Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

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

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

i think he's the only one

xxp spirit and funding, you hammed in suit

"Starmer Says" what, is he whispering in Matthew Corbett's ear or something?

I'll get back to the March spirit alright, that was when I cancelled my Labour membership because of you, you worthless Tory arsewipe!

All for getting back to the spirit of the time when kieth wasn't labour leader

oh no
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErclUb7W8AAO9y0?format=jpg&name=large

Rebuild our country wtf does it mean

Looks like he's belming at the indonesian divers searching for the black box, nagl kiehth

Looks like he's having a little Starmer orgasm tbh

PROTECT our economy
SECURE our country
REBUILD our oh never mind

it's disgusting that he refuses to address the public unless Paul Mason's ma is chodding on his balls under the lectern

pls post it in the correct thread
Up-the-arse corner

PRINCIPLED
SMART AS HELL
LOOKS GOOD IN A SUIT

choose two

or in keir's case, fewer than that

Yes to this:

the virus is predominantly being spread by people adhering to the law, not breaking it. we don't need 'tougher restrictions' on people going for walks, we need better support for those least able to self-isolate.

— Sita Balani (@sitainshort) January 11, 2021

Though I think more places have been made covid secure, and also there is more testing but...

How secure are those workplaces and how reliable is lateral flow testing are some of the questions. Any talk of curfews etc. is designed to steer us away from asking about these.

And the opposition, by blindly following the government, are doing a ton of damage.

26m ago 13:48

Johnson under pressure to explain why he went for cycle ride seven miles from No 10

The Evening Standard has a good exclusive today. It reports that Boris Johnson went for a cycle ride around the Olympic Park on Sunday, seven miles from Downing Street.

This is awkward. As government officials were telling the Guardian only this morning (see 12.49pm), the advice is that when exercising you should you “should stay local in the village, town, or part of the city where you live”.

At the Downing Street lobby briefing the prime minister’s spokesman did not have an answer as to why the PM thought that going seven miles away from home was consistent with the spirit of the rules - although he indicated that he would come back with a proper response later.

My Dad & his friends are all Nigerian GPs over 60 working in or around London. I spoke to him yesterday 3 of his friends are in hospital & a few friends have died. He’s had covid, he’s vaccinated but don’t underestimate the resilience required to work through this.

— Dr Annabel 🙅🏿‍♀️(she/her) (@SoSowemimo) January 11, 2021

Also hArD wOrKiNg fAmILiEs

Working hard at sitting on their arses pretending to do some work.

I think there's a pretty good argument that 7 miles on a bike is local xps

Working hard at sitting on their arses pretending to do some work.
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Monday, January 11, 2021 2:41 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I feel seen

pretty difficult to do a decent length bike ride without going seven miles from your home tbh! but that story is in the context of matt hancock supporting derbyshire police who busted two women for going for a walk five miles from their houses xp