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.

THERE is a steadily growing groundswell of opinion in this country that refuses to diminish or be silenced. I hope I may claim to have been a pioneer.

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.

"Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" topped USA TODAY's 23rd annual Save Our Shows poll with a record 67% of voters urging NBC to save it.

Here are quarantine-friendly ways to get mom a perfect gift for Mother's Day.

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has long advocated for player freedom in college football. His latest proposal involving NFL draft is his most radical.

Mother's Day will bring Arctic blasts, wintry conditions and records low temperatures for two-thirds of the US. Meanwhile, a heat wave will hit Alaska

A Nashville mom who gave birth to an 'alarmingly small' child celebrates her first Mother's Day with a healthy daughter and waves of gratitude.

The coronavirus outbreak is pummeling LGBTQ Americans, leaving a population already vulnerable to health care and employment discrimination suffering.

Retailers like Kohl's, Wayfair, and more are celebrating Mother's Day 2020 by hosting tons of amazing sales on apparel, tech, home goods and more.

Football Helmet companies will have tight deadlines to recondition, recertify and redistribute helmets needed for youth and high school programs.

The lawyer for William "Roddie" Bryan, the Georgia man who recorded video of two white men shooting Ahmaud Arbery, says his client is not a vigilante.

It's hard right now. ☹️

The play is the theater program's way of countering anti-drug programs that haven't worked — the kind where adults shake fingers at students.

As a fundraiser for Feeding America, the cast of "Parks and Recreation" shot a special episode during the coronavirus pandemic. It will air April 30.

You can see this art in person while you social distance. The Harrison Center will send colorful "smoke" from its historic chimney for the first time.

The Indy 500 is delayed in 2020 due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. But six times, it was outright canceled.

From Bush Stadium to Victory Field

In stark contrast to the Armistice Day in 1918, Indiana celebrations of victory in Europe in World War II were somber and subdued.

PEACE and VICTORY were the headlines as the U.S. defeated Germany.

HI FOLKS, how are you guys doing? This cheery text arrives on my phone several times a week, so now I share it with you. I hope you're all well, coping, and haven't yet reached the end of your tethers.

I CAN'T help feeling that this is all a long-delayed return to normal. I know the lockdown feels abnormal, and I suppose it is, in that we've never seen anything like it before. But beyond that, I have a powerful sense that normal relations have merely been resumed; the age-old see-saw relationship between man and planet re-established.

IN THESE uncertain days of lockdown, I sense a strange inversion of intergenerational strife.

I'VE NEVER seen or heard anything like it. Or rather, NOT heard. I was on the green roof of London: Kite Hill, the highest spot on Hampstead Heath, and summit of my daily permitted exercise routine.

THE RISKS of lockdown are threatening to become greater than the risk of catching the coronavirus.The blunt instrument of social and economic shutdown may soon begin to bludgeon more people to death than the microscopic bug it is meant to protect us from.

I FEAR that holding Downing Street media briefings about the virus every single afternoon is now totally counterproductive.

SIX WEEKS into lockdown and every day brings fresh headlines and behaviour you simply couldn't and wouldn't have predicted when you went to bed the night before.

I'VE BEEN feeling increasingly uncomfortable watching the nightly news on television. We both have. Bulletins - particularly those on the BBC - are increasingly more like a newspaper's obituary page.

WE'RE living in strange times all right. But the weird world of Covid isolation took on a dreamlike quality for me and Richard the week before last. That was when we filmed our week-long series about lockdown reading for Channel 4, five shows which were broadcast this week from our living room.

PROFESSOR Neil "do as I say, not as I do" Ferguson has had a bad week, which he brought entirely on himself.

High school sports results for May 5, 2015.

Includes baseball, softball, boys golf, boys lacrosse, girls tennis and boys volleyball

High School Results, May 7

Carmel is spending too much taxpayer money building expensive roundabouts when simpler ones would be enough, a letter to the editor says.

We have not kept up, and we are losing a generation of teachers.

The governor expects teachers to wait until the 2021 budget before he does anything significant, a letter to the editor says.