THE BIG RETORT

Photo: Mark Harrison The United Kingdom is in tight lockdown. However, whilst the nation inches towards struggle street, are the Queen's ministers secretly being 'groomed' in the sacred salons of Westminster' ?    TheBigRetort... F ollowing  the Covid-19 pandemic,  Prime Minister  Boris Johnson advised against all “non-essential” travel.  The pub, the clubs, and even - God forbid - the hairdresser came under BoJo's it's a no-no 'thingy me bob'.  A week later the whole country was ordered into a lockdown described as  so ‘hair' tight it  even covered hairdressers.    It seemed to many that hairdressers should not have been placed out of bounds. If the country were to die from a thousand cuts  economically...  this was a cut too deep.  Yes there was anger. Confusion even... W hy were some among the flock allowed to work and others not? Nevertheless barbers were on "the list".  And wea...

The search for the identity of the first person to come into contact with Covid-19 is fruitless... at least for journalists with a "patient zero" in mind.   TheBigRetort A Canadian who died in 1984 was believed to be the first person to introduce AIDS into America and the wider world. But it later transpired that he was not patient zero. Earlier cases dated back to the '70s - by  which time the victim's reputation was tarnished beyond the grave. Similarly the search to find the Covid-19 patient zero lies in that same world. It's in this tiny devastating  domain - where the occupants speak a language few can interpret - where another patient zero will be found. And w hilst it seems possible that the outbreak of Covid-19 may have silently taken place before it made its appearance in a seafood market in Wuhan, it will not be any journalist who tracks down patient zero. That's because any person deemed to be misidentified 'the first' s...

[Image from Daily Mail.] Could a blocked 2016 Google Street View of the Skripal home lead to doorstep assassins? TheBigRetort A click on Google Street View records a picture of the Sergei Skripal home captured in April 2009.  But when you use the Google viewer and turn around to leave the house - and proceed down the street - the image capture flashes forward... to 2016. The property can only be viewed in the 2016 capture at a distance... before jumping back to 2009 as the viewer approaches the house, and a closer view of the property. Attempts to reverse the process and turn back towards the house jump from 2016 back... to 2009. So it isn't actually possible to get that close to the property at the time Skripal was living there. But why did Street View not film that portion of the street in 2016 – whilst filming the rest? Instead, the driver seems to have done a quick U-turn. Apparently some sensitive areas are removed from Street View by...

Lewisham Homes was just three years into its tenure when, in September 2010, the arms length management organisation (ALMO) posted a letter which read: ' D ear Homeowner.  Lewisham Council and Lewisham Homes do not inspect the inside of your property or make any necessary safety adaptations to your property ". (Emphasis added.) So why has the council's rabid housing enforcer placed its bullyboy jackboots across leaseholder thresholds?  TheBigRetort Lewisham Homes has called for an avalanche of (so-called) improvements to its housing stock. Recently the amateur managing agent has gone  way "bespoke". U nder the watchful eye of Mrs Hilary Barber (above) its Director of Corporate Services. This "n ecessary" (is it really?) fire-safety equipment has been placed into 1400 street properties along with a raft of additional unnecessary improvements... e arning Mrs Barber the honorific  Baroness Barber of Breachlease .   Barber is threatening court actio...

Leaseholders and taxpayers in London have been hoodwinked into paying thousands of pounds for fire-safety measures that are 'not to the necessary standard'. According to details contained in board minutes of Lewisham Homes at least. A discovery that may see the arms-length management organisation in the dock...again.   TheBigRetort exclusive. In my last post I reported that Andrew Potter CEO of Lewisham Homes was due to decamp to greener pastures at Hastoe Housing Association. Meanwhile... back in concrete city, board papers dated August 2017 reveal that six thousand two hundred composite fire-safety doors recently installed into properties managed by his former south-east London Almo may not be up to the necessary fire safety standard . The shock finding, unearthed by TheBigRetort,  follows threats by Lewisham Homes to prosecute leaseholders if they do not change their own flat entrance doors - which the managing agent has “deemed” unsafe....