love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

Ugh, stupid fucking country.

Rail franchises basically temporarily nationalised - all revenue and cost risk now on Government, and franchises will run service, after passenger numbers fell 70% - significant action to keep the wheels turning on the system for at least six months. https://t.co/rEfVZxyKv6

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) March 23, 2020

sorry that question mark was an artefact of my poor cut and pasting but the question still stands: ?

meanwhile london hospitals are starting to hit capacity. this was the point where johnson's measures were going to keep patient numbers at that exact threshold iirc

Rail operators must be hemorrhaging money atm. 2.9m commuters getting 75% refunds on their season tickets / not using trains before the end of the year is going to set them back about £7bn, by my back-of-napkin calculations.

Obvs mustn't be allowed to socialise that risk and then go back to paying dividends to shareholders when things normalise, though.

This isn't good. The government are using people as scapegoats, just what does stronger action mean here?

It's telling that there was already preparations for giving cops the right to arrest ppl w/ the virus who won't self-isolate at a time when the official line was still "herd immunity, hope everyone gets it!".

i remembered i had a facemask, as handed to me by a nice #tweedefiance type at the traf sq anti-trump rally of 10398510928374 years i think 18 months ago:

https://i.imgur.com/d1cjf30.jpg

also good mourning lol

I wonder if the rail nationalisation isn't there to reverse the reduced service, which has meant that people commuting into London are on trains as packed as they always were.

Don't give them too much credit this is a hotel chain bail-out as much as a relief measure and looks extremely temporary. https://t.co/bSetO1uqT1

— RENT STRIKE NOW (@libcomorg) March 23, 2020

The discourse seems to be split between "The government communications on this have been terrible, why aren't there ads between every program on the BBC", and "People are largely dim cunts, bring in the army" - hard to argue against either.

Trying to make myself push back against the latter anyway just because it’s clearly being prepared as a counter to the former, which is way more to the point

They really could have hired the Scarfolk guy to do some eldritch PSAs.

Young man on building site has just given me his assessment of the current crisis: “It’s weird. It’s like something really weird’s happening”.

— Kevin Boniface (@_KevinBoniface_) March 23, 2020

someone's finally nailed it

The only good pundit

young man on building site otm, can we replace dominic cummings with this guy

I know I know it's serious but fuck martial law ever

its appeal might start to wear thin when you see someone getting shot for calling a copper a wanker after a few shandies.

Weird how "people must be physically compelled to act in the interest of the community" doesn't go down well as a leftist argument usually

The discourse seems to be split between "The government communications on this have been terrible, why aren't there ads between every program on the BBC", and "People are largely dim cunts, bring in the army" - hard to argue against either.

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 23 March 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Unlike this split will hold with the public as the bodies pile up.

From the virus, or the soliders?

maybe they can get public face of the army ant middleton to encourage people to just get out there and live your life and also stay indoors or you'll be shot

There have been PSAs between programmes, I saw one yesterday. The problem was that it featured the talking head of Whitty and he has almost no charisma or authority

can't find the gov website with daily updates of numbers of cases anymore...

A consultant from an NHS hospital within the M25 (he did not want his hospital named) told the Guardian that his hospital was coping at present but he was anticipating a “proper crisis” by Saturday.

While hospitals are increasing bed numbers and ventilators are on the way, he said staffing was key and so personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS staff and testing was vital.

My older sister is a GP and had a big meeting about the situation this morning. Apparently most people in there were on the verge of tears - she subsequently warned all our family that some serious shit is headed down the pipe, and she's begging us to just stay inside and avoid standing in any queues at all costs

sounds v ominous : /

my sister works in a library and they are still open for some fucking reason, she called in sick today because my niece has a cough, but she may get docked wages for doing so

people have posted on the library's Facebook page saying they are being socially irresponsible for remaining open but the official response is just to say they are following government guidelines.

my son's entirely unvital council job has still been making him go in, the thick fucking cunts

sometimes it only takes one line manager with a martyr complex eh?

the fuck

Croydon Council was basically making everyone go in well into last week.

weary lols at the chief executive of my company "positioning us as an essential business". feel way worse for the high streeters tbh as i kinda doubt they'll be any customers at the airport when i'm due back in on monday( kinda doubt the airport will be open tbh)

xp our local library has been closed since last tuesday

In cheerier news, there was nothing to worry about with Alex Salmond after all.

i am finding myself getting instinctively cross at totally innocuous and safe behaviour (kid learning to ride his bike with a parent, in the empty road most recently) until I catch myself. Scowling at people simply going outside isn't helpful to anyone.

Wow. Now Tory MP Steve Double says "many people that we consider to be low skilled are actually pretty crucial to the smooth running of our country". Calls on Priti Patel to review the new points-based immigration system "to reflect the things we've learnt during this time".

— Benjamin Kentish LBC (@BenKentish) March 23, 2020

"We've"

i just can’t with this

I know there is growing anxiety about the spread of the coronavirus, the severe pressures on our National Health Service and the risk to people’s lives.

Labour has supported the social distancing measures that have been introduced.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) March 23, 2020

I think the Keirbot is malfunctioning.

https://images.rapgenius.com/0f0b60ef21a9aa00ac89139f114fc405.320x320x1.jpg

Watch Kier Starmer Softly Ripple The Hair Of The Conservative Party In This Vague Tweet

less of a tweetstorm, more of a tweetmist

like a fool i read some of the replies, now i'm sad

best thing about this style of insipid opposition from Starmer is I won't even give a shit when US style voter suppression is employed by the tories.

cunt starmer morelike

i'm thinking of dobbing the grown-ups in to social services

opposition diluted to homeopathic concentrations, supposed to increase the potency don't you know

it works if you just believe hard enough

The trick is to spend as much money on it as you can. Pure, unalloyed belief will follow.

Lol at that Starmer tweet

like a fool i read some of the replies, now i'm sad