Who's responsible for making sure kids don't go hungry? - why their parents of course.

Social services are like motorways - build 'em and they'll be used and impossible to revert.

A single mum with 2 kids was interviewed on TV - she said "my kids never go hungry and it makes me mad to see people using smartphones, driving their cars and watching Netflix and then say they can't afford to feed their kids"

She's right of course, although there are bound to be people that have slipped through the net and are genuinely hard up.

Of course, none of us wants to see kids starving, but we must ask why and address the real problem - parents that put other priorities before feeding their family.

During the pandemic, the very and relatively poor are no worse off because they will be the beneficiaries of Universal Credit anyway. However, if there are genuine cases out there Local Authorities must find them and provide support - making sure there is not a shiny new iPhone being used to make the appointment.

The sale of ARM holdings to an American company should give the government more than concern.

ARM is a genuinely world-class company by any measure and the sale to Japanese Softbank in 2016 was was one of the criminal acts of the decade. Now "in trouble" Softbank want to offload ARM at a modest profit to American Nvidia. Although maybe not the right time, the UK Government should block this sale on the following grounds.

• Britain needs to hold on to its high tech world-leading companies to create the wealth that will be required to pay off debt and secure a future for the next generations.
• ARMs customers are indeed worldwide and currently not subject to any political issues or trade wars.
• American politics can quite easily affect ARMs current markets and specific customers like the Chinese giant Huawei.
• Any promises regarding jobs or investment in the UK are meaningless unless there are legal safeguards.
• ARMs ownership should come back into the hand of British investors with the government taking a large share of the stock - a revenue flow that would help service our national debt.

Michael Hayden the former CIA director under George W Bush first identified Huawei as a threat to US national security over seven years ago.

The very fact that the Chinese would have any kind of control over UK power production or communications is deeply concerning.

China is the number one hacking nation in the world by a long way and the ability to hack and control any of our transmission systems must be taken seriously. 

Why should we be concerned?

In the short term, the concern is about our development of a 5G network. 5G technology is not owned by any one country, company or person but there is an industry consortium 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and minimum standards are set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The applications for 5G 

1. Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB)  providing users with faster connections, higher throughput, and more capacity
2. Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) will use the 5G network for mission-critical applications
3. Massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC) providing reliable communications for robotics and other machines

The manufacturers of 5G equipment could effectively control all of the above with a simple firmware upgrade.
It is essential in the modern interconnected world we (The UK) have control over all methods of communication.

Solution: The procurement of communications equipment should have the same status as armaments.

As usual, the politicians miss the point - the wearing of face-mask may minimal benefits for the un-infected.

However, perhaps the biggest effect is that it sends out a very powerful message.

"HEY PEOPLE, THERE IS A VERY DANGEROUS VIRUS ABOUT"

A message that has not reached the brains of some.

As someone familiar with databases, I have been wondering how deaths have been recorded.

I have always assumed that date and cause of death were on the death certificate and this information is recorded. I also understand that all deaths are recorded by the General Register Office in Southport for England & Wales (similar organisations in Scotland & NI).

What kind of database are these organisations using that cannot be queried for deaths caused by COVID-19 on every date. This excuse that data is not processed at weekends is just hogwash as the date of death is recorded.

Does the Office of National Statistics not have direct access to the General Register Office data?

I have really had little to add to my previous comments in March on the COVID-19 situation.
However, back then I said, "There is a certain foolish element in UK society who don't seem to care or understand they could be the carrier that kills someone else's love one."

Little did I know at that time that the foolish were actually in charge of policy. 

Boris may be a great orator but he is hardly an intelligent man. He could even have been a great leader by surrounding himself with experts, hard workers and people with vision.

Unfortunately, he has surrounded himself with quite a few foolish people.

We don't need fools or toadies in government or foolish advisers.

Dominic Cummins should go and Boris demoted to the backbenches.

We need government by those with the ability to reason and I don't mean those foolishly supporting the dynamical duo.