Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

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

UK ‘rejected offer’ of visa-free tours by musicians in EU, despite blaming Brussels for permit blow https://t.co/t12VlKY9jY

— The Independent (@Independent) January 9, 2021

Listen to SAGE member @SusanMichie talking about having a stricter lockdown, yet the institution she works for @ucl & @UoLondon is forcing hundreds of security officers and cleaners to continue attend work, and is refusing to close sites despite @IWGBUoL and workers demands! https://t.co/jPal9Yj7wW

— Henry Lopez (@HCHLopez) January 9, 2021

Why the hell is Starmer still saying he didn’t want schools to close? He sounds more like an idiot wetwipe everytime. Sure, it’s only gonna be the first week where we have 1k+ deaths every day and everyone, especially the scientists and unions, know that schools are super spreaders, but I will go on Andrew marr and bang on about how I wanted to keep them open!

He’s telling the truth tbfttl, he was quite literally the last person to call for closure

(He’s a fucking liability obv)

Tough on tax rises tho in the true um Labour tradition?

Maybe instead of complaining about council tax rises he could make some points about years of underfunding local authorities but maybe that wouldn't be forensic

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/09/nhs-vaccinate-uk-covid-five-days-oxford-professor?

Yes, "red tape" is the only preventing me getting up at 4:30am to get my jab at the gymnasium.

The notion that universities are hotbeds of Marxist thought was only ever a fiction, and even more so when you read the ramblings of someone like this guy.

Gotta trust the medical credentials of someone who says "it's just sticking a needle in an arm ffs"

EXCL: UK’s ‘inhumane’ approach to immigration will not work & will cost more, says ex Home Office minister

Tory MP Caroline Nokes accuses ministers of 'paying lip service' to Windrush review & 'whipping up unpleasant reaction' to vulnerable asylum seekershttps://t.co/FYl05WPLU4

— May Bulman (@maybulman) January 10, 2021

you know Patel is really doing bad evil and *incompetent* work when a terrible Tory is saying she has gone too far and isn't even implementing home office evil in a cost efficient manner, Starmer wouldn't approve of that.

‘town & country’ mag write up of it makes it seem even more unbelievable than I considered it at the time. Statement coats, brass bands, meeting cancer patients & the elderly, visiting schools, and hanging out in care homes. Excellent pandemic behaviour.https://t.co/ErRasJ4yFX

— Jo Grady (@DrJoGrady) January 10, 2021

just the uninterrupted three day ‘royal train’ tour in December when the whole country needed to lock down, nothing to see here

Like the thread but not sure what 'killing the country' means. Many people will struggle, it will v difficult to eek out a living but hasn't that always been the case for many?

The method of government perfected by the Conservative Party – a kind of Rat King knotting up self-advancement, entitlement, demonisation, crude exploitation of prejudice, barratry, landlordism, corruption, fecklessness – is killing the country.

— James B (@piercepenniless) January 11, 2021

Yeah but nobody who matters

News stories today about supermarkets running out of fresh fruit & vegetables, but the shelves already looked pretty bare when I went shopping on Saturday morning, has it got worse or are they just slow?

going to have to start paying a bit more attention to that gerald stratford account. cheers

temp morgues in surrey and north london also on news this morning.

Starmer's Q&A

Sir Keir Starmer is now taking questions.

Q: Do you think the restrictions should be tightened?

Starmer says there is probably more that could be done. He suggests nurseries should be closed. But the most important thing is for people to comply with the stay-at-home rules. We need to “get back to the spirit of March”, he says.

He says he would like to see the PM doing daily press conferences.

This week and the next could be the darkest, he says.

Also hArD wOrKiNg fAmILiEs