ForenSix Opposition - Politics in the Soon To Be Former UK in Autumn 2020

That Mail headline suggests a bigger problem for the Tories, in that Johnson isn't just failing at delivering proper testing infrastructure, or failing to contain the rona. It's that he's failing to deliver for garden variety affluent middle-aged Tory voters what they want most of all from government - the ability to go about their lives in a perfectly atomised self-centred little bubble without anything really getting in the way. (That was part of the promise of Brexit as well, I'm sure).

Those people will probably turn out and vote Tory anyway but you probably don't want to piss off too many of them for the mood music alone.

It also suggests why the government might take a fundamentally dangerous approach to announcing a second lockdown.

Use of the phrase 'Good Friday', referring to the day that Jesus Christ was crucified before rising again, the most important event in the Christian calendar, may offend some traditions of Christianity.

it does bring back painful memories of the pubs not being open tbf

Ah now, we've abandoned that too, in the spirit of reconciliation and also because we really wanted to.

Why you gotta play that song so loud?
Because we want to! Because we want to!
Why you always run around in crowds?
Because we want to! Because we want to!

good to hear someone from the shadow cabinet calling for UC to be scrapped, you wouldn't be sure they were unequivocally opposed to fucking anything from the way forensick kieth talks.

are the pubs finally open on Good Friday? thank fuck for that

Christmas Day too, godlessness imo.

Ofcom has just told the 24,500 people who complained about a Black Lives Matter tribute on Britain's Got Talent to (I paraphrase) piss off because there's nothing to complain about. Well, they've taken eight pages to explain their reasoning but basically that's the gist of it.

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) September 17, 2020

good job Ofcom

the real possibility of a pub lockdown over the Christmas period finally dawned on me the other day, i look forward to BAD THOUGHTS TRIGGER WARNING contemplating suicide along with the hundreds of thousands of other people living alone who won't be able to go see their families or indeed anybody else

Wasn't the Diversity thing the classic only a handful of people complained until the Mail (or whoever) ran an outrage piece about it a few days later and then thousands complained, most of whom probably didn't even see it?

As it happens:

Very few people complained following the original broadcast. Instead 96% of complaints about the show followed news articles *about the handful of original complaints*. Perhaps we need to stop outsourcing our culture war neuroses to television regulators on a weekly basis.

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) September 17, 2020

Jim Davidson didn't like it and i wish i didn't know that

i'd be comfortable with everybody who made a complained being banned from watching TV for the rest of their lives

oh no

Boris's critics were right all along, says Toby Younghttps://t.co/8nw5m2tpbm

— The Spectator (@spectator) September 17, 2020

ET TU TOBE?

I feel like the Spectator and the Mail might struggle to come to the conclusion that if all these people were right in the first place, then maybe they were...?

NEW: Flutter, the gambling group that owns Paddy Power has hired former Labour deputy leader (and anti gambling campaigner) Tom Watson. Scoop from @alicemhancock https://t.co/STp02QYerj

— Matthew Garrahan (@MattGarrahan) September 17, 2020

At least it isn't bagging a column for The Observer

And I think to myself... what a wonderful world...

Flutter Entertainment, the betting group behind Paddy Power and Sky Bet, has appointed former Labour party deputy leader Tom Watson as an adviser to its board as the company seeks to improve its treatment of problem gambling.

Mr Watson, a vocal anti-gambling campaigner, will guide the company on best practice in its shops, marketing, customer service and anti-money laundering procedures.

Flutter said the final details were still being confirmed but that it had been in conversations with Mr Watson since late spring and that he would be paid a retainer of “less than six figures”.

lads i'd be happy to advise you about how not to make money out of people's misery for less than six figures

maybe start by not calling yourselves Flutter

The ultimate Matt Zarb-Cousin news story.

Less than six figures !!!???

£1,234,500 a year

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-54188766

Limiting pubs to 17 hour days. That'll do it.

Here’s the full clip of Jacob Rees-Mogg saying people speaking out about the difficulty of getting a Covid test should stop the “endless carping”. pic.twitter.com/vhUlimENa1

— Ben Kentish LBC (@BenKentish) September 17, 2020

Cummings will have this guy locked in a cupboard again if he isn't careful.

Endless carping reserved for lads with big lakes on their country estates no doubt

Also this:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-17/johnson-s-covid-test-shambles-threatens-u-k-economic-revival?srnd=premium

RIP A&E:

Patients will have to book slots in A&E by calling ahead first, ministers confirm https://t.co/S3G9p8km6M

— The Independent (@Independent) September 17, 2020

nothing says "emergency" like pre-booking

i..... what

i think, tbf, the idea is that you'll wait for hours to be seen at home rather than in A&E but ime of A&E most of the people who end up using it will be taking no notice of that whatsoever

meanwhile listening to BBC Radio i'd say that the rules on lockdown are irrevocably broken amongst gammons/red wallers/cunts of all stripes and nothing short of martial law is gonna persuade a bunch of these to make any effort not to spread the rona as suits them

I mean, death from the rona would do it.

Looks like we're not going up to Newcastle this weekend, then.

🧅🧅🧅🧅🧅

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has phone number and passport details hacked after posting boarding pass on Instagram https://t.co/w099pNzmaQ

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 17, 2020

definitely feel like i'm seeing fewer masks around the place, almost like people think Spike 2 is inevitable so why try to prevent it

That story is like when Alan Partridge showed his credit card on THIS TIME (2019).

People now seem to think that following the rules is basically optional. Absolutely no idea what could possibly have happened to give them that idea.

Just hearing all these entitled dorks repeating "common sense" which apparently means "whatever's convenient for me"

Can't imagine where they got this from

If you call 111 to discuss a problem eg. spider bite blowing up your arm, they already make an appointment for you at urgent care, A&E’s cooler younger sibling. In my case I was given an 8pm appointment, arrived to Royal Free urgent care at 7.55pm, saw the duty doctor bang on 8pm and was out the door with a penicillin course and on the 168 home by 8.15 (which meant £1.50 round trip because of Hopper fares). My antibiotics were free, too, because the doctor had them in stock and the hospital pharmacy was closed.

That is very much dependent on where and when tbh, I remember getting seen at Moorfields relatively quickly when my GP sent me there & being really impressed with the whole thing. My father in law, though, who lives near us, had to sit in a chair in a&e for about 19 hours in hard chairs while they tested him because they didn’t have any space. They treated him as well as they could but he is in his 80s, I think, it is a lot to ask of someone that age who’s not well.

Ugh, that sucks for your poor FIL.

"People now seem to think that following the rules is basically optional."

Something like this.

This isn't how I'm living my life but I can get that the confusion and inconsistencies make it really difficult to get on board with the things we're being asked to do/not do. Like the "we'll celebrate Christmas" narrative after fucking over people hoping to see their families for Eid ... just makes things really messy.

👀
Ireland’s health service boss @paulreiddublin told briefing today
- “v senior officials in NHS” contacted him to see if Ireland “could help” UK with COVID lab tests

- & said UK’s test & trace system in “almost collapse”, “shutting down swabbing centres” via @colmomongain pic.twitter.com/XwtE5z2Fjb

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) September 17, 2020

FT talking about a national lockdown over half term

That’s what they’re planning in Ireland as well supposedly

half term is five and a half weeks away, things could have already gone very wrong between now and h/t.

it's also not the same week everywhere in the UK?

EXCL: Channel 4 News has seen a leaked document which calls on care homes in England to accept patients who are COVID-positive from hospitals.

Again.👇

(Thank you to all who helped us make this report.)https://t.co/t1fBSQbrfs

— Lucia Walker (@luciajwalker) September 17, 2020