Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

going to suggest 'not nearly enough'

― you are like a scampicane, there's calm in your fries (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 5 January 2021 bookmarkflaglink

Even 30% would be astonishing. Lol.

1. Remember in 2019 when demanding that everyone in the UK had access to the internet irrespective of income was considered ‘Broadband Communism’?….Today teachers across the country are still reporting delays in access to laptops and internet access for their pupils. pic.twitter.com/8sxJ6oPcPv

— Rebecca Long-Bailey (@RLong_Bailey) January 5, 2021

seeing as lots of the current shadow cabinet have already publicly trashed key policies of that manifesto, do they support the tories or oppose them if they implement them? have their branes melted yet?

Remember Nandy and Phillips scoffing at their own party policy and then running for leader

https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-teacher-covid-rates-333-above-average

In Leeds, the rate for secondary school staff was more than four times that of the general population or 333 per cent higher.

The data shows that the prevalence rate was, on average, 1089.5 for primary staff and 1750.5 for secondary staff, compared to 404.3 for the LA as a whole. This average was taken for a period spanning from the week ending 19 October to the week ending 20 November.

Who would have imagined?

Is that Mani of the Stone Roses looking on in the photo Tom D posted?

During the first lockdown, courts were closed. Now in the third lockdown, where we are in a worse position - hospital admissions higher, rising cases, new virus strain - courts are remaining open. There is no way it can be safe for courts to remain open.https://t.co/59XDqpMwp8

— HASL (@HousingActionSL) January 5, 2021

https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-teacher-covid-rates-333-above-average🕸

_In Leeds, the rate for secondary school staff was more than four times that of the general population or 333 per cent higher.

The data shows that the prevalence rate was, on average, 1089.5 for primary staff and 1750.5 for secondary staff, compared to 404.3 for the LA as a whole. This average was taken for a period spanning from the week ending 19 October to the week ending 20 November._


Who would have imagined?

These are going to be difficult and important years for the trade union movement. If elected as Labour’s leader the party will stand side-by-side with trade unionists. My piece for @LabourList: https://t.co/m4l0o2dZ3l

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) January 7, 2020

if only he'd also pledged to become The Zoomaster, at least that would be one of them that he hasn't reneged on within a few months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn4AbSicZ7U

Kieth and Angela planning Labour's covid strategy, earlier today

was hearing earlier on that we now have plenty of vaccine coming on stream, the thing that's constraining the rollout is a shortage of vials and wipes used for the application process. can't help wondering why we didn't order all that stuff 6 months ago once we knew a vaccine was part of the route out of this. department of health procurement planning on this is a joke

my kid's autism school is staying open and the official word is that all students are welcome back, but then they mention several members of staff tested Rona positive a few weeks back... hmmm tough decision!

first time we've broke 60 000 new cases today and 800+ deaths .. hmm no decision at all really.

ONS modelled estimates for Covid+ per region in England

London: 1 in 30
North East: 1 in 55
North West: 1 in 40
Yorkshire and Humber: 1 in 55
East Midlands: 1 in 40
West Midlands: 1 in 65
East: 1 in 45
South East: 1 in 45
South West: 1 in 125

1 in 30

is this bad

Professor Chris Whitty suggests some Covid restrictions could be still be necessary NEXT winter

— Lizzy Buchan (@LizzyBuchan) January 5, 2021

no shit. at this rate, the coronavirus crises will consume boris johnson's entire premiership

is it still a premiership if there's no country left?

think some of the deaths are backlog from Scotland not reporting - i avoid "date reported" numbers especially at the moment.

Wonder if a lot of businesses that were funded last time and have been on edge all year will now go:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/05/hospitality-sector-unimpressed-with-sunaks-lockdown-grant

Remarkable data from the ONS just published which shows that they think just over 2% of the population in England had Covid-19 in the week to January 2nd.

