"we'll change the things that need changing and that's all we'll change": the paSUKification of post-brexit politics 2021

the most 2021 UK political story will be when the government offers vaccines to African countries in return for acting as dumps for refugees. https://t.co/GVZcz4jHYI

— jamie k (@jkbloodtreasure) July 5, 2021

i know two people who have had covid who have not been able to go back to work after a year. one of them lost a lung. I'm not convinced that simply 'not dying' is the best possible outcome but the idea that anyone deserves better than that is not going to be seriously reflected in any political/media discussions any time soon is it?

It seems they quietly let the Islamophobic bigot T Phillips back into the Labour party 3 weeks back behind closed doors, not something they'd want to broadcast before the Batley polling day. Fucking wretched party.

They lost the Muslim vote anyway

this contempt for ethnic minorities will come back and bite them hard in many marginals and even some supposedly safe seats come the next council elections and the general election. And they won't be able to do damage limitation by flooding these constituencies with everything they've got like they did last week.

that bullshit "people voted for hope" claptrap and the Jo Cox "more in common" memorial platitude has always been an utter crock of shit. The result showed people couldn't be more divided and what hope are the Labour offering? Hope that more bigoted racists will vote for them than the amount of ethnic minorities they've alienated.

This is true (and the bill has to go through the House of Lords) while it is also true that more ppl will go to jail.

More serious note when peeps are like "the bill has passed, its all over" you're making a pretty unhelpful defeatest political intervention 😬 that essentially says it was a win in parliament or nothing. This has literally never been how oppressed people have won anything, ever.

— Shanice 😈 (@Shanice_OM) July 6, 2021

Government defeats in the House of Lords - UK Parliamenthttps://www.parliament.uk › about › faqs › lords-govtd...

Government Session Number of defeats
Conservative 2019‑2021 114

I didn't realise they'd had that many defeats in the Lords.

thing is if I understand the British system correctly something that gets voted down in the lords just goes back to the commons and if they really wanna make a point of it they can pass it again, right?

sounds about right, I always get lost when looking through the process of 2nd readings .. 3rd readings ..amendments blah blah.

Seeing fewer masks worn is bad but seeing fewer Union Flag masks worn is not bad.

haha, saw my first example of that today!

Clause 38 on the face of it seems to criminalise rescue of asylum seekers at sea by removing "for gain" from an existing offence. A lot depends on the meaning of "facilitates". Organisations which "aim to assist asylum seekers' and do not charge for services are exempt, though. pic.twitter.com/IfXn8XptxM

— Colin Yeo (@ColinYeo1) July 6, 2021

Also apparently it only applies if you're male?

haha, saw my first example of that today!

Ditto. Let's hope it was the same person.

for quite some time most places i've been have been primarily maskless. I went to a busy supermarket a couple of months ago where i only saw one other person wearing a mask.

I've been going to supermarkets, two or three or more times a week, all thru the pandemic and mask wearing has gone from 10% to about 90% in that time. It increased steadily but after it was made compulsory pretty much everyone started wearing one.

... more like 95%.

I'm talking Morrisons not Waitrose btw!

I mean I think the big Sainsbury's made it to about 80% but about 50-60% today

I would say it's 95% in Sainsbury's, only maybe 60% in Asda.

Mask compliance pretty thorough in all the supermarkets I use: Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Lidl, Aldi.

it only takes one person with no mask to come close to put you off a place or situation. I bet my local ASDA is 95% compliance but the woman who coughed beside me without a mask on six months ago has guaranteed I'll be doing online shops for the foreseeable future.

I've been in a supermarket once since 2020 and don't plan on going to one again unless it's completely necessary

offys and the like have a much lower mask take-up than the chains, too - obv they don't have security

An old work colleague of mine says a big group at his company watched Saturday's England game at some club in Mexborough where it turned out there were four people present with the rona. By Monday there were 15 people off work + self isolating. Then by Wednesday there were 20 people off work all tested as positive. He didn't mention the vacc status of these people, but I'm imagining most of them must at least have had their first shot.

yeah, wembley tonight is actually a government sponsored Pox Party, trying to get susceptible people ill and into hospital whilst it's still relatively quiet.

