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

Kibasi: a sober Paul Mason?

he must have been on the spice as well if he thinks Starmer is useful!

It's hard to disagree with that.

More science.

So Gavin Williamson has told the large majority of London boroughs to keep their primaries closed, apart from... Greenwich, which it threatened to take to court two weeks ago for closing its schools. pic.twitter.com/yx5UeQrrXZ

— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) December 30, 2020

Labour going after Gavin Williamson as he said "overwhelming majority" would be back at school on 4 Jan, yet half a million primary school students will not do so due to London closures alone. Kate Green calling on him to "return to parliament this evening to correct the record".

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) December 30, 2020

lol, at least the opposition are holding him to account :p

On what the government is thinking and what evidence they're considering, it is pretty clear they are prioritising labour discipline above all else. Over lives certainly, but also over capital accumulation during the pandemic.

— libcom.org (@libcomorg) December 30, 2020

Good analysis on government non-action. The thread it jumps from is incredibly grim, looking at another 20k deaths. Sadly we can say the NHS has pretty much collapsed, as in some people will not get access to care they need.

All we need now is for vaccine roll out to be bungled. I mean, who is going to give the vaccines, how much capacity do we have for this? I don't know, but I'd like to see reports.

Besides all that we are still learning about these mutations, too - 2020 is so not the end of it.

All paid for, I'm guessing.

MPs have voted to extend their Christmas recess until January 11, giving them almost an extra week away from Westminster

— John Stevens (@johnestevens) December 30, 2020

Thinking of this as the only glimmer of hope.

the highlight of this year, politically, for me, was the period of accelerated Revolutionary Time last summer. when self-active, Black-led, antiracist struggles from below changed what people believed was possible. when Minneapolis police station burned and Colston fell.

— michael (@Sisyphusa) December 31, 2020

<3

the struggle is always going on somewhere, whether we as individuals take time out or not

Sir Kieth Starmer: UK's best years lie ahead
https://i.imgur.com/2iz7HMt.jpg

ty xyzzpltru for the link framing this as a question of labour discipline. ive been struggling for a language to describe exactly that phenomenon

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

still obsessed with this clip from after first lockdown about the "changes" you might see in high street shops when they reopen. anything that might have made real difference (limiting the concentrations of people in the same space, using barriers to protect staff or using one way systems) is offered as something that 'may' happen and not something that must happen or is even possible in a number of instances. the reporter is keeps breezily describing this new world order and at the end urging us all to head to the £££sales£££ but its so obvious that no physical changes will have even been made to the layouts of the shops, that nobody from head office who made the covid ready policies for stores has even visited the stores and certainly that nobody could expect say extra staff to make extra workloads associated with improving hygiene in stores possible. its clear that the idea that these chain stores would give an inch to put safety ahead of profits is not going to be on the table.

the absolute intransigence around properly modifying how businesses work is so insane. i still can't get over the corner shop by my house run by a retirement age woman who has not put up a screen at the counter and only just started wearing one of those face screens. the most obvious thing in the world seems that there should have been teams of people and funding to help small business get back open with guidance and accessible funds to help businesses introduce safe store layouts processes, etc etc. i know this is all much worse in businesses that aren't public facing especially factories etc. i spoke to teachers in the school i used to work in and they said that when they reopened it was still impossible to get handsoap and the school fought the union about this!

British PM Johnson's father applying for French citizenship https://t.co/VQLEOiv4wI pic.twitter.com/88Er4Fv1jP

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 31, 2020

the fact that click-and-collect is still being allowed says so much. We could easily go delivery-only and reduce unnecessary travel but the Gov't doesn't see a problem with people being encouraged to spend in a less safe manner if it helps the economy.

But on Wednesday the prime minister sounded a more concilatory note as parliament approved a new trade deal with the EU, saying: “This is not the end of Britain as a European country. We are in many ways the quintessential European civilisation... and we will continue to be that.”

Cunt.

working in retail the past six months has been grim - not just my own personal experience but the people I know in other business saying the same thing - you're using less manpower hours in your branch because you're not taking the same money, but you're expected to get the same level of tasking completed plus keep the place clean and sanitised, and manage the volume and flow of customers. And of course, the nature of it is that the customers who are going to physical stores are the ones who are least likely to take sensible precautions etc because anyone with half a brain would just stay home and order only what was necessary via the internet.

But on Wednesday the prime minister sounded a more concilatory note as parliament approved a new trade deal with the EU, saying: “This is not the end of Britain as a European country. We are in many ways the quintessential European civilisation... and we will continue to be that.”

Could detect some dogwhistles in this babble (European = white, which the UK will continue to be), but prob giving it too much credit.

whenever someone starts harping on about 'civilisations', you know they'll have the callipers out soon enough

Twitter relitigating Darien today is a preview of what’s coming with IndyRef II. Brexit proxy culture war with added patronisation, the Holyrood campaign is going to be grim too.

i love it when people take an active informed interest in history tbh oh wait

Tom D OTM.

