Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

Now we're all sovereign citizens (NB: non-sovereign citizens please submit for a points evaluation before posting)

Blue passports, though...

johnny eu doesn’t like it up ‘em

Shant be asking permission for anything as long as derry aint free, son

Pls don’t deport me for posting here

So happy for my new life of only eating true British gruel out of a used Wellington boot

lol we're all gonna die all over again

whats next for the plucky little kingdom

Secession

repatriation of the normans

Trying to look on the bright side for 2021 in the UK but really coming up short here.

the trembling flatulent rotting corpse stage of a long dead empire or as Perry Mason might put it Ukania Ultima

Holyrood and local elections, nothing to piss anyone off there

Jess Phillips and Starmzy feeling the wrath of FBPE today, extremely bitter laughs

Enough of ‘Remainers’ and ‘Leavers’ – we are all in this together now | Jess Phillips https://t.co/LaiytlNLSV

— Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) January 1, 2021

it's been fun watching them turn on their own

there is a horrible layer of irony wherein even Jessbabs is...not wrong...to tell the FBPEewees to give it up now ffs, but obviously there's more than enough plague going round for both their houses

Did anyone get a FBPE in the new years honours

I think big Dunty told them to chillax as well.. a lot of them won't be reasoned with and now that Corbyn has been marginalised they need someone to kick.

The defeat of Corbynism won't be good for Babs career either.. Now there is no point to her people who previously liked her now see her as the self publicising vacuous fule she is.

Wonder if 2021 will see another doomed breakaway party, most likely people are too dispirited at this point, but you never know.

The main problem with starting a new political party in the UK is that it's always going to be the first 50-100 years that is a hard and pointless slog for absolutely nothing!

also the next 100 years after that, and the next, and so on

As we saw the last few years, there’s an endless pool of money for any number of centrist projects

Joylon might start a Barristers that think Kieth is a Tory cunt clique, but that wouldn't count as a party.

when we get near another election somebody might decide it's worth a few quid just to muddy the waters some more, why take risks when you've got all the money and there's an endless supply of idiots who want their wallets inspecting?

Surely top rich melts like the visionary who made a few quid posting dvds through letterboxes wouldn't need a new centrist project now Kieth is running the show.

pic.twitter.com/Y3KDO36Ngv

— Sarah_Woolley (@Sarah_Woolley) January 1, 2021

is that bernie

it's the constellation known as the old nonce!

Could Britain rejoin the EU? It seems like a hopelessly lost cause – but so did leaving
Jonathan Freedland

"Did anyone get a FBPE in the new years honours"

someone needs to put in a good word for this lad

this fucking guy

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/5/21/1400698424922/Jonathan-Freedland-009.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=f0f6c5ef45cc7dbc31e79b67d3f24eae

he has a look in his eye like he waking while watching you get converted into a cyberman

waking = wanking

autocorrect on my phone has clearly sided with him

Another government u-turn! London primary schools this time, what a shock. This is like yer lads doing doughnuts in stolen cars at this point.

they need to close them in the rest of the country as well ffs! maybe they'll save that announcement for a day before they are due back

Took the threat of legal actions by council's too.

Thinking there has to be a U-turn in the vaccine roll out too.

I hope so re the latter, where is the pressure coming from tho? They don’t listen to scientists

I know, it's really grim

I have been reading a little about that and apparently there might be some benefit to extending the intervals?

This issue is, appropriately, contentious. As a vaccinologist - & citizen & relative of people in at-risk groups - I fully support the UK decision to increase dose intervals of both our Ox/AZ product and the Pfizer product. I'd happily receive either with a >8w gap. Here's why 🧵 https://t.co/PZaxgGJUj4

— Sandy Douglas (@sandyddouglas) January 1, 2021

I'm not the only immunologist happy enough with it. I get the tories have been awful through the pandemic but its important to bear in mind this was not a political choice, it was advice given by the MHRA. https://t.co/UWVkahRjHV

— Dr 「サマンサ」Sammie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈➡️🇺🇸 (@curexcomplex) December 31, 2020

would I be rude in suggesting a UK covid thread? I can't keep up with the general ukpol one but the covid stuff is useful to me. however I understand if it'd get too messy.

> this too

Based upon the biology, I'd eat my hat if the Pfizer vaccine is substantially less effective with a longer dose interval. Most vaccines induce stronger immune responses with longer intervals. A couple of examples below. There are more. pic.twitter.com/pxJTqjchpz

— Sandy Douglas (@sandyddouglas) January 1, 2021

i guess we’re gonna find out one way or another

https://i.imgur.com/37bSTa0.jpg

Thanks, that’s quite persuasive as far as ultimate efficacy - but the worrying thing is still the potential for vaccine resistant strains to evolve if millions of people are going around for months not fully vaccinated, no?

Yeah was thinking we could use a UK Covid thread even though it’s massively political anyway. (I wouldn’t put it past them to somehow fuck up the second dose in the name of the economy)

It'd only end up being about the US anyway.

the Outbreak thread is quite US-centric already tho

Yes, I'm joking but...

xp I agree but they don’t seem too concerned about it? I wonder if there was the same concern about MMR vaccines where the spacing is years apart? My practice asked me (as they don’t have my vaccination records) if I had had the MMR booster, incidentally, and I said I thought I had but wasn’t sure, but they want me to get it anyway because there’s always outbreaks in the area.

Idk if we need a separate UK covid thread? There’s already a couple of covid threads knocking around and I’m sure I’m not the only one who eyerolls at the USilx tendency to have multiple threads of theirs on the go.

chalk up another U-turn in the 'wasn't forced by the labour party' column

should be no USilx threads on the go imo

Otm

We could have separate covid threads for each of the home nations maybe? Devolved threads, as it were.

And what about the Free State?

I didn’t have long to wait for them to fuck about with the second dose some more: apparently we are now going to mix and match vaccines?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/health/coronavirus-vaccines-britain.html

without knowing much about the science of vaccination, that sounds very bad practise.

lmao we’re just going all-out to try and create a world-ending supermutant strain, never been more proud to be british

Maybe this is the real post-Brexit strategy, lay waste to the world so we're starting from a level playing field

The immediate issue again is not that these may be legitimate strategies for vaccination but that there's no communication or evidence coming from the government itself.

I'm sure our media will chase them up on it tho

Hopefully they’ll leak something to the Telegraph soon

I hate to do this again but (bold mine):

Previous incomplete vaccination

If the course is interrupted or delayed, it should be resumed using the same vaccine but the first dose should not be repeated. There is no evidence on the interchangeability of the COVID-19 vaccines although studies are underway. Therefore, every effort should be made to determine which vaccine the individual received and to complete with the same vaccine. For individuals who started the schedule and who attend for vaccination at a site where the same vaccine is not available, or if the first product received is unknown, it is reasonable to offer one dose of the locally available product to complete the schedule. This option is preferred if the individual is likely to be at immediate high risk or is considered unlikely to attend again.

In these circumstances, as both the vaccines are based on the spike protein, it is likely the second dose will help to boost the response to the first dose. For this reason, until additional information becomes available, further doses would not then be required.
Individuals who are participating in a clinical trial of COVID-19 vaccines who present for vaccination should be referred back to the investigators. Eligible persons who are enrolled in vaccine trials should then be provided with written advice on whether and when they can be safely vaccinated in the routine programme.

The good thing about the mRNA vaccine is that if you prime with it, you can boost with other types of vaccines (viral vectored, DNA, mRNA…etc). In the future, a mixed prime boost vaccine strategies can be tested to provide long term protective immunity. (9/n)

— Prof. Akiko Iwasaki (@VirusesImmunity) January 1, 2021

I'm thinking if we don't have a proper national lockdown again and close schools in other tiered zones outside of that there Londonium and the SE, then by mid January we might be having more daily deaths than in Brazil. They probably don't count many of the deaths inside their huge favelas idk, but still running close to fucking things up as badly as a country with 3 and half times the population and led by a covid-hawk fascist lunatic would be truly Global Britaining it.

