Across the UK, online, on DAB and on your smart speaker, the Independent Republic of Mike Graham on Talk Radio.

Good morning and welcome to the Independent Republic of Mike Graham right here on Talker Radio.

The sun is shining, the sky is blue.

Cases of coronavirus are still plunging and the official figures show that a quarter of COVID deaths apparently registered did not die from the virus. They were people who died with the virus, which is one of the arguments we've been having pretty much for the last year. But that basically tells you that of the 126,000 cases of death from coronavirus, 127,000 actually

this morning, a quarter of those, which would be more than 30,000 basically, are actually

not attributable to COVID at all. So in that case, we then go back below 100,000 deaths. I wonder

whether anybody's going to make a meal of that

or to suggest that we as a country in Europe

are now not doing as badly as everybody thought after all.

So it's back to the beer gardens and the pavement seating until next month, though,

because Boris Johnson says he doesn't see any reason to speed up the lifting of lockdown restrictions,

even though the plummeting numbers

of coronavirus infections, cases and indeed deaths is so far down from what it used to be,

but he hasn't really got any more excuses, has he?

We're now actively looking for something that isn't there in order to prove that it still

might be. That's right. We've got testing centres now

opening up in London to test people who don't have any symptoms of coronavirus to see whether

they have it. Is it just me? Or do you think there's something rather strange going on here?

Yesterday the Prime Minister denied that vaccines were the reason for the amazingly low infection

rates, hospital admissions and deaths. No, he said, it's not that at all. It is the lockdown.

I said two weeks ago he'd lost his bottle. I today can see no reason to change that view. What on

earth is he actually playing at? Is he so frightened of seeing people out and about enjoying

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