Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

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

The way Labour under Starmer have followed the tories onto the public shaming/blaming bandwagon is criminal and I genuinely hope he dies a painful death for his part in this

A police car did a slooooooooow cruise by me and my neighbour today, while we were having a conversation at an acceptable distance. FRO!

lol yes your part of town is the only place I've seen police do that. lots of it this summer but nothing that involved them actually getting out of their cars lol

bless shami chakrabarti right now btw

But while Lady Chakrabarti is confident of winning Lib Dem support in the upper house, she has failed to win round the Labour leadership. Party sources said on Sunday that Labour would whip its peers to abstain.

quelle fucking surprise

During the first lockdown my friend D and I would walk by groups of police who were not social distancing with one another, just standing around on Lambs Conduit Street like NBD. We kept wondering whether we should photograph them and make the pix public because it infuriated us.

Shami Chakrabarti tells Labour sources briefing against her to "grow up" amid internal party divisions over the 'spycops' bill:

real adult talk from the Labour leadership

the party of legitimate concerns except for human rights

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/11/dutch-officials-seize-ham-sandwiches-from-british-drivers

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

I saw a group of youngish people (housemates presumably) walking four abreast, bad enough but this was across a fucking aisle in the supermarket

In case you’re wondering why they will get away with this

The PM has a young baby at home and a busier job than most, yet still manages to squeeze in a weekend cycle ride.

My other half is *never* going to let me hear the end of this. 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) January 11, 2021

Anyway the point about walking and cycling is all total bullshit as long as you have people still going out to work and not being paid to stay at home because idk communism or something

The PM has a young baby and a young girlfriend at home...

It’s not like BJ doesn’t have three huge parks within Molotov-throwing distance of home and (very reliably informed by friend consulting for Oxford-based pharma company) long Covid.

He's still looking like death warmed up, I know that for sure.

Half encouraging

lols at the implication that BJ has ever lifted a finger to help with taking care of any of his hundreds of children

xxxp is the implication that Johnson's ride in the olympic park is a kind of Chairman Mao swimming the Yangtze type stunt?