Schools being open also gives rise to the mindset of 'oh well the kids are mixing in schools so it's ok to mix with their parents/break X rule' etc.
As shit as it is having kids off school, and I don't underestimate the longterm problems of this, I do think it's madness to send them back within 10 days of the Christmas free-for-all.
I'm pretty set on keeping mine off for the first week, whatever happens, even though cases are low in my immediate area.

it's very bad for the mental health of my son to keep him out of school and I can see how hard it hits him, but these are desperate times. Of course lots of these politician arseholes from Labour + the Conservatives who've previously been ruthless in their parliamentary voting on matters that badly affect millions of children are suddenly very *concerned* about what lockdowns are doing to their mental well-being.

So this is another reading of that nytimes article.

i've seen plausible threads saying this is worth doing, but it's being done because we don't have enough vaccines, which make the justifications look like policy based evidence making. https://t.co/n1qB3j6ReZ

— jamie k (@jkbloodtreasure) January 1, 2021

It does read like gyac says but perhaps because it is This Lot after all that tweet feels closer to it - they are giving doctors a way out a difficult situation: a situation they created by fucking up procurement.

Weren’t they boasting of having ordered 30 million vaccinations not that long ago?

Kinder’s right about the weird effect schools being open has on parent behaviour too. Even this week I noped out of a park because of the fucking big gaggles of parents. Tier 4, with schools shut, and apart from a scared-looking masked grandparent hiding in a far corner you really wouldn’t have known there was a pandemic on.

Unions are gunning for Williamson now. Pity nothing matters, that should have been an easy scalp

Unions should be gunning for Starmer as well, his job is to back them and put political pressure on the UK govt instead of expressing admiration for Theresa May's moral framework - the fucking waste of space.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqvcHLTXAAI0PF9?format=jpg&name=large

#Wes4Leader

#StarmerShits

the bed, or something similar trending

just be "buhbye dodds, hellow shadow chancellor reeves" no doubt

or more likely just boberto pesto being shithoused by left twitter shenanigans

I hope he's reading it and getting very pissed off

Hearing this leaked video may hold some clue to all the chaos this afternoon #starmerquits pic.twitter.com/ZbgnbclVRS

— So I Says to Mabel... (@ISaysto) January 2, 2021

fs lmaoooooooooooo

dead

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/02/battle-brixton-texas-dj-taylor-mcwilliams-electric-avenue-20-storey-tower-block

Sadiq Khan won't lift a finger.

ffs trust hilarity to break out on Twitter while i'm trying to watch the football

xp

yeah but at least he snubbed Trump, what a hero.

NYT seems to have fucked that tale just like gyac said, while BBC 5 Live has kicked off a scare about kids getting sick that the rcpch is trying to squash https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/news-events/news/rcpch-responds-media-reports-increased-admissions-children-young-people-covid-19

Sorry what happened with the NYT, stet?! I haven’t been online much today so I’ve missed everything

Such vultures lol

Anyone standing in the way of CVAs right now is an enemy of society. We ought to have tens of thousands of them. We've got a legal system that allows companies to go bankrupt then reappear as phoenixes with the same staff and owners doing the same thing, let's use it for good. https://t.co/jSY0ZqZtly

— Dan Davies (@dsquareddigest) January 2, 2021

Nothing spectacular yet just lots of condemnation/calls to retract among media Twitter and general rinsing xp

Thanks for that reassuring link, stet!

Breaking News:

Teaching & Headteaching Unions have had enough. They’re commencing legal action against this government & advising teachers to stay away from schools until SAGE’s advice is listened too.

I stand in solidarity with them

— Claudia Webbe MP (@ClaudiaWebbe) January 2, 2021

politico asked uk politicians and commentators how they got through 2020

among a load of shite about family and takeaways and we’ll-stocked booze cupboards, there is this

Priti Patel, home secretary: “Showing the perpetrators of crime that they have nowhere to hide and joining our police on early morning raids — reminding the criminals that we’re coming after them. Supporting our front line and watching them keeping us safe has been humbling. They are real heroes.”

i wish i was fucking joking

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/politico-london-playbook-christmas-special-how-they-got-through-2020-viel-hummer-kein-hammer/

I hope ms Patel didn't watch doctor who over the new year, it would only give her ideas.

The reason stories like that NYT one get commissioned is because in most of the world that's the narrative now: Britain is a dumbass that does dumbass things, look what they've done now lmao

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) January 3, 2021

'tolerable levels of death'

U.K. needs to confront

‘The challenge that faces us is to decide - are we going to try to pursue the elimination of Covid-19 regardless of the costs or decide on a tolerable level of deaths (like we do with the flu) in order to return to a normal life?’

https://t.co/9hWbHIPJUq

— Esther McVey (@EstherMcVey1) January 2, 2021

I can think of a few people whose deaths I could tolerate. This tweet brings one in particular to mind.

What could be worse than a Tory some might ask, well a fucking Tory-Scouser evil gobshite for starters.

The NEU called a members meeting and 26,000 registered making it the biggest union meetings in the UK ever, and one of the biggest political meetings in UK history too. As Zoom capacity is 20K they're live streaming it on Twitter, Facebook and herep https://t.co/cvYhX4rhOO

— Petros Elia (@elia_petros) January 3, 2021

someone tell Kieth there is a big kraut-rock revival going down on zoom.

nice krautrock event for people with a can do inclination

kier probably still trying to figure out how to walk back his no ifs, no buts, no equivocation hardman stance on this thing

What a troll.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for a national lockdown within the next 24 hours. Says it is "inevitable" that more schools will be closed so plan needed now, but won't call for schools to close as of tomorrow as it would add to the chaos.

— Kate McCann (@KateEMcCann) January 3, 2021

profiles in courage

https://i.imgur.com/Y0qFfvS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/NxhIDeT.jpg

Kieth is the tail, Boris the dog that wags him. More school closure are "inevitable" says Kieth the casual bystander, without exerting any political pressure to close schools. Seriously, I hope this cunt gets the rona and dies.

boris: we should do something
kieth: we should do something MORE QUICKLY
kieth: ...
kieth: err, that’s it
uk public: *continues dying by the hundreds every day*

lol get fucked

My understanding is Keir Starmer wants a national lockdown like November, not March. Tougher than Tier 4, closing more places (an eg given is zoos which are open in T4) & bringing back the national “Stay At Home” message.

Schools should be “the last to close” says senior source.

— Daniel Hewitt (@DanielHewittITV) January 3, 2021

tbf to Kieth nothing of note has happened today that would give him a clear and visible cause to back immediate school closure

bold to demand the closure of zoos in...checks notes...January

Fat big cats have had it good for too long!!!

It's the November style half-arsed tiered lockdown that has got us to the terrible position we are in but lets try it some more and hope for a different result, but he's right - closing empty zoos could be a gamechanger tbf!

Starmer just adding to the polar-cat-isation of political discourse

i think we should oust starmer

Fucking Zoos? Sage were saying last week that a November lockdown won’t do it; it needs to be March-like.

"zoos" is one of those things where if you don't realise what a dick you sound saying it you're never gonna realise what a dick you are

any functional human being would've thought about it for a second

idk zoos is a fun word to say

'zoos'

unless he's got the January issue of Zoo Afficionado and it's full of pictures of absolutely jam-packed Christmas zoo action

yeah plax i just reached the same conclusion about the word zoos

maybe i am a zoophile

Kieth clearly a zoophobe

Fucking Zoos? Sage were saying last week that a November lockdown won’t do it; it needs to be March-like.

anyway enough tired old zoo tropes

Kieth clearly a zoophobe

no zoos for the likes of youse is it?

still i guess it was zoonosis that got us here in the first place

otm

The weird smell coming off the party this year hasn’t so much been of the New Labour years - it’s been a whiff of Change UK, a party that mainly appeals to pundits and has little to say except “Things would be better if we were in charge, because are smart”.

— Flying_Rodent (@flying_rodent) January 3, 2021

The typo adds to that tbh.

Which means furlough money.