I was wondering how the UK government would manage to fuck up the vaccine rollout, but even I didn't foresee them delaying the appointments for the second jab by three months against all expert advice. The Tory backbenchers are essentially serial killers at this stage, can't wait for everyone to vote them back in at the next election.

Libcom again on that, quoting the virologist that caek quote in the outbreak thread and pulling the strands together.

This is useful on some dodgy numbers floating around on the new one dose/twelve week gap MHRA plan. There are a couple of things that are not clear though. https://t.co/VktKpzCrPN

— libcom.org (@libcomorg) December 31, 2020

We'll just keep playing with fire. It doesn't help the Tories to re-start the economy though. If enough ppl get a sense they are not protected, if cases are high in 2021 through some new mutation they won't be shopping much. We know the economic model runs on these small margins.

this government walks that perfect line between negligence, contempt and incompetence to be fair to the lads

It's the bonus dithering that's making it such a clusterfuck

We would like to offer our closed @BrewDog venues to help with a quick roll out of the vaccine. For free.

meh! still going to boycott your hideous brand for the rest of my life.. nauseating cunts!

The 'For free.' used for dramatic effect like that like it's the most important aspect of the gesture.

I do a lot of good work for charity.. and I don't even charge them y'know!

love to do things for the publicity free

964 covid deaths confirmed today, it's a runaway train at the moment

Put this in my EU poll but we need it here too:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/31/the-left-brexit-economic-uk

While I do buy the remarks of the EU as a neolib castle that needs to change, and the slowness of the economic response from the EU (seen less about the vaccine program) there is not a word about Scotland or NI, or whether the EU will just leave the UK to its own devices (such as finance, huge assumptions that it will always be fine). The write-up on manufacturing and free movemnt is amazing, as if these were not part of UK policy directions (EU migration as just the latest set of migrations of low-wage labour from the likes of the Caribbean), and whether this will just not mean another set of shoddy migrations in a guest worker style scheme for farmers and the like.

It is true the left will need to re-orient policy that is more than just re-join though.

New International now!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqliGDgXMAI4Ujw?format=jpg&name=900x900

that Joylon Windmill is so much better than the LOTO these days is not all down to some epiphany he had battering a fox to death in a kimono

mind like with Lady Caroline, people like this fucker will often posture left when it's so easy to outflank Labour. But the minute a left-wing leader shows up - they will show what they are really about!

Is Jolyon a hoax that has different people running the account or does he just occasionally spin a big wheel containing random behavioural prompts like "libel Owen Jones" and "boast about battering a fox to death"?

why not try living in a windmill

Really can't see what Britain gets out of this? Sounds like a maaaajor concession- the kind which were happy to wave guns around to prevent. Only beneficiaries seem to be the Spanish workers faced with job losses from a hard border. UK interest doesn't seem to have come into it? https://t.co/Fv7aia4mNT

— Tom Munday (@tommundaycs) December 31, 2020

I'd forgotten about that big old Gibraltar question and how it will pan out, so did the govt it seems but tbf you can't argue with the result.

xp delayed lol!

11PM - I can hear fireworks being let off by what I assume are Leave voting wankers.

It’s New Year’s Eve though

The fireworks went off at 11PM exactly, continued for five minutes, then stopped.

Happy new year one and all

deeply fucked up country when you think about it pic.twitter.com/JVLAXDOXLk

— c (@c15gg) January 1, 2021

Disaster capitalism and disaster medicine in one night.

Very concerning email sent out to staff at the Royal London Hospital this evening, detailing the extreme pressure the NHS is under.

It warns “we are now in disaster medicine mode. We are no longer providing high standard critical care, because we cannot.”

Via @JujuliaGrace. pic.twitter.com/C9LAcPIhQd

— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) December 31, 2020

for-n-sick in our mess age

Yeah it's time for a new UK Pol thread with extra sovereignty

caution: dyed-in-the-wool lexit opinion incoming but something to think about?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/31/the-left-brexit-economic-uk

There's been stuff to think about all down the line, tho I don't believe the "opportunities" outweigh what's been lost. There could certainly have been much better negotiated Brexits once the referendum happened, some of which might even have been better than the status quo.

The EU itself isn't all that, this is the main point.

The Imperial report on the new UK B117 strain is out. Very concerning findings, that highlight why we need to act on this *now*. These findings suggest that the situation within the UK is likely to get much worse than it is now. Here's why-

Thread.

— Deepti Gurdasani (@dgurdasani1) December 31, 2020

Many on the remainer left accept the EU has its faults, but they fear that Brexit will be the start of something worse: slash and burn deregulation that will make Britain a nastier place to live.

This, though, assumes that Britain will have rightwing governments in perpetuity

it will tho

always has

thats right