Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

Yup. Just a horror show.

Re: left-wing media. This is what the likes of Novara are doing. Tribune and its networks with Jacobin in the US. It is being formed, it won't get as many figures, but yes it's about who watches it and where do they end up in terms of power.

NEW: Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Frances O'Grady have written to Labour and TUC members urging them to volunteer in the national coronavirus vaccination effort: https://t.co/qz3eNy6XSd

— LabourList (@LabourList) January 7, 2021

Because working for free is what Labour are about now?

Larry Elliott here, he leaves it to Chakrabortty to join the dots on the failures that are coming our way.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/07/boris-johnson-economy-revive-vaccine

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/06/britain-covid-shot-industrial-base-uk-manufacturing-national-security

There are one or two alternatives.

Novara, New Socialist, Tribune - I like all of these to varying degrees but can't imagine any of them reaching ppl beyond those already onboard.

I misread that Labour call - it's more like campaigning-style volunteering than the "work for the NHS" volunteering I read it as. Starmer is good not bad now.

that would be bad reading because the only way Starmer could be good not bad is if he jumped into a vat of piping hot sulphuric acid!

speaking of bad, another Johnson presser this evening. Haven't seen so much of him in ages

Strong Harold Shipman energy here pic.twitter.com/Mh29Ddelp4

— Alex Christofi (@alex_christofi) January 7, 2021

I think the new left media, though their reach is of course small, do have some influence on opinion. TBH my own views are different now from what they were 4 or 5 years agp, partly as a result of them. Maybe that's true for others, and maybe that filters through somewhere.

It's quite good for political figures - RLB for instance - to engage with them rather than eg the Observer.

Allies of the Chancellor Rishi Sunak say the reason he has been reluctant to argue publicly against opposition demands for increased public spending is that he no longer believes Johnson will resist requests for more cash.

be an idea to make some demands for cash then, eh?

is Marcus Rashford available?

Is this Clap For Heroes thing happening tonight? Worrying echoes of Help For Heroes in the name. If so I may have to schedule a playthrough of Metal Machine Music (Side 4) for 8pm.

Solidarity with British Gas workers - striking against attempts to fire and rehire them on worse terms.

They're defending themselves and taking a stand against a practice that should be illegal.

The company must get back to the table and resolve this through negotiation.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) January 7, 2021

He's been hacked!

Watched a harrowing report on hospitals struggling with doctors and nurses at breaking (this uclh, no ordinary hospital) point. If any nurse gets anything out of the clapping business then good tbh.

Re: left media

I mean this as an observation not a criticism or endorsement but clearly one aspect of the left media landscape (& something that has implications for plans for any Momentum media fund) is that Momentum seems to increasingly see itself as a producer of left media. pic.twitter.com/Mgb5RlZ93R

— Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann) January 7, 2021

The neighbourhood WhatsApp has ruled there is to be no clapping tonight, especially after some staff at the hospital nearby chimed in and said “yeah we’d much rather you all stayed inside and obeyed lockdown tbh”

just checked my neighbourhood WhatsApp and there were 21 messages, all about a minibus that keeps (legally) parking in our street, so guess we aren't doing the clapping this time.

clap for minibus

would take a single message in there to instigate a "boo at the minibus" down most of the street. it's most often parked outside my house and I honestly dgaf tho

Is it yours?

maybe if it's abandoned there for long enough it will be? though not sure what i would do with it.

You are never going to unleash your inner Ron Dixon without your very own "Moby"!

1162 deaths today

i have had little exposure to brigadiers in my life. are they all like this?

oh another press conference ... can't take these anymore and be fucked if I'm interrupting To Catch a Thief for that poltroon!

yeah, don't switch to it if you're not watching. it's of minor interest because it's not the usual gang - it's got the army guy in charge of vaccine distribution and the CEO of the NHS. He has just had a satisfying if sexist pop at the covid-deniers and the army guy seems to be frowning at covid, the nation, the world.

is the Byline Times any good or just an embarrassment like Canary?

i have had little exposure to brigadiers in my life. are they all like this?

Any bets Boris got him to purposely dress up in the whole camo gear?

Excellent report on the deal uk-eu deal.

