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

all we need now is for those people to hold onto that anger for another four and a half years or so

Its classic, let any bad feeling stored up all funnel its way into this Cummings story. Then either toss him aside if its too high or ride it out if not

otm, we are all morons for paying attention, rich irony in all the ppl wetting themselves over crerar's rope-a-dope genius

all we need now is for those people to hold onto that anger for another four and a half years or so

good luck, lads

Plenty of other opportunities for them to make people angry, the biggest recession in 90 years included.

nothing mobs love more than forensic analysis in a funny voice

The same old shite about the morality and character of an individual that proves the system is just fine, it's just the one bad guy. Liberals really are some dumb motherfuckers

Lets roll our eyes and tut like clapping seals at Laurence Fox again

The coming year has a second spike, an endless supply of “worst in the world” stats, economic catastrophe and fucking Brexit still to come. Tossing Cummings is not enough to draw the venom from all that - and they genuinely want to keep Cummings.

Following on from the tweet about the use of Barnard Castle in slang...

https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/4wyllxa

barney n.1

[? the holding of dubious sporting events, e.g. bare-knuckle boxing, in or behind the barn, and thus a fig. use of barney n.2 . However, Partridge, quoting Apperson, refers to the phr. come, come, that’s Barney Castle, a response to anyone making a particularly specious excuse. This in turn, it is claimed, refers to the Catholic earls’ Northern Rising of 1569, when Barnard Castle was held by Sir George Bowes who refused, despite many challenges, to leave his fortifications and engage in battle. The ‘Rising in the North’ certainly created the Durham dial. Barnard Castle, a coward, taken from the jibe ‘A coward, a coward, o’ Barney castle/Dare na come out to fight a battle’]

Johnson for some reason is desperate to keep Cummings, lord knows why. The rest I suspect would be happy to throw him in a dumpster to the bottoms of the Tees, though none of them will do anything to rock the boat at the moment.

The coming year has a second spike, an endless supply of “worst in the world” stats, economic catastrophe and fucking Brexit still to come. Tossing Cummings is not enough to draw the venom from all that

It depends on whether enough of the country takes a "well, what you can you expect, there's been a global pandemic" line. TBH I think this entire episode has been profoundly unhelpful to that, killing off a lot of the performative Blitz spirit goodwill that the govt had been coasting on, but these things can be pretty difficult to wash away.

Also Boris Johnson could literally turn up and machine gun a socially-distanced supermarket queue and there would still be a good 30% of the country that would still turn up and faithfully put a cross in the Conservative box.

This is absolute fanfic, but I wonder if anyone in the cabinet is figuring that the backbenches would be the best place to be for a spell, and "Well, this is absolutely intolerable" would be a decent reason to try this - they'd be betting that even if nothing happens now, there will be a bad by-election in the next few years, and people will be casting around for someone to replace Boris.

No one in the Cabinet has that kind of backbone.

xp (no-one else is Boris, and the position described is already occupied by Jeremy Hunt, but this idea doesn't require accurate self-reflection on the part of the cabinet member)

For reference, my 60-something, married-to-an-older-pilot, Brexit-y-and-mates-with-loads-of-old-racist-cunts, probably-a-racist-herself, shares-lots-of-racist-memes-and-stories-about-Sadiq-on-Facebook-even-though-she-doesn't-live-in=London Aunt is today sharing a Cummings-must-leave petition on Facebook

― Pinche Cumbion Bien Loco (stevie), Monday, 25 May 2020 19:10 (forty-eight minutes ago) link

lol, this makes me hope the cum dog rides this out. Whole buncha dumb animals getting mad at the farmer imo

I think “what do you expect” is going to founder hard on the rocks of “to not be either the absolute or relative worst in the world on nearly all fronts tbh”. Johnson as captain of the Concordia yet again there.

I hear those other countries count things wrong, don't even have the right calipers, it's in fucking metric.

there will be a bad by-election in the next few years, and people will be casting around for someone to replace Boris.

They're not ditching Boris anytime soon and even if they do, for what? Gove?

They'll ditch him before the next election, guaranteed, but any time soon? Come on now

its so weird watching boris johnson who is so desperate to be liked and terrified of scrutiny be prepared to stand there and eat dog shit on live tv two nights in a row for this man, like honestly why are they so scared of him, he looked like such a concerned family man

just watched in now and his response to beth rigby made me scream at the screen. robert peston is literally beyond a joke. does he have to use cummings wife's first name in a pally way in every question what an absolute

omg was fascism this infuriating last time around?

This isn't fascism its aristocracy.

had hoped by now i'd be making my money singing kurt weill songs somewhere v seedy not shouting at my laptop in islington this is making me reappraise my choices

I hear those other countries count things wrong, don't even have the right calipers, it's in fucking metric.

These balloons aren't fascists this is ludicrous

does he have to use cummings wife's first name in a pally way in every question what an absolute

In different hands and with a different subject this could be an effective interview technique, trying to get the interviewee's guard down, but obviously wasn't going to work in this context.

It's effective in putting the interviewee at ease... because they're right to be at ease

Peston is not effective at anything.

seems to effectively get a rise out of lots of people who aren't politicians

Peston is not effective at anything.

Eh? Looks pretty effective to me

Johnson claimed tonight that he now needs to wear glasses more often due to CV-19.

2014: "I’m now so short-sighted, I’m blind!"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2799562/amp/i-m-blind-bat-says-boris-johnson-london-mayor-admits-needing-glasses-house.html

These gotchas are pure garbage

Tuesday’s Daily Mail: NO APOLOGY NO REGRETS #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/lOhK2i8HS2

— Helena Wilkinson (@BBCHelena) May 25, 2020

NO SURRENDER

Eh? Looks pretty effective to me

Could you be any more predictable?

You are well aware that he can and he will.

Anvil working on overdrive to argue with absolutely anybody tonight is it.

Pesto was one step too far.

It's almost as if there was a script! Imagine all the Labour MPs coming up with the same idea at the same time. pic.twitter.com/FQ2AkW9PDT

— Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) May 25, 2020

Why do they keep doing this?

Tories basically doing another version of the same thing. I suppose there are enough people paying little enough attention for these messages to cut through but it only takes one of these to go viral and you've clowned yourself.

You clown yourself on Twitter, but I don't think the public ever notices that. The Tories have proved multiply how effective droning repetition of the same message (even beyond the point of ludicrousness) can be

Sturridge has gone to Chelsea.

Also that Sun front page. If this is a grand Murdoch plan to get Boris replaced by Gove then it's a deep deep chess game.

when I post "fuck off starmer you cunt" every day it is actually a very serious experiment in message discipline.

Another delightful divergence between the two Suns #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/CuQXTZnzh9

— Mia de Graaf (@miadegraaf) May 25, 2020

I thought the choice of "svengali" by the Sun was interesting, separates Dom from Johnson, I'd say maybe that's overthinking it but thinking at all about it is over by definition

Weirder and weirder...@jwiechers put blog through Internet archive machine and reference to coronavirus, quote on coronavirus was not in the version of blog saved on Way Back MAchine on Apr 9 2020 ... but is there this month...https://t.co/Bwmwgm2jFg

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) May 25, 2020

He’s basically our Jacob Wohl, and our politics is at his mercy

Could you be any more predictable?

― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Monday, 25 May 2020 21:52 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

You are well aware that he can and he will.

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 25 May 2020 22:07 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Anvil working on overdrive to argue with absolutely anybody tonight is it.

― xyzzzz__, Monday, 25 May 2020 22:22 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Looks like I've misjudged the mood of the nation here. Perhaps I have misunderstood what Peston's purpose is