Someone on twitter pointed sometime ago that Starmer is carrying on from where Harriet Harman left off. Just so weak-minded, even before the zoo thing I am reading now.

left shitposters: big announcement from Labour tomorrow, Starmer is going to resign

sensible people: pah! bah! don't be ridiculous! you children, you idiots! Sir Keir is not some common circus clown!

actual Labour announcement: WE MUST CLOSE THE ZOOS

— stefan mohamed (professional account) (@stefmowords) January 3, 2021

there is, of course, a lot of this going down right now

I closed a zoo and I liked it

— Rosewood Shoehorn (@apiarism) January 3, 2021

i mean expecting the leader of the Labour Party to say anything about the largest trade union meeting ever in the UK taking place today is naive i guess

remember he is a zoo-master not a zoom-master, it's easy to get them mixed up

https://i.imgur.com/kUtg7sE.jpg

this fucking country

https://i.imgur.com/firpIyv.jpg

this is the opposition you get when you vote for Corbynism without Corbyn for all those who kept saying "why can't we just replace him with someone with nicer hair and lacking the troublesome political history baggage"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eq15GyJXUAYd6LN?format=jpg&name=large

As a black guy born and living in the UK this article makes me fear for my own destiny and for my family. Be clear these headlines are not far removed from 1930's Nazi Germany. I call on everybody to support the growth of #BlackLivesMatter to fight this in 2021 ✊🏿✊🏿 pic.twitter.com/JiisJuZImX

— Nick (@Nclarke30) January 3, 2021

THREAD - Covid-19 in England.

Things are going from very bad to much worse.

Here is where we are in 9 tweets. 1/9

— Christina Pagel (@chrischirp) January 3, 2021

Yeah...saw that yesterday...we have gone down such a bad route of just not thinking about schools that 'further restrictions' is what we might be left with.

Iggy Pop on Gibbon’s Decline and Fall is the most poignant thing I’ve read all week. https://t.co/jksAqwnpAQ pic.twitter.com/sG5aW5gN9h

— Mary Harrington (@moveincircles) January 3, 2021

Lol that is for the books board

The government has lost control of the virus. That’s why @UKLabour is calling for further restrictions to stop the spread while we roll out the vaccines and keep children learning. pic.twitter.com/GzgxzKqWr5

— Kate Green (@KateGreenSU) January 4, 2021

And 'further restrictions' will never be a curfew. Instead it will turn into a blame game where the public are turned on each other.

Kate Green go throw yourself in a skip you useless melt

"we don't think schools should close... but more closures are inevitable."

this is such a pathetic line

They won't even back the unions now.

blaming the population and saying non-essential retail needs to close before schools is just the kind of pathetic response from a non-opposition that will keep the right-wing press and the Tory party happy

and keep the Rona happy as well

was talking to someone at the school earlier and they were sounding quite flustered by the cluster-f. They already had to close some of the school early in December because of a Rona outbreak, and this is an autism school with average class sizes of 5-6.

We got a "ramping up" from Johnson this morning.
Good to revisit the classics in the week that The KLF hit Spotify.

"dither and delay" is another recent Johnson slogan that now has been repetitively adopted by Zoo-meister Flex aka Uncool Kieth

They won't even back the unions now.

apart from GMB who probably think he's too left wing!

tbf he's no Owen Smith, but he'll do for now!

Being at 0% ICU capacity means one bad car accident, one bad fall, one bad allergic reaction, etc. where you’d otherwise survive could literally kill you. 0% ICU capacity affects EVERYONE not just those who get covid

— marina (@marinara_sawce) January 3, 2021

Green's position is completely bizarre to me. Labour may think there's an angle in pretending that schools can remain open if the government follows Labour's advice (knowing that schools are going to close anyway so they will be able to say 'i told you so') but they can't even properly articulate what that advice is meant to be. Everyone from teachers to below-the-line commentators on Kent Online articles knows that, given infection rates, there's no form of national lockdown that can keep schools open safely. There's a series of open goals (failure to properly COVID-proof schools, failure to support parents expected to work while schools are shut, failure to better facilitate online learning, etc), they're missing.

All I can imagine is that Labour a) considers ever standing with unions to be part of the toxic brand they need to shake off and b) thinks overworked parents will be grateful not to have the kids at home.

These Labour right types sure do love taking executive jobs at trade unions and the party and doing fuck all to inspire members of either, don’t they?

ladies and gentlemen, I present our greatest living political satirist

This situation is dangerously out of control, and we need to pool all our resources, expertise and talent. This is a wartime situation and we need a government of National Unity now.

— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) January 4, 2021

we could just try doing _something_ first idk

i think he is joking tho right

we have a government of national unity in all but name iirc

xp don't think he is joking

In a de facto one party state each half of the party patiently waits for its turn to govern, no need for any of this gnunsense

Presumably Starmer could agree with Boris during the same press conference which really streamlines stuff

— Thursday Night LEGEND!!! (@ElRobak) January 4, 2021

When Lab had a plan

1/7 We know that the longer children are out of the classroom, the faster existing inequalities between children will widen which is why getting back to school when it is safe to do so is so important,

— Rebecca Long-Bailey (@RLong_Bailey) May 18, 2020

is the Ianucci thing serious bc it seems too real to be a joke. I know everyone is numb to this wartime rhetoric by now but it’s so awful, literally nothing is outside The War these days. seriously unwell country

Westminster Voting Intention:

CON: 43% (+6)
LAB: 38% (=)
GRN: 5% (+1)
SNP: 5% (+1)
LDM: 4% (-5)
BXP: 3% (=)

Via @DeltapollUK, 26-30 Dec.
Changes w/ 26-28 Nov.

— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) January 4, 2021

hook it into my veins

Libs voting Tory is it

I'm guessing the 3% of BXP respondents are by extension voting for white nationalism, or the nearest thing they can get to it.

No deal truthers

british xenophobic party

I see Jeremy Hunt's repositioning himself as the saviour of the NHS now.

Scotland in full lockdown now at least for all January

that Zoo exit poll is going to be even more brutal for Kieth

And still, almost a year later, major policy announcements first to public attention via a journalist's DMs.https://t.co/ugu8GZtg3e

— Dave (@MediocreDave) January 4, 2021

im just saying zoos to myself here to keep spirits up

'zoos'

zooze

I heard Keith's fave band is Orange Zoos

are they gonna close schools after presumably at least some opened today?
(inset days pretty common on first day of Jan after holidays and some voluntarily closed I believe?)

Yep, Pesto says schools are shutting.

Yup, some have opened but I get the impression that union activity over the weekend got quite a few to close. That just forces the government's hand too

PM will be directly addressing the nation. It won’t be a press conference. Tier 4 restrictions will be imposed everywhere. Schools closed. No more team games in parks. But outdoor exercise will still be allowed. https://t.co/dhKbH2lkgC

— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 4, 2021

Shambolic how some schools have opened today so you will get who knows how many cases.

all this stuff about teachers and teachers unions as hotbeds of loony leftists and do-gooders is so funny to me having worked in schools. the last school i worked in, senior management just changed their titles (and pay) every year. i never got an increment while i was there, bar once when i had to have several meetings with the deputy head who threw me out of her office lol. the headteacher and deputy head are currently called 'executive headteacher' and 'associate headteacher.'

Luckily my kids' school has scheduled INSETT days today and tomorrow, sure loads have opened across Cambridgeshire though.

yah i know lots of schools have moved insett days scheduled later in the year today on the assumption that there will be a change

Have to say that announcing a nationwide closing down of schools on the day they re-opened anyway because you were adamant they had to is a special kind of 'lol nothing matters', and we've had quite some special ones already

imagine if they'd just invested in making schools safe.

the whole christmas period to get this right and yet it's a balls up on day one

No battle plan survives contact with the enemy (schoolchildren)

Have to say that announcing a nationwide closing down of schools _on the day_ they re-opened anyway because you were adamant they had to is a special kind of 'lol nothing matters', and we've had quite some special ones already

lmao I see

I take no pleasure in Rafael Behr being right, but

So he made the schools and teachers do all that prep for effectively one or two days - even yesterday saying perfectly safe etc.

An absolute charlatan. I saw this a day or two ago - it’s absolutely spot on. pic.twitter.com/nI353yCxze

— Steve B is staying in... (@sargeantbennett) January 4, 2021

It’s been said earlier and better by better people than Rafael Behr

I actually didn't believe even they would do this - open for one day

surely there's something to be said for accepting agreement from even the wrong people

Schools already had to use an INSET day from later in the year (they get a set amount) the Friday before Christmas to avoid a Christmas day track & trace cock-up, i.e. they are the ones contacted to put lists together of who sits near the positive case child etc.

surely there's something to be said for accepting agreement from even the wrong people

at least unions can still pressurize the UK govt into u-turns without any backing from a purposeless Labour party that has nothing but contempt for them

Starmer on Sky News: "It is inevitable that schools will have to close and therefore they need to be part of the national restrictions package that needs to come into place as soon as possible."

