what I have been saying for weeks: that it is wrong to lock down people on the grounds of age alone.

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