That's 1 in 50, potentially as high as 1 in 45. pic.twitter.com/1GW5PUZXka

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 5, 2021

over 1 person for every two school classes then

Lol so the question is when were these fuckers shown the figures that they had to announce lockdown a day into the new school term?

Really if it wasn't for unions just basically saying enough is enough we would not be here today. Or so it seems like it xp

going back to the old herd immunity tactic by the back door or something?

it seems very unlikely that Johnson or Kieth would have shifted on schools without the union pressure, yep

should start a union affiliated political party, that would be a good idea wouldn't it?

pippa crerar was told the london figure on saturday apparently, not that she reported it or anything

going back to the old herd immunity tactic by the back door or something?

― Fenners' Pen (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 5 January 2021 bookmarkflaglink

The government aren't in control of the situation beyond printing money and doing as little distribution of it as possible.

talking of printing money...

Somehow the Royal Mint giving four legs to a famously three-legged monster sums up the current state of Britain far better than even a dozen shambling performances from the PM. pic.twitter.com/qXzHp2cMUH

— J Courtenay Grimwood (@JonCG) January 5, 2021

extra legs for tripods is part of the brexit dividend iirc

lol nothing matters but at least we are all gonna die is how I break it down to an extent

And what was it that did for Wells' Martians in the end, hmm?

lol nothing matters but at least we are all gonna die is how I break it down to an extent

And what was it that did for Wells' Martians in the end, hmm?

5g wells

moderna utopia

lmao view the full pic

We are here to lift the nation’s mood 😬 on @BBCTheOneShow in a few mins! 🤗 https://t.co/hiIAEstFzn pic.twitter.com/VICMjQnJqr

— Dr Xand van Tulleken 🏳️‍🌈 (@xandvt) January 5, 2021

ok nm this worked better on Twitter where you couldn't see Keef's face until you clicked the pic

Fucking horrendous. This poor family.

Mother fears son could die as Brexit stops medical cannabis supply https://t.co/ir11auXbfV

— The Guardian (@guardian) January 5, 2021

One more.

Matt Hancock has just told MPs that nurseries are being kept open because they are private and “would otherwise go bust”.

The Health Secretary should not be making public health decisions based on private profit.

— Nadia Whittome MP (@NadiaWhittomeMP) January 5, 2021

i haven't been keeping up itt, but on the same note, sunak's per property business grant is effectively a pure siphoning of cash to landlords, and doesn't take into account the business as a business as a going concern with staff and perishable inventory etc. put in the column marked rentier capitalism for Brett Christophers (though I disagree with some of his definition). although incompetence clearly has a large part to play in much of the fiasco, it would be useful to have two columns, one marked 'incompetence' and the other 'decisions driven by rentier capitalist interests' and i'm not at all sure that most in the first column couldn't be assigned to motivations and incentives of the second.

That would still be better than this if done competently because as actual capitalists keep pointing out the best result for them isn’t a collapsed NHS either. Independence Day cartoon dot jpeg

Sunak is there for the taking - he's a lightweight in every sense of the word apart from his blown up rep. The only thing that makes him powerful is the right-wing UK media and elements within CCHQ who paint the simpering boy wonder as the next PM elect and I've not seen anyone from Labour meaningfully ripping him a new arsehole since Rebecca Long Bailey silenced him in at the televised debate in 2019. but alas what we have now is Starmer Labour, which will often do it's best to make him look even better than them.

Sir Keir Starmer calls for "round the clock" vaccinations

The Midnight Jabber!

you snooze you zoos

:p

Ha

A shot in the dark

capacity in terms of space isn't the issue. having enough people trained to do it is. no-one is going to be working 24 in a shift to do this. you might have two teams working 12 hour shifts. no reason they both can't function during the day though. this plan is fucking stupid. also can you really see the most vulnerable people getting up at three in the fucking morning to travel to some godforsaken carpark and then filling out a bunch of forms in the middle of the night? what planet is this fucking idiot on?