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) January 4, 2021

lol Starmer otm

Today I learned that water is, in fact, dry.

As long as we can praise centrists for saying stuff the left has been saying longer, and after the opportunity to change the situation has long since passed, then who cares what they might have done to personally bring about the situation in which we find ourselves?

all this stuff about teachers and teachers unions as hotbeds of loony leftists and do-gooders is so funny to me having worked in schools. the last school i worked in, senior management just changed their titles (and pay) every year. i never got an increment while i was there, bar once when i had to have several meetings with the deputy head who threw me out of her office lol. the headteacher and deputy head are currently called 'executive headteacher' and 'associate headteacher.'

― plax (ico), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:32 (fifty minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

When I was at secondary school, my headmaster used to give assembly speeches about how only idiots vote Labour and invite local Tory politicians/MPs/councillors etc. but never the actually elected Lib Dem MP for the area. He was old school Northern Irish, the sort who would think the past ten years of politics has gone nowhere far enough in punishing people. As much of a headbanger as he was, I think he would still have acted in the way most of these union conversations are going and be seen as the loony left for acting that way.

It’s been said earlier and better by better people than Rafael Behr

Fuckit then - give me three? And while you're at it, what the malign power that Rafael Behr's been wielding to push the country into this state?

Lenin was otm when he said something like when chop down a forest there might be some splinters flying about, but kieth never says anything otm, every time he opens his mouth to talk every single word is wrong.

It's a gift!

earlier I asked Kieth if eating dogshit off the pavement was good or bad? He's still prevaricating and spinning around in circles and speaking in tongues, god knows what's happened to him - he's barely a functional human being!

If it was zoo animal shit he'd have a position tbfttk

well at least he's quite clear-headed and principled on the big Zoos in January question, got to be thankful for this gift to us!

58 000+ new cases today. gulp .. I'm sure I heard Spiegelhalter say you divide the new cases number by 50 to get an approximate number of the deaths within 3 weeks

That conversion will depend on a few things though, I imagine you can raise the numbers a bit if the hospitals are full.

It’s been said earlier and better by better people than Rafael Behr

Fuckit then - give me three? And while you're at it, what the malign power that Rafael Behr's been wielding to push the country into this state?

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 4 January 2021 bookmarkflaglink

If Rebecca Long-Bailey had been allowed in her job as Shadow Ed Secretary, for one?

NEW: @Keir_Starmer tells me all schools in England SHOULD close as part of a new national lockdown.

"National restrictions need to come into place as soon as possible and tragically, school closures have to be a part of that." @ITVNewsPolitics

— Daniel Hewitt (@DanielHewittITV) January 4, 2021

lol he's such a ridiculous cunt I don't know how he doesn't die of embarrassment

When I think of tragic I think of, for example, the death figures.

get fucked keir starmer

Corbyn would've been calling this for weeks. Starmer is doing this an hour after Sturgeon and Johnson pretty much announce it.

its just like an episode of the thick of it!

Only this morning Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green said the Labour-proposed lockdown would “try to get this virus under control and to keep children in class”.

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) January 4, 2021

"Only 100 people opposed the 2nd lockdown, but all of them had columns in the Barclay Brothers press" https://t.co/FR7mHWBAPp

— Will Davies (@davies_will) January 4, 2021

Corbyn would've been calling this for weeks. Starmer is doing this an hour after Sturgeon and Johnson pretty much announce it.

Behr just thinks Corbyn is a senile old fool with shit dress sense and would've written the precise opposite of the column pulled out today.

He’s so BAD at this

"It is inevitable that schools will have to close."@SamCoatesSky asks Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer his position on shutting schools. He says school closures need to be part of "a national plan".

Read more: https://t.co/EsS5xy4W0v pic.twitter.com/qUhm6Rg5DK

— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 4, 2021

its so depressing that guardian types (without style) have such a depressingly shallow sense of politics that conflates aesthetics and content in such puerile ways. the gall of a publication with a fashion section as dire as the theguardian.com criticising anyone for their appearance is beyond daft. scruffy jeremy corbyn didn't read our ten best mens cardigans feature.

in the counterfactual "what if corbyn as still leader of the opposition" ( a very meaningless and beyond unlikely counterfactual of course) all the awful libs who do care about COVID and want more done about it would've somehow managed to pillory him for being to pro-lockdown

Yeah, cunt chicken as you’ve never seen it. “Jeremt Cromtb doesn’t want YOUR children to get an education!!!!”

Crobyn or somebody else, it's hard to imagine anybody fucking this as badly as Kieth.

he makes the Maybot look like a dynamo

Presumably the terrible PR is also down to the people he's got around him but I assume they're his appointees. Fucking Campbell must be spinning in his grave

if only

Forever dead in my heart

xps

tbh the guardian types (readers not writers) in my acquaintance are mostly maintaining an embarrassed silence over starmer these days after initial cautious optimism (ironically or not the same trajectory they went on with corbyn but way quicker)

look if corbyn was somehow PM or still leader of HMMLO last year he would have been deposed almost immediately over his covid response regardless of what it was. Labour MPs, Tories & others would deliberatly sabotage any effort, helping spread the disease which the entire media (guardian and all) would happily blame on Corbyn and the left in general. tell me that's not believable as counterfactuals go

this is super sad - people with downs are one of the most at risk groups out there:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/04/husband-from-uks-first-downs-syndrome-marriage-dies-of-covid

City lost €6bn of trades today.

EU share trading flees London on first day after full Brexithttps://t.co/ZcLV0j4Lkz pic.twitter.com/AT8S7xF7n4

— Katie Martin (@katie_martin_fx) January 4, 2021

Worth it

First day of the transfer window

My brother works in a school & spent all day today trying to figure out how to administer covid tests to entire year groups. He’s convinced that the reason govt waited until today to announce closure is so that they can be shanghaied into operating as test centres now that they’ve been sent all the kits & been “trained”

Han was sent home at lunchtime because of not having test kits available or something

Very light on details here apart from schools.

this fucking cunt is hopeless

everyone over 70 vaccinated by mid-feb is absolute fantasy, get fucked boris

Well, the number of people over 70 left to vaccinate will get exponentially smaller each week so they just might do it

What happened? Just checked the tl and it was just people calling Johnson a cunt

He has an announced a new lockdown into February, closing all schools. Everyone to stay at home. But 0 details on closure orders/financial support

no mention of universities either

also he justified opening schools for just one day because every day of education is valuable

and then kieth said he'd done the right thing

This thread is the nearest thing I can find to the documented changes:

An immediate stay at home order. You can only leave home for:
1. Work, if impossible to WFH (eg critical worker or construction)
2. Shop for food or medicine
3. Exercise, once per day and only locally
4. To help vulnerable people
5. For medical appointments or fleeing harm

— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) January 4, 2021

kieth: "it's inevitable that some schools will have to close in this situation... I am not calling for schools to close."

What do you do in this situation pic.twitter.com/pRQA29g46W

— 👽Arobzz👽 (8-8) (@Arobzz_) December 2, 2020

In a round of broadcast interviews ahead of the Prime Minister’s address to the nation on Monday night, Sir Keir said a March-style lockdown was needed, with a tougher “stay-at-home” message.

ITV News Political Correspondent Dan Hewitt reports that Sir Keir Starmer wants a national lockdown like November, not March, with the national 'Stay At Home' message brought back.

Fuck I don't know if I'm a critical worker or indeed what the fuck's happening

Me neither but come now we were discussing covid etc

Anything missing, Starmer is asked.

Golden opportunity to talk about proper money to support people isolating / unable to work

He says nothing missing

He is a waste of space

— CarolineJMolloy (@carolinejmolloy) January 4, 2021

Boris looks like he's got a shiner (left, his right, eye)

Kieth will have to get one as well now!

Lord save me from parent whatsapp group lol alcohol chat

oh and covid pls lord

ha are we in the same group kinder

the crap memes, oh god

So I'm not sure what I was hoping for re schools, 2-4 weeks then everything ok enough to open. Being another half-term block is killing me.