Whoever runs the @England TikTok account, I'll have what they're having pic.twitter.com/aH8Jd92GCo

— Joey D'Urso (@josephmdurso) July 7, 2021

^ V political post

Marxism is a hell of a drug

<I>“Gareth Southgate and the squad will have the whole nation behind them tonight. Both on and off the pitch, they have shown the best of England. There’s been only one song featured in our house since Saturday — it’s coming home.”</I>

Generally speaking I don't discuss Starmer much because it's wasted effort, there's nothing there, but occasionally a particularly large iceberg of "how is he so bad at this?" detaches from the polar cap.

Generally speaking I don't discuss Starmer much - but when I do I like to include a little failure of my own, as a tribute.

Cannot imagine anything more likely to put a person off the England team than being subjected to Three Lions on repeat for four days

I'm not really seeing the Tories indulging in any of this btw. They're happy leaving this clown to step on each and every rake that's strewn around.

has anyone told Kieth that the England players understand social democracy correctly from a Marxist viewpoint?

Day one: hope they lose now

Day four: hang draw and quarter Broudie Baddiel and Skinner in the centre circle

Tbf some of us have been on day four for a couple of decades now

“only one song featured in our house” is some pretty choice how do humans talk content

Wouldn't disgrace a Michael Jackson (Tom D.) at 12:43 7 Jul 21
I'm not really seeing the Tories indulging in any of this btw. They're happy leaving this clown to step on each and every rake that's strewn around

Today is the day.

Come on England! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/x4lhG92mrp

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) July 7, 2021

Gareth Southgate and the squad will be looking forward to their half time orange. They will chop up the orange and chomp on the inside of it.

Boris looks like he is doing some amount of work mustering the strength to hold up a shirt.

How do you do, fellow soccer fanatics?

Kieth is the irl Roger Nouveau, much more embarrassing than Boris imo

Kieth is embarrassing, Boris is something worse because you remember that lots of people actually like him

I was thinking about this a couple of days ago but I really don't know..

It's just going to be total chaos. I honestly think the economy is going to take a major hit as a result, not least because people won't want to go out when there are 100,000 cases a day. Let's see what happens, but I'm expecting some kind of u-turn / reimposing / lockdown.

— Ellie Mae O'Hagan (@elliemaeohagan) July 7, 2021

It's more about a new variant that beats the vaccine, but that can be imported from elsewhere anyway, like Delta

I'm not sure either just what level of disruption there will be from hundreds of thousands of cases – it's not like you're either dead or fine, even with vaccination an awful lot of people are surely going to be sick enough to need to stay off work. The risk of that affecting entire teams/floors will also make halfway sensible companies want to continue WFH etc

Reckless reopenings seem to be a trend p much everywhere I have connections to - Portugal, Germany, Belgium (not France yet I don't think?). Portuguese govt falling over itself to reopen everything to avoid another year without much tourism revenue, results are that Porto and Lisbon are already back under some lockdown measures. Of course most places don't have our vaccine count so the chaos springs forth quicker.

Been seeing VISIT KOREA all over London buses, like, surely the amount of potential tourists who can afford a trip like that yet are ok w/ quarantines is vanishingly small? And why would South Korea want them right now anyway?

Did they specify it was S. Korea?

A new, vaccine-resistant variant would radically change things but that’s always going to be a risk.

If you want to guarantee cases get down below the rate they currently are, idk how that can be done without closing schools and reimposing a strict lockdown and there is zero political (or likely public) will to do that in a country close to 100% vaccinated at 18+.

WFH where possible will likely continue for the foreseeable though.

Trying to separate bits of the economy:

- Loads of companies will continue to work from home or part-working (as stet says there are continued risks), which will be more permanent or to be used to extract cheaper rents on office space. In any case, think there will be less ppl in the City.

- Do think international travel will be reduced for the foreseeable, yes. Too much of a risk unless you can afford, as Daniel says.

- Staying away from shops. Perhaps, there has been a switch to online anyway. Retail has been fucked for a while even before the pandemic. This will radically change the look of our streets, perhaps.

None of these trends will be changed by the government's announcements this week apart from:

- Entertainment. This is what we'll find out.