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

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!

all the christians on the left - wap bam boogie

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

Italy kept bars and restaurants open way way way too late and long after closing schools. Spain was still holding mass gatherings, like big protests, when they were ahead of us in cases I think?

How's Ireland doing right now? Their government locked down early.

ffs don't they read the bible? Jesus didn't cleanse the temple and kick the fuck out of all the melts just for show!

On the figures.

Death figures update: last night only 28 new fatalities recorded.

Alas this is not good news, it is because there are now so many deaths NHS using a 7.30am cut off instead of 1pm.

So govt looking at changing how they are reported 1/2

— Chris Smyth (@Smyth_Chris) March 26, 2020

changing the cut off to keep the figures down would be what a desperately incompetent and deluded regime would do, surely that isn't what they are actually doing?

You only get that to look good for a day or so anyway, after that you're back in a 24-hr cycle again. You can't shift the goalposts every single day.

Perhaps they could redefine what a 'fatality' is instead, that might work?

Newsnight suggested that they were only releasing figures when they had the consent of the families - which doesn’t sound like it should be correct for anonymised data.

Can’t count people in the death stats if you’re not testing people!

Yeah we should get age and location so this needs more scrutiny

XP = I think you can do a post-mortem though?

I think there is confusion between consent and inform going on. They want to make sure families have been told before they release death stats which could (in smaller places) do the same thing.

My husband had a letter from the government today advising him that he is at risk from Covid19 because of an underlying condition. Personally I'm pretty sure he's safe since he's been dead nearly 4 years.

— trish (@trishtur) March 25, 2020

death: the ultimate underlying condition

Fuck this Dyson bullshit btw. Add GTech to the list of those who offered to make standard ventilators and got ignored

How's Ireland doing right now? Their government locked down early.

https://i.ibb.co/R0VchrV/irelandcases.png

2 more deaths yesterday brought the total to 9

"384 UK Deaths today"

Omg in a population of 66,673,191 there is something like a quarter of a million to one chance one of them could be my mam, how dare this callous govt release these figures without my permission.

A group of youths spat in the face of an RSPCA officer and shouted “have corona bitch”, as she tried to rescue a swan, the animal charity have said.

Leanne Honess-Heather was helping the bird, which had become tangled in a fishing line, when five teenagers – aged around 16 – approached her close to Rush Lyvars Fishing Lake in Hedon, Hull.

Honess-Heather said she asked them to stand back before the “really upsetting” incident occurred.

That's pretty fucked up.

there's some pretty fucked up lads out there

Fuck this Dyson bullshit btw

otm

mega-Brexity Tory donors Dyson and JCB asked to fumble their way through making a thing they don't normally make whenever they can finally manage to rejig a production line set up to do something completely different, other UK companies who already make the products not even contacted

as there is a shortage I am in favour of getting manufacturers to look into changing their lines but it would make sense to ask actual experienced & able manufacturers if they have capacity first

every time I've rung the RSPCA they've basically shrugged and said "we're not coming over, whatever happens happens" so I would definitely like everyone to stop discouraging any RSPCA officers that actually get out there and do rescues

Every step you take, they'll be watching you - give it up for The Actual Police pic.twitter.com/siN5wA1UAo

— TheIainDuncanSmiths (@TheIDSmiths) March 26, 2020

My grandad just died of COVID19. He was 85 and got pneumonia in his lungs. According to government figures he would’ve been around the 465th person to die - I don’t believe these numbers

— georgina (@georgina_199) March 26, 2020

I am just laying out the fact that 50% of ventilators are already exported by companies in Ireland with no other observations whatsoever

No10 confirms that UK is not taking part in EU initiative to bulk buy ventilators and other equipment needed to tackle coronavirus. Asked why, Boris Johnson’s spokesman says: “We are not a member of the EU.”

— Benjamin Kentish LBC (@BenKentish) March 26, 2020

lol we’re all gonna die

BoJo... otm.

As I’ve said before, the ventilators are useless without the nurses. They’re extremely difficult pieces of equipment to use and you can kill someone horribly if you don’t know how to use them. (The intrusive ones, don’t think the issue exists with the non-intrusive ones.)

Oh for fuck's sake @ ventilator Dyson issue

dyson make machines go suck

dyson make machines go blow

how hard can it be to make a ventilator when you have that kind of expertise locked down already

Also how hard can that be for an inexperienced nurse to operate? As long as they get the suck and blow functions the right way round we're golden.

imaging waking up with the rona in hospital, a henry hoover smiling at you from from atop the bedside cabinet, its pipe shoved firmly down your helpless gullet

Henry hoover is a union man, he wouldn’t stand for that kind of scabbing

Front page of the sun today

Tomorrow's front page: Prince Charles tests positive for coronavirus at 71-years-oldhttps://t.co/1XQXl5doyj pic.twitter.com/RjW6zYEjcy

— The Sun (@TheSun) March 25, 2020