Any idea which painting was hidden behind that pair of Union Jack flags for BJ's speech?

Could someone with more talent and energy than me edit Limmy's "yes or no" video into Kieth's Sky interview?

That was worse than Ed Miliband in full robot mode.

Read it and weep:

This lockdown is desperately needed.

For the best of chance of success in driving down COVID-19 levels, it must be accompanied by urgent action to support jobs and livelihoods.

This should include fixing the furlough scheme, raising Statutory Sick Pay for all and boosting UC.

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) January 4, 2021

A story in four images, here: pic.twitter.com/og8PyQRDUq

— William Kedjanyi (@KeejayOV2) January 4, 2021

Potential mileage

Cheers for the new meme template Kieth pic.twitter.com/FCy80LWqDh

— Kieth Starmer, zoo harmer (@SurskitNation) January 4, 2021

lol!

I noticed my deposed in 2019 ex-local MP who unfollowed me for repeatedly making unkind comments about Starmer and retweeting posts like the one above is still uncritically simping for Kieth after today's embarrassing shitshow - it's a hell of a strong drug is party factionalism.

sad lol

“Leave it, Jez” https://t.co/9G9JY1oaCh pic.twitter.com/e7RbCATCCi

— The CWU (@CWUnews) January 5, 2021

Calling bullshit on this: the vast bulk of the 80,000 new 29/12 cases were already known about before yesterday - eg in England only 775 further cases were reported with over 70,000 already in the figures from previous days pic.twitter.com/ccvOiSLW16

— Simon (@simonk_133) January 5, 2021

Apparently Kieth didn't want to close the schools until all the correct support was there for parents/kids say his apologists. He had the perfect opportunity to bring these issues up yesterday and had nothing to say so perhaps they are talking shit, again.

I guess I’ll dust off this old complaint from the spring: it’s insane that “essential work” is still being defined as “whatever bullshit job you can’t do from home”

how dare you denigrate my flagpole-licking consultancy

Another fucking press conference??

I think that's just to explain the logic behind decisions and plead with people. The reality of this lockdown is that it won't work in the same way due to it not being novel anymore, Cummings, etc.

Border closures I think

Gove letting the cat out of the bag about the lockdown probably going on till March.

Cant even keep a cat in a bag, but are closing borders

will confidently predict the press conference is 10 minutes late and I think I will read other people summarising it rather than playing bullshit bingo or letting this twat's bluster spoil my tea.

When I published Labour’s policy on free broadband in November 2019 I said “It’s about large numbers of children being able to do their homework properly, and have the speed of connectivity.” The BBC described it as Broadband Communism. Interesting how relevant it’s now become.

— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) January 5, 2021

miss u king

Given how this government will take most of this parliament to vaccinate ppl how much of the 2019 Lab manifesto will be implemented by the Tories to keep society from breaking down?

The reality of this lockdown is that it won't work in the same way due to it not being novel anymore, Cummings, etc.

It's also nothing like as strict as March was. Cafes still have big queues at them, playgrounds are open, shops are open for collection. The roads are pretty busy, too. Can't see it working, and I don't really blame the public for that – polls show support is extraordinarily high, but if your work tells you to go in you're going to go in.

yessssssss pump it right into my veins
https://i.imgur.com/pKGJLhO.jpg

forgot 'close the zoos'. amateur hour

remember when the Labour Party were bold enough to have their own policies rather than calling for whatever CCHQ has leaked to the Telegraph before it is announced

oh for fuck's sake labour

Given how this government will take most of this parliament to vaccinate ppl how much of the 2019 Lab manifesto will be implemented by the Tories to keep society from breaking down?

going to suggest 'not nearly enough'

Stet - I think it will work more than Tier 4 because schools are closed, but yes not as effective.

Very likely the NHS has broken a lot more than March too. A lot of treatments didn't go ahead back then and I think it's probably worse now. I'd look out for rates of people dying at home. Grim.

Hardly recognized Starmer with the moustache.

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/A2J1M7/ray-egan-dressed-as-john-bull-pictured-in-balsall-heath-birmingham-A2J1M7.jpg

going to suggest 'not nearly enough'

― you are like a scampicane, there's calm in your fries (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 5 January 2021 bookmarkflaglink

Even 30% would be astonishing. Lol.

1. Remember in 2019 when demanding that everyone in the UK had access to the internet irrespective of income was considered ‘Broadband Communism’?….Today teachers across the country are still reporting delays in access to laptops and internet access for their pupils. pic.twitter.com/8sxJ6oPcPv

— Rebecca Long-Bailey (@RLong_Bailey) January 5, 2021

seeing as lots of the current shadow cabinet have already publicly trashed key policies of that manifesto, do they support the tories or oppose them if they implement them? have their branes melted yet?

Remember Nandy and Phillips scoffing at their own party policy and then running for leader

https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-teacher-covid-rates-333-above-average

In Leeds, the rate for secondary school staff was more than four times that of the general population or 333 per cent higher.

The data shows that the prevalence rate was, on average, 1089.5 for primary staff and 1750.5 for secondary staff, compared to 404.3 for the LA as a whole. This average was taken for a period spanning from the week ending 19 October to the week ending 20 November.

Who would have imagined?

Is that Mani of the Stone Roses looking on in the photo Tom D posted?

During the first lockdown, courts were closed. Now in the third lockdown, where we are in a worse position - hospital admissions higher, rising cases, new virus strain - courts are remaining open. There is no way it can be safe for courts to remain open.https://t.co/59XDqpMwp8

— HASL (@HousingActionSL) January 5, 2021

https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-teacher-covid-rates-333-above-average🕸

_In Leeds, the rate for secondary school staff was more than four times that of the general population or 333 per cent higher.

The data shows that the prevalence rate was, on average, 1089.5 for primary staff and 1750.5 for secondary staff, compared to 404.3 for the LA as a whole. This average was taken for a period spanning from the week ending 19 October to the week ending 20 November._


Who would have imagined?

These are going to be difficult and important years for the trade union movement. If elected as Labour’s leader the party will stand side-by-side with trade unionists. My piece for @LabourList: https://t.co/m4l0o2dZ3l

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) January 7, 2020

if only he'd also pledged to become The Zoomaster, at least that would be one of them that he hasn't reneged on within a few months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn4AbSicZ7U

Kieth and Angela planning Labour's covid strategy, earlier today

was hearing earlier on that we now have plenty of vaccine coming on stream, the thing that's constraining the rollout is a shortage of vials and wipes used for the application process. can't help wondering why we didn't order all that stuff 6 months ago once we knew a vaccine was part of the route out of this. department of health procurement planning on this is a joke

my kid's autism school is staying open and the official word is that all students are welcome back, but then they mention several members of staff tested Rona positive a few weeks back... hmmm tough decision!

first time we've broke 60 000 new cases today and 800+ deaths .. hmm no decision at all really.

ONS modelled estimates for Covid+ per region in England

London: 1 in 30
North East: 1 in 55
North West: 1 in 40
Yorkshire and Humber: 1 in 55
East Midlands: 1 in 40
West Midlands: 1 in 65
East: 1 in 45
South East: 1 in 45
South West: 1 in 125

1 in 30

is this bad

Professor Chris Whitty suggests some Covid restrictions could be still be necessary NEXT winter

— Lizzy Buchan (@LizzyBuchan) January 5, 2021

no shit. at this rate, the coronavirus crises will consume boris johnson's entire premiership

is it still a premiership if there's no country left?

think some of the deaths are backlog from Scotland not reporting - i avoid "date reported" numbers especially at the moment.

Wonder if a lot of businesses that were funded last time and have been on edge all year will now go:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/05/hospitality-sector-unimpressed-with-sunaks-lockdown-grant

Remarkable data from the ONS just published which shows that they think just over 2% of the population in England had Covid-19 in the week to January 2nd.

That's 1 in 50, potentially as high as 1 in 45. pic.twitter.com/1GW5PUZXka

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 5, 2021

over 1 person for every two school classes then

Lol so the question is when were these fuckers shown the figures that they had to announce lockdown a day into the new school term?

