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

tbh I rarely say it out loud and am not entirely sure whether it has a short middle syllable or none at all when I do, but I can hear my mother saying mɛdsəns

trying to remember what my more w/c nan would have said, and I can imagine either the same or a very methodically pronounced 3 syllables, but nothing in between

I watched most of PMQs but missed the last 10 minutes and any farewell to Corbyn, alas - worth going back to later or not?

hmmmm

Scotland’s chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, has said she is satisfied that Prince Charles was tested for the coronavirus for “clinical reasons”, after questions were raised on social media whether he had jumped the queue.

It emerged on Wednesday that Charles, known as the Duke of Rothesay in Scotland, was in self-isolation with his wife, Camilla, at their Scottish home, Birkhall, on the Balmoral estate in Deeside with mild coronavirus symptoms.

He was tested by NHS Grampian staff, and Calderwood said she had contacted the team involved. “From the information I have been given it was clear he was tested for clinical reasons,” she said.

known as the Duke of Rothesay in Scotland

lol ok

guy incognito

🚨🚨 Professor Sharon Peacock, Director of the National Infection Service, Public Health England, says antibody test could be ready for general public to be tested in Boots or at home within days "not weeks or months". Simple finger prick test....

— Richard Vaughan (@RichardVaughan1) March 25, 2020

1) leave house for test
2) test negative
3) catch the ‘rona from a fellow shopper
4) ???
5) death

Prof Peacock said the tests themselves are being tested in Oxford this week. If they do work people will be able to order them via Amazon to test themselves.

— Richard Vaughan (@RichardVaughan1) March 25, 2020

!!!!

do dey actually have a Clue do?

Intriguing that they've bought 3.5m of them and ordered millions more without apparently having tested them to see if they work properly? They'd have to be at least fairly confident.

professor peacock in the boots with the finger-prick

Man it's gonna be crushing when loads of us do the tests and realise we haven't actually had invisible covid after all.

1) leave house for test
2) test negative
3) catch the ‘rona from a fellow shopper
4) ???
5) death

I’m afraid this is going to be as chaotic as everything else in the uk response but it’s something

do people with less bad and shameful accents pronounce medicine as 3 syllables

Less than three is disgusting savagery.

Man it's gonna be crushing when loads of us do the tests and realise we haven't actually had invisible covid after all.

God, yes.

meanwhile, away from the sunny uplands of today’s government messaging, there’s this thread (assuming it’s true, obv)

UPDATE. My mother was tested 14 days ago for COVID.

She’s a busy city vicar- 2 churches, 2 parishes.

TENS OF CONTACTS. Many elderly.

Today she got her result.

14 days later.

POSITIVE.

No contact tracing.

No testing of contacts.

No isolation.

We. Are. Fucked.

— Holly-Ann Perks (@HollyAnnPerks1) March 23, 2020

/do people with less bad and shameful accents pronounce medicine as 3 syllables/

Less than three is disgusting savagery.

Ah the tests must be the ones in the FT? Guessing they’ll be tested against the existing ones for accuracy?

what goes on in Professor Peacock's Study stays in...

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/mar/25/how-can-we-get-home-brits-stranded-abroad-covid-19-coronavirus-outbreak

My advice is to stay where the fuck you are for a few weeks

my wife's affluent and brexit-deranged aunt is staying in her holiday home in st lucia at the moment, posting on facebook both about how glad she is to be there where there are only two cases and the local hospitals have plenty of drugs and also about how angry she is that people are flooding to cornwall (where she usually lives) and putting the local nhs at risk

she's 74 and recovering from pleurisy so best of luck to her out there, i guess

They were told to come home tbf but yeah it won’t kill em to be “stranded” temporarily xp

Someone I know was in the Philippines and managed to get the last flight out but is now stuck in an airport in Dubai which is close to my idea of hell

i'm not paying for a fucking test

my eldest was apparently on his way back from New Zealand last night, dare say he'll update me at some point

seems there is more and more limits to Rishi's spending the further we go into this crisis, we'll have buy our own body bags from a*a*zon next.

Just appalling.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/london-woman-36-dies-of-suspected-covid-19-after-being-told-she-is-not-priority?

the real face of Herd Immunity

Fucking hell

Someone I know was in the Philippines and managed to get the last flight out but is now stuck in an airport in Dubai which is close to my idea of hell

mk1 and his g/f were in cambodia last week.
last tuesday they decided to book a flight for saturday to gatwick via dubai - they got back on sunday.
i don't think he had any idea as to just how lucky they were.
pointed out that article to him just now, and the penny has dropped.
to say my stress levels were through the roof leading up to their take off in dubai was an understatement as i was all to aware of borders being closed around them.
also, hours after they landed, their carrier, Emirates announced that they were stopping all long haul flights as of today (Wednesday).
they really did have a lucky escape.

xpost : they did not want to get stuck in cambodia - limited £££ funds etc.

This from Morrisons (£35 for a box of random food, next day delivery) sounds like a good idea.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/morrisons-shopping-delivery-food-boxes-3978471

xps fucking horrendous case, no questions asked about it at the briefing and probably won’t be either

We have just received communication from @SussexUni that all temporary contracts should now be terminated where possible. Accompanied by, "I am confident that if we pull together we can get through this and come out stronger the other side." If by "we" you mean permanent staff.

— Kathryn Telling (@KathrynTelling) March 25, 2020

This is good

Huge WIN! 💪💪💪 WETHERSPOONS JUST DID A U TURN!

This is what happens when workers come together - WE WIN!

One demand met - no gap in pay ✅

Next demand to push for: Full pay 💯

— BFAWU (@bfawu1) March 25, 2020

This page is normally updated daily but hasn't been updated today, wondering if yesterday's big jump got even bigger

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-information-for-the-public#number-of-cases

So this is probably happening tomorrow, about time

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/uk-government-set-to-pay-self-employed-workers-80-of-earnings

*down* to 643 in Italy in the last 24 hour cycle, which is better than going up again I suppose.

onimo, The Guardian just said it's up 41 to 465.

ugh, my employer not covering itself in glory today

Thanks Andrew, hopefully a sign of some kind of slow down but who knows

Looks like we are not quite on the Italy curve fingers crossed.

NN saying the figures might be misleading because (wtf) they need the consent of families to include a death in the count. Official number for today isn't out yet fwiw. Fingers still crossed.

sometimes I think that the british public are a lot more cautious than we are giving them credit for and then sometimes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM2lApW1kMU

Diverting poll thread for these troubled times

WORLD CUP OF STUPID CENTRIST HACKS - ROUND OF 80 - GROUP 1

— World Cup of Stupid Centrist Hacks (@centristhacks) March 25, 2020

I'd nom Keir Starmer, but he's not a journalist

cvmic

This guy is good on middle-east politics/culture, and does come with a whole range of tankie type stuff - he encountered Corbyn by chance last chance last week.

Last week, pre-lockdown, I saw a small gathering of ppl at an estate near where I live, I walked over & Corbyn was giving a speech to unveil a plaque for the writer, Andrea Levy (who grew up on that estate). He spoke about the racism Black Caribbean community faced/s in Britain. pic.twitter.com/W9WN9BOaxN

— Louis Allday (@Louis_Allday) March 25, 2020

I’ll read the thread, but I’ve walked past that place a million times. Wonder how many times I saw Corbyn in the area before I knew who he was.

thanks Corbyn for at least bringing some hope and almost getting into power. Starmer Labour won't get the steam off my piss. I'm not going to register to vote in another era of two tory parties.

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

Guess who's supporting Sir Keir during #ToiletPaperApocalypse!