Which is to say that #Brexit impact is not really about 'delays at the border'...it's the permanent, structural disadvantage of UK businesses vis-a-vis EU counterparts. i.e Those 'non-tariff barriers' that @BorisJohnson said did not exist (in a universe of alternative facts)/12

— Peter Foster (@pmdfoster) January 7, 2021

Whole thread is worth reading that leads us to being poorer. No idea what the political ramifications could be, as we are crashing into it.

Interesting that as well as a hierarchy of bigotries there’s also now a hierarchy of fractions of organised labour. “British Gas is a big employer in Red Wall seats!” https://t.co/B50U5eTc2w

— Tom Williams (@shirleymush) January 7, 2021

no smelling salts required for Kieth after his little turn earlier, he's still going strong after a few thousand tory voters in shiteholes like Bishop Auckland and Workington.

and any group of workers as large as the teaching sector that have been as at odds with the tories in the last decade as much as teachers - well that involves a fight with the UK govt and that wouldn't be forensic

Gavin Williamson rejected BT’s offer to provide free/cheap broadband for thousands of working class families & returned free WiFi vouchers.

From the algorithm fiasco, legal threats against schools that wanted to close, recent u-turn to this - how is he STILL Education Secretary?

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) January 7, 2021

I don't get the logic there, is he trying to save our children from communism?

(don't all bt routers expose a public wifi hotspot anyway, that you can access if you're a subscriber? seems like it'd be ideal for this, given that i can see 7 bt home hubs from here)

that would be ... broadband socialism .. very cheap and effective but how can that compete with crony capitalism?

It's really disgusting.

"Great, there's a vaccine. Now how are we going to roll it out?"
[finishes lighting cigar with £50 note]
"Well... You know those people who've suffered over a decade of austerity thanks to capital, and who are about to get poorer still? Let's get them to do it. For free." https://t.co/EuiJ7KG8LA

— Tom Williams (@shirleymush) January 7, 2021

Pigs being pigs

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-derbyshire-55560814?

BREAKING: I have declared a major incident in London because the threat this virus poses to our city is at crisis point.

One in 30 Londoners now has COVID-19. If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die.https://t.co/OjV7SZ4BgQ

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) January 8, 2021

68,053 new Covid cases.

1,325 new fatalities.

breaking new national records every day now, amazing to think it's not even that long ago the govt were suing schools to open + Sir Haircut was still insisting they should all have gone back a few days ago.

chart for England here (1st reply) is scary

1,325 new #covid19uk deaths reported today (08-Jan). Below is a chart of the latest data available by Date of Death with today's added numbers highlighed in orange. More naton / region charts further down the thread. pic.twitter.com/05zAhYbKEs

— Richard 📊📉 (@RP131) January 8, 2021

Earlier the government told media it had 'extended the eviction ban'.

The details are out and in fact this is a LIE.@RobertJenrick has given the go ahead to evictions of large numbers of people in rent debt starting Monday. Just as Covid deaths reach a new high.

THREAD ⬇️

— London Renters Union (@LDNRentersUnion) January 8, 2021

because *far more workplaces are open*. This isn't a planned lockdown it's a random social suppression in the hope that the vaccines will save us before catastrophe arrives. https://t.co/OeF7g4SSON

— jamie k (@jkbloodtreasure) January 8, 2021

Catastrophe feels closer than it has since March, at least in London.

talk up a hard-lockdown for what is effectively a soft-lockdown is what I've come to expect from this shower of shit. But they can blame it all on the rapid spread of the new variant rather than their reckless disregard for the risk to workers that can't work at home getting on crowded underground cattle trains every day

when we did the first lockdown last April i could see the logic of not putting an end date out there

they've burned thru every ounce of good will and iirc the point of lockdown was to buy time to set up track and test and other infrastructure, and iirc everybody at the time pointed out that public good will would only last so long.

they've lost the dressing room

Westminster voting intention:

CON: 39% (+2)
LAB: 39% (-2)
GRN: 6% (+1)
LDEM: 6% (+1)
BREX: 3% (-1)

via @YouGov
Chgs. w Dec

— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) January 9, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3E5YIP-DvU

20 points you kermit voiced motherfucker

someone the other day posted one of the main reasons he will never be PM is that it is so easy and fun for amateur impressionists to funny versions of his stupid voice!

can you picture thst as PM? he makes Boris look real