Really if it wasn't for unions just basically saying enough is enough we would not be here today. Or so it seems like it xp

going back to the old herd immunity tactic by the back door or something?

it seems very unlikely that Johnson or Kieth would have shifted on schools without the union pressure, yep

should start a union affiliated political party, that would be a good idea wouldn't it?

pippa crerar was told the london figure on saturday apparently, not that she reported it or anything

going back to the old herd immunity tactic by the back door or something?

― Fenners' Pen (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 5 January 2021 bookmarkflaglink

The government aren't in control of the situation beyond printing money and doing as little distribution of it as possible.

talking of printing money...

Somehow the Royal Mint giving four legs to a famously three-legged monster sums up the current state of Britain far better than even a dozen shambling performances from the PM. pic.twitter.com/qXzHp2cMUH

— J Courtenay Grimwood (@JonCG) January 5, 2021

extra legs for tripods is part of the brexit dividend iirc

lol nothing matters but at least we are all gonna die is how I break it down to an extent

And what was it that did for Wells' Martians in the end, hmm?

lol nothing matters but at least we are all gonna die is how I break it down to an extent

And what was it that did for Wells' Martians in the end, hmm?

5g wells

moderna utopia

lmao view the full pic

We are here to lift the nation’s mood 😬 on @BBCTheOneShow in a few mins! 🤗 https://t.co/hiIAEstFzn pic.twitter.com/VICMjQnJqr

— Dr Xand van Tulleken 🏳️‍🌈 (@xandvt) January 5, 2021

ok nm this worked better on Twitter where you couldn't see Keef's face until you clicked the pic

Fucking horrendous. This poor family.

Mother fears son could die as Brexit stops medical cannabis supply https://t.co/ir11auXbfV

— The Guardian (@guardian) January 5, 2021

One more.

Matt Hancock has just told MPs that nurseries are being kept open because they are private and “would otherwise go bust”.

The Health Secretary should not be making public health decisions based on private profit.

— Nadia Whittome MP (@NadiaWhittomeMP) January 5, 2021

i haven't been keeping up itt, but on the same note, sunak's per property business grant is effectively a pure siphoning of cash to landlords, and doesn't take into account the business as a business as a going concern with staff and perishable inventory etc. put in the column marked rentier capitalism for Brett Christophers (though I disagree with some of his definition). although incompetence clearly has a large part to play in much of the fiasco, it would be useful to have two columns, one marked 'incompetence' and the other 'decisions driven by rentier capitalist interests' and i'm not at all sure that most in the first column couldn't be assigned to motivations and incentives of the second.

That would still be better than this if done competently because as actual capitalists keep pointing out the best result for them isn’t a collapsed NHS either. Independence Day cartoon dot jpeg

Sunak is there for the taking - he's a lightweight in every sense of the word apart from his blown up rep. The only thing that makes him powerful is the right-wing UK media and elements within CCHQ who paint the simpering boy wonder as the next PM elect and I've not seen anyone from Labour meaningfully ripping him a new arsehole since Rebecca Long Bailey silenced him in at the televised debate in 2019. but alas what we have now is Starmer Labour, which will often do it's best to make him look even better than them.

Sir Keir Starmer calls for "round the clock" vaccinations

The Midnight Jabber!

you snooze you zoos

:p

Ha

A shot in the dark

capacity in terms of space isn't the issue. having enough people trained to do it is. no-one is going to be working 24 in a shift to do this. you might have two teams working 12 hour shifts. no reason they both can't function during the day though. this plan is fucking stupid. also can you really see the most vulnerable people getting up at three in the fucking morning to travel to some godforsaken carpark and then filling out a bunch of forms in the middle of the night? what planet is this fucking idiot on?

I can see healthcare workers who are already on shift getting jabbed at 3am, yeah. I would, too.
I would imagine physical space plays some part - there's already been talk of schools using community buildings to enable more kids to actually be in school (pre-lockdown). But yes like every other problem we are facing, having enough trained people available is going to be a bottleneck.

Sir Keir Starmer calls for "round the clock" vaccinations

See You Later, Vaccinator

well obviously vaccinating healthcare workers during their work hours makes perfect sense and i assume that managers would already plan that. if that's what starmer is calling for, it's hardly worth him raising the issue xp

It's hardly worth him raising his head off the pillow in the morning tbf.

he's probably just calling for something the tories already started last week, that's how this knighted melt rolls.

Isn’t 24/7 vaccination what Israel is doing? Not that he’s not still hopeless, but I can’t see how having 24hr availability is a bad thing in itself.

Working 24hrs isn't going to make any more trained staff available or any more vaccine available. If it's just needing a physical space to do it, there are thousands of empty buildings right across the country right now. Not sure what Israel is up to though

it wouldn't be a bad thing if the NHS was adequately funded beyond the kind of meaningless lip service that Starmer Labour does, but the current message is: Labour spent too much in the past

i haven't been keeping up itt, but on the same note, sunak's per property business grant is effectively a pure siphoning of cash to landlords, and doesn't take into account the business as a business as a going concern with staff and perishable inventory etc. put in the column marked rentier capitalism for Brett Christophers (though I disagree with some of his definition). although incompetence clearly has a large part to play in much of the fiasco, it would be useful to have two columns, one marked 'incompetence' and the other 'decisions driven by rentier capitalist interests' and i'm not at all sure that most in the first column couldn't be assigned to motivations and incentives of the second.

― Fizzles, Tuesday, 5 January 2021 21:58 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I was trying to do an hmrc calculator to see what I would be entitled to (Towr Hamlets as a council usually take a couple weeks to be assigned the money and what to do with it) and am in the bracket where my shop pays between £15000-£51000 in rates a year. We pay £16000. That seemingly entitles us to £2k a month. Our rent is £2500 a month. I’m emailing the landlord, who we have 5 months left with, in the morning to essentially say “lol” if they want the extra £500, and kinda assume their nick it from our initial deposit. Fuck knows how much rent arrears people who pay £49000 a year in rates will be in.

I presume they've made a calculated decision that businesses accruing huge rent arrears or going into liquidation is the lesser evil than disrupting the rent income of their precious rentier friends. Or maybe they just don't know what they are doing and are haphazardly making this up as they go along.

Toby Young and Ian Dunt on Newsnight look like a pair of disgruntled testicles: pic.twitter.com/hERS7zGYlx

— Paul O'Connell (@pmpoc) January 5, 2021

Unfair to bollocks imo

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eq9NsbmWMAEIlAG?format=jpg&name=900x900

perhaps not a serious and intelligent enough person to be given a platform on national television at the time of a new lockdown or have they got van the man and ian brown on next week

Clapping for the NHS is apparently making a comeback as Clap for Heroes so all's well.

I only clap for cowards

Extended to clap for all heroes ftr. I've been told that I'm learning to be a real hero a lot in this Yakuza game I'm playing...

Oh are you playing Like a Dragon too? I am about halfway through but haven’t picked it up for a few weeks cos work/Christmas.

as a hero, appreciate the gesture tbf

Maitlis did read out that column to him (though I agree there's no fucking reason for Toby Young to be seen by anyone anywhere)

On a related note, i'm intrigued to see where the Starmer idea of suppressing anti-vaxx campaigns goes.

It could be as limited as stopping the protesters parked outside of hospitals but i'd imagine that a lot of their behaviour could be covered by existing public order legislation, rather than requiring something else.

Tories be murderin'

Exclusive: Homeless people in England will not be accommodated in emergency housing during the third national lockdown.

The Government will not restart the Everyone In scheme that helped to house rough sleepers during the first pandemichttps://t.co/HVwqh5oNSo

— Jasmine Andersson (@the__chez) January 6, 2021

yeah gyac, just finished chapter 9. Felt stupidly proud at beating Nanba and Ishioda finally.

xposts game also more humane towards the homeless than the UK govt

so many empty/closed hotels xpost.

absolutely medieval way of treating the less fortunate - shame on them, shame on us all

The homeless can always keep themselves warm by clapping for heroes.

it's just the endless grinding "oh we have a choice? let's make the evil one then" that's doing me in. They'll obviously never front up about it so with every new announcement you have to ask "what evil are they quietly up to here?" and a day or two later out it comes.

GB News is real and significant. It’s backers have deep pockets. It is not hyperbole to expect that it will have an impact on the UK broadcast news landscape, because it has money and a mission. Read the attached. @afneil @prcmarshall @LegatumInst @unherd pic.twitter.com/yifwKmMUUb

— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 6, 2021

I didn't realise the Legatum Institute was involved in GB News. Extremely bad.

