In a parallel universe, you’d now be reading my Sputnik Intelligent Punter’s Guide to the 2020 Grand National. But the big race, like all other sporting events, has been cancelled. Instead, today we have a CGI Grand National. Can ‘Virtual Sport’ provide sports’ fans with the excitement they are currently missing?

The news today is almost universally dark. Globally the number of Covid-19 cases has surpassed the one million mark, an increase of 500,000 in only seven days. The confirmed death toll to the highly infectious virus is now over fifty-five thousand.

Get your diaries out! I am agreeing with Gary Lineker and agreeing even more with Gary Neville when he slammed ‘the f*****g cheek’ of health secretary, Matt Hancock.

This weekend, Jeremy Corbyn stands down as leader of the Labour Party, after four and a half years at the helm. He was very close to becoming PM in 2017, but in the end, the Corbyn project was wrecked by a lobby group for a foreign power who feared a change in UK foreign policy if he ever became Prime Minister.

The world is in a sick place. We’re not just talking about the escalating coronavirus pandemic, serious though that is with global deaths doubling over the past week. What is also sick is the way gestures of solidarity are being cynically twisted.

I recognise we are in the midst of an unprecedented health crisis caused by the unforgiving COVID-19 virus; and the lack of routine testing of front-line health and social care staff coupled with the woefully inadequate supply of proper protective clothing and equipment for these essential workers is a disgrace of huge magnitude.

Well done to everyone for following the guidelines and working together to try and get on top of coronavirus. BUT, what a pity that those in power are again illustrating the old adage of ‘do as I say not as I do’.

The news that both Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock have gone down with coronavirus is a real body blow to them and the whole country. I wish them both a speedy recovery as I do with any other person who is suffering from this killer virus.

“We are all in this together, really frankly” says Sir Ian Duncan-Smith on the afternoon news as his boss Johnson is diagnosed with Covid-19. His words are the latest in a long line of hypocrisy tainted vomit spewed from the mouths of Tory politicians.

In a White House briefing this week on the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump went off script – as usual – to rant about NATO allies “not spending enough” on military budgets and “playing games” with the US over defence.

Before commenting on the entirely predictable acquittal of former First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, on all 13 charges against him, which included attempted rape, sexual assault and indecent assault, at the High Court in Edinburgh on 23rd March it is absolutely necessary to remind ourselves of the context.

The UK government was asleep at the wheel when it came to the danger of COVID-19 spread, but now seeks to pass the blame on to the general public for having to introduce draconian restrictions on personal movement.

What is wrong with Boris Johnson? He never fully commits, just when you think he has finally got it, he pulls back and leaves a lack of clarity that just increases confusion and I’m sorry to say leads to more deaths.

In the midst of the necessary self-isolation to avoid unnecessary social contact during the current Covid-19 crisis I suggest we all ensure we have notebooks and pens readily available to note down for future reference the companies and individuals we intend to avoid for their selfish, greedy and irresponsible actions during this difficult period.

I like Tim Martin, the boss of Wetherspoons, but I reckon he has been drinking too much of his own cheap beer.

Columnists worry that their opinions and arguments can appear dated by the time it takes for comment to transfer from their own laptops to the forums they write for. A column written one day may be out of date a day later.

At last Boris Johnson has listened to the people and his critics and stopped digging the hole that his political career was about to be buried in along with up to possibly 260 thousand Brits who were predicted to die from Covid-19 if he continued with his confused ‘herd’ policy.

Mainstream media outlets and the mealy-mouthed politicians they manipulate like puppets are determined to suspend partisan comments in relation to the readiness of our public services and economic infrastructure to cope with the current coronavirus crisis. We must all pull together they say and park political differences for the good of the nation.

The old political cliché that the thing that Governments’ fear most is 'Events, dear boy, events’ has never been truer than what is happening with Boris’ shambolic, slow and frankly incompetent handling of the coronavirus epidemic. Yesterday’s press conference did nothing to reassure me that he is getting on top of the crisis.

“The virus will not have a chance against us. No nation is more prepared or more resilient than the United States”. So said President Trump in a televised nationwide address this week from the Oval Office in a bid to calm growing apprehensions over the coronavirus global pandemic.