They don’t even mention digital/online in the release, because this is squarely aimed at Freeview (and in passing the other linear services that carry Freeview). Which means they only care about a 55+ segment, and one that weights C2DE as well.

In other words, Fox-style right-wing brain-worms for boomers, precisely as predicted.

"The channel's third major investor is British businessman and philanthropist Sir Paul Marshall..." - net worth £630 million, father of the banjo player in Mumford & Sons (!)

my prediction which will obviously be proven hopelessly wrong by the end of the year or whatever is that GB News is on a hiding to nothing. Sky News has never made money, I don't think. LBC covers the brain worms space, and there isn't really advertising revenue to support a news show in the UK. There's no commercial space for it basically.

Surely making money isn’t the point of any of these ventures, they’re just loss leaders for the policies they will be pushing?

Sir Paul Marshall has cash to burn:

"Hedge fund bosses Sir Paul Marshall and Ian Wace have made more than £50million from the collapse of leisure stocks as the coronavirus outbreak grips London markets."
https://www.winston-fox.co.uk/marshall-wace-makes-50m-on-coronavirus-crash/

Big donor to the leave campaign too

Yeah, the channel's not going to make money, but the growth of the right-wing lunacy industry will make lots of people involved richer in other ways

UK records 1,041 more Covid deaths and 62,322 more cases

i think at some point not making money is a problem in tv, especially if it points to a lack of audience, which would also indicate a key failure of engagement. it is of course possible to make studio based opinion stuff very cheaply, but i don’t see this becoming a fox news vector. tbh that audience is well served already.

discovery certainly won’t want a loss making channel on their books imo.

as a field experiment and also as an act of self-mortification I listened to Times Radio for a few days a couple of months back. They made the BBC look like pros by their constant fluffed links, periods of silence and at one point they broadcasted the ambient noise of a backroom occasionally interrupted by two producers talking to each other for a few minutes, although this was a high point of the entire experience tbf. When they do this shit cheap it really does show.

UK records 1,041 more Covid deaths and 62,322 more cases

676 deaths on the 7-day moving average on Worldometers, up from 500 a week ago.

Oh no not a right wing free marketeer media channel, this is a game changer

"UK records 1,041 more Covid deaths and 62,322 more cases"

And we still got the effects of Xmas to come.

At least no schools and hopefully no unis as well.

Oh no not a right wing free marketeer media channel, this is a game changer

NEW: Gavin Williamson confirms that children without a laptop have been added to the “vulnerable” list who are entitled to go into school, as per below.

Massively expands number able to attend class. Teachers already reporting higher numbers going in than during first lockdown. pic.twitter.com/OXRAcun4tu

— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) January 6, 2021

that is god tier shithousery

I, for one, cannot believe this government are, once again, fucking it

kill the poor imo.

As for this channel you have right-wing talking points on all the time across the BBC, and free-speech liberals give that shit air-time all day because they think they will rationally beat it in debate lol. Hedge fund managers spending a bit of spare change.

BREAKING
Nigel Farage and Richard Tice get the green light from the Electoral Commission to rename the Brexit Party as Reform UK.
One of Reform UK's policies is to ease Covid-19 restrictions.
The pair are planning to stand over 1,000 candidates at the local elections this year.

— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) January 6, 2021

not now lads eh

I think GB News is likely to be anticipating changes from Ofcom too, like allowing political advertising and easing some of the impartiality restrictions.

ah that’s interesting. that was one of the things i was going to call out. didn’t realise they were thinking of changes.

Depends on the new chair, I think. If it's Dacre, then whee.

NEW: Gavin Williamson confirms that children without a laptop have been added to the “vulnerable” list who are entitled to go into school, as per below.

Could conceivably mean that in some instances, half the children are at school and half are at home and teachers might need to be teaching in both realms simultaneously?

i can't see dacre doing it in a million years (another good one to come back to when he's appointed). Put Dacre in a nominally important oversight role for the ongoing telecoms changes, Huawei, OpenReach and 5g governance?

I originally thought Dacre was a spoiler/troll like Moore but by all accounts they were in fact deadly serious about Moore so fuck knows.

I thought a lot of teachers were in both class and virtual class simultaneously, in order to support the kids of key workers ?

sure, but i'm assuming the numbers of pupils in class would've been lower and would've freed up some resource for online teaching. begs the question what students with no access to computing and no right to school attendance have been doing up to now though

(sorry for my hypothesizing, i realise it's of no good use to anyone)

I originally thought Dacre was a spoiler/troll like Moore but by all accounts they were in fact deadly serious about Moore so fuck knows.

― stet, Wednesday, January 6, 2021 7:18 PM bookmarkflaglink

Yeah quite. I didn't realise that about Moore which is just O_o but of course also not.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErFU4fxXEAAFesL?format=jpg&name=large

lol .. the great white hope of the soft left.

guess it's good we're getting our very own fox news huh

The Queen was blameless, the particular combination of jewels she wore constituted Epic Shade towards Trump, there were several of us who Couldn't Even, as I recall

Oh I'm dreading all the right-wing lunatics getting maximum airtime on a daily basis

not that it matters when we have the BBC I guess

Starmer's refusal to back the other old guy was a tacit endorsement of Trump imo

i think at some point not making money is a problem in tv, especially if it points to a lack of audience, which would also indicate a key failure of engagement. it is of course possible to make studio based opinion stuff very cheaply, but i don’t see this becoming a fox news vector. tbh that audience is well served already.

Murdoch's right-wing talking-head cable channel in Australia gets a viewership of 50-70k. Their youtube posts get over 5 million views from conspiracy theorists and headbangers worldwide. The broadcast channel is just to give legitimacy to the influence-peddling.

I realise that the political left does not have the financial resource to compete with this far-right media challenge, but I nonetheless think that the best thing the left can do is to work on building its own media.

with the shouty hyperbole of The Canary and the terfy swagger of The Morning Star!

There are one or two alternatives.

Solidarity with the british gas workers striking for the next 5 days. Fire & rehiring on lower contracts needs to be made illegal

Yup. Just a horror show.

Re: left-wing media. This is what the likes of Novara are doing. Tribune and its networks with Jacobin in the US. It is being formed, it won't get as many figures, but yes it's about who watches it and where do they end up in terms of power.

NEW: Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Frances O'Grady have written to Labour and TUC members urging them to volunteer in the national coronavirus vaccination effort: https://t.co/qz3eNy6XSd

— LabourList (@LabourList) January 7, 2021

Because working for free is what Labour are about now?

Larry Elliott here, he leaves it to Chakrabortty to join the dots on the failures that are coming our way.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/07/boris-johnson-economy-revive-vaccine

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/06/britain-covid-shot-industrial-base-uk-manufacturing-national-security

There are one or two alternatives.

Novara, New Socialist, Tribune - I like all of these to varying degrees but can't imagine any of them reaching ppl beyond those already onboard.

I misread that Labour call - it's more like campaigning-style volunteering than the "work for the NHS" volunteering I read it as. Starmer is good not bad now.

that would be bad reading because the only way Starmer could be good not bad is if he jumped into a vat of piping hot sulphuric acid!

speaking of bad, another Johnson presser this evening. Haven't seen so much of him in ages

Strong Harold Shipman energy here pic.twitter.com/Mh29Ddelp4

— Alex Christofi (@alex_christofi) January 7, 2021

I think the new left media, though their reach is of course small, do have some influence on opinion. TBH my own views are different now from what they were 4 or 5 years agp, partly as a result of them. Maybe that's true for others, and maybe that filters through somewhere.

It's quite good for political figures - RLB for instance - to engage with them rather than eg the Observer.

Allies of the Chancellor Rishi Sunak say the reason he has been reluctant to argue publicly against opposition demands for increased public spending is that he no longer believes Johnson will resist requests for more cash.

be an idea to make some demands for cash then, eh?

is Marcus Rashford available?

Is this Clap For Heroes thing happening tonight? Worrying echoes of Help For Heroes in the name. If so I may have to schedule a playthrough of Metal Machine Music (Side 4) for 8pm.

Solidarity with British Gas workers - striking against attempts to fire and rehire them on worse terms.

They're defending themselves and taking a stand against a practice that should be illegal.

The company must get back to the table and resolve this through negotiation.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) January 7, 2021

He's been hacked!

Watched a harrowing report on hospitals struggling with doctors and nurses at breaking (this uclh, no ordinary hospital) point. If any nurse gets anything out of the clapping business then good tbh.

Re: left media

I mean this as an observation not a criticism or endorsement but clearly one aspect of the left media landscape (& something that has implications for plans for any Momentum media fund) is that Momentum seems to increasingly see itself as a producer of left media. pic.twitter.com/Mgb5RlZ93R

— Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann) January 7, 2021

The neighbourhood WhatsApp has ruled there is to be no clapping tonight, especially after some staff at the hospital nearby chimed in and said “yeah we’d much rather you all stayed inside and obeyed lockdown tbh”

just checked my neighbourhood WhatsApp and there were 21 messages, all about a minibus that keeps (legally) parking in our street, so guess we aren't doing the clapping this time.

clap for minibus

would take a single message in there to instigate a "boo at the minibus" down most of the street. it's most often parked outside my house and I honestly dgaf tho

Is it yours?

maybe if it's abandoned there for long enough it will be? though not sure what i would do with it.

You are never going to unleash your inner Ron Dixon without your very own "Moby"!

1162 deaths today

i have had little exposure to brigadiers in my life. are they all like this?

oh another press conference ... can't take these anymore and be fucked if I'm interrupting To Catch a Thief for that poltroon!

yeah, don't switch to it if you're not watching. it's of minor interest because it's not the usual gang - it's got the army guy in charge of vaccine distribution and the CEO of the NHS. He has just had a satisfying if sexist pop at the covid-deniers and the army guy seems to be frowning at covid, the nation, the world.

is the Byline Times any good or just an embarrassment like Canary?

i have had little exposure to brigadiers in my life. are they all like this?

Any bets Boris got him to purposely dress up in the whole camo gear?

Excellent report on the deal uk-eu deal.

Which is to say that #Brexit impact is not really about 'delays at the border'...it's the permanent, structural disadvantage of UK businesses vis-a-vis EU counterparts. i.e Those 'non-tariff barriers' that @BorisJohnson said did not exist (in a universe of alternative facts)/12

— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) January 7, 2021

Whole thread is worth reading that leads us to being poorer. No idea what the political ramifications could be, as we are crashing into it.

Interesting that as well as a hierarchy of bigotries there’s also now a hierarchy of fractions of organised labour. “British Gas is a big employer in Red Wall seats!” https://t.co/B50U5eTc2w

— Tom Williams (@shirleymush) January 7, 2021

no smelling salts required for Kieth after his little turn earlier, he's still going strong after a few thousand tory voters in shiteholes like Bishop Auckland and Workington.

and any group of workers as large as the teaching sector that have been as at odds with the tories in the last decade as much as teachers - well that involves a fight with the UK govt and that wouldn't be forensic

Gavin Williamson rejected BT’s offer to provide free/cheap broadband for thousands of working class families & returned free WiFi vouchers.

From the algorithm fiasco, legal threats against schools that wanted to close, recent u-turn to this - how is he STILL Education Secretary?

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) January 7, 2021

I don't get the logic there, is he trying to save our children from communism?

(don't all bt routers expose a public wifi hotspot anyway, that you can access if you're a subscriber? seems like it'd be ideal for this, given that i can see 7 bt home hubs from here)

that would be ... broadband socialism .. very cheap and effective but how can that compete with crony capitalism?

It's really disgusting.

"Great, there's a vaccine. Now how are we going to roll it out?"
[finishes lighting cigar with £50 note]
"Well... You know those people who've suffered over a decade of austerity thanks to capital, and who are about to get poorer still? Let's get them to do it. For free." https://t.co/EuiJ7KG8LA

— Tom Williams (@shirleymush) January 7, 2021

Pigs being pigs

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-derbyshire-55560814?

BREAKING: I have declared a major incident in London because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point.

One in 30 Londoners now has COVID-19. If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die.https://t.co/OjV7SZ4BgQ

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) January 8, 2021

68,053 new Covid cases.

1,325 new fatalities.

breaking new national records every day now, amazing to think it's not even that long ago the govt were suing schools to open + Sir Haircut was still insisting they should all have gone back a few days ago.

chart for England here (1st reply) is scary

1,325 new #covid19uk deaths reported today (08-Jan). Below is a chart of the latest data available by Date of Death with today's added numbers highlighed in orange. More naton / region charts further down the thread. pic.twitter.com/05zAhYbKEs

— Richard 📊📉 (@RP131) January 8, 2021

Earlier the government told media it had 'extended the eviction ban'.

The details are out and in fact this is a LIE.@RobertJenrick has given the go ahead to evictions of large numbers of people in rent debt starting Monday. Just as Covid deaths reach a new high.

THREAD ⬇️

— London Renters Union (@LDNRentersUnion) January 8, 2021

because *far more workplaces are open*. This isn't a planned lockdown it's a random social suppression in the hope that the vaccines will save us before catastrophe arrives. https://t.co/OeF7g4SSON

— jamie k (@jkbloodtreasure) January 8, 2021

Catastrophe feels closer than it has since March, at least in London.

talk up a hard-lockdown for what is effectively a soft-lockdown is what I've come to expect from this shower of shit. But they can blame it all on the rapid spread of the new variant rather than their reckless disregard for the risk to workers that can't work at home getting on crowded underground cattle trains every day

when we did the first lockdown last April i could see the logic of not putting an end date out there

they've burned thru every ounce of good will and iirc the point of lockdown was to buy time to set up track and test and other infrastructure, and iirc everybody at the time pointed out that public good will would only last so long.

they've lost the dressing room

Westminster voting intention:

CON: 39% (+2)
LAB: 39% (-2)
GRN: 6% (+1)
LDEM: 6% (+1)
BREX: 3% (-1)

via @YouGov
Chgs. w Dec

— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) January 9, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3E5YIP-DvU

20 points you kermit voiced motherfucker

someone the other day posted one of the main reasons he will never be PM is that it is so easy and fun for amateur impressionists to funny versions of his stupid voice!

can you picture thst as PM? he makes Boris look real

UK ‘rejected offer’ of visa-free tours by musicians in EU, despite blaming Brussels for permit blow https://t.co/t12VlKY9jY

— The Independent (@Independent) January 9, 2021

Listen to SAGE member @SusanMichie talking about having a stricter lockdown, yet the institution she works for @ucl & @UoLondon is forcing hundreds of security officers and cleaners to continue attend work, and is refusing to close sites despite @IWGBUoL and workers demands! https://t.co/jPal9Yj7wW

— Henry Lopez (@HCHLopez) January 9, 2021

Why the hell is Starmer still saying he didn’t want schools to close? He sounds more like an idiot wetwipe everytime. Sure, it’s only gonna be the first week where we have 1k+ deaths every day and everyone, especially the scientists and unions, know that schools are super spreaders, but I will go on Andrew marr and bang on about how I wanted to keep them open!

He’s telling the truth tbfttl, he was quite literally the last person to call for closure

(He’s a fucking liability obv)

Tough on tax rises tho in the true um Labour tradition?

Maybe instead of complaining about council tax rises he could make some points about years of underfunding local authorities but maybe that wouldn't be forensic

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/09/nhs-vaccinate-uk-covid-five-days-oxford-professor?

Yes, "red tape" is the only preventing me getting up at 4:30am to get my jab at the gymnasium.

The notion that universities are hotbeds of Marxist thought was only ever a fiction, and even more so when you read the ramblings of someone like this guy.

Gotta trust the medical credentials of someone who says "it's just sticking a needle in an arm ffs"

EXCL: UK’s ‘inhumane’ approach to immigration will not work & will cost more, says ex Home Office minister

Tory MP Caroline Nokes accuses ministers of 'paying lip service' to Windrush review & 'whipping up unpleasant reaction' to vulnerable asylum seekershttps://t.co/FYl05WPLU4

— May Bulman (@maybulman) January 10, 2021

you know Patel is really doing bad evil and *incompetent* work when a terrible Tory is saying she has gone too far and isn't even implementing home office evil in a cost efficient manner, Starmer wouldn't approve of that.