love* in the time of plague (and by love* i mean brexit* and other dreary matters of uk politics)

‘I completely understand why people are angry, but i don’t fucking care’

Essentially confirming the Barnard Castle story.

also not addressing the Barnard castle question at all

Ian was still talking and was muted again, this could almost be funny

also Johnson is now fucking up that "nothing is true" defence, because he's clearly getting rattled

he’s shit under fire, he gets easily pissed off, but again lol nothing matters

BASED ON THE SCIENCE is my favourite magic spell, you can make it justify anything

I'm still not convinced he's going to go either, but uber-cynical nothing-matters apathy can do one.

It's not cynicism, it's a reflection of the current makeup of the country. This will change. The Tories have thrown their lot in with boomers, this is a time delineated advantage they have. Lot of talk about how Labour threw away certain voters in the 80s/90s and it came to haunt them later. Tories have done same

But what different does it make whether Cummings stays or not?
Its not that nothing matters, its that it doens't matter today.

how can Boris claim to understand Cummings' decisions when he cant even tell you how many childen he has himself

This is a mistake, this thing about how many children Boris has is an irrelevance and a mistake

when a question about people dying because you fucked up is a breather

mind you if she'd've got the question down to under 3 paragraphs it might've had more impact

It isn't about whether anyone is a bad guy or not, its about whether they can put the ball in the back of the net.

The boomers are angry about this, is the thing. The way we get past nothing-matters is to make cracks in their death cult, and this is almost tailor made to do that, I’d say.

lotta complaints to the manager coming in

A lot of people are angry, but there is no outlet for that xp lol

This is what you’ve got coming and what I mean by “chasing shadows”. It doesn’t matter if the media aren’t compliant.

Steve Bannon to Michael Lewis: "The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit." https://t.co/YuCqFJZ6M5

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 12, 2018

The questions didn’t help. Long waffling multi-part rambles that let Johnson pick and choose what he wanted to respond to.

This is what you’ve got coming and what I mean by “chasing shadows”

The shadows are good business. Russiagate was win win

I'm still not convinced he's going to go either, but uber-cynical nothing-matters apathy can do one.

I also wouldn't confuse frustration with endless little battles which constantly lead nowhere at all with cynicism. This is the shit we are being flooded with.

We'll see how effective it is.

Look I haven’t lived in the uk for the best part of a decade, and admittedly the first text I just got in the boys chat about this was “who’s watching the briefing, I can’t remember being this angry in my life”, so maybe I’m wrong about the scale of this particular story. But I don’t think so, and in any case my point is more: in the presence of a government with no shame and a media strategy to flood the zone, the press do not drive the agenda any more. any individual scandal might seem like the wedge issue you’ve been waiting for but it’s not, and limmy is right that you only have to power through a couple of them before public fatigue sets in. I’m not sure what the solution is.

Owning the media does make a difference but your results don't set in straightaway. Its the long game. You turn the oven on it doesn't get hot straight away, you turn it off it isn't suddenly cold

Describing cynical tactics as effective is pretty much the essence of cynicism.

i talked to my wife about this and she was like “i don’t care. who is he? who cares what he does?”

she successfully predicted trump and brexit, against my “wiser” hunches and i think she’s right on this too unfortunately

I’ve got some ideas, but I wouldn’t write them down ;)

Watching the aftermath and Sarah Jones MP (Labour) is answering some questions (which are a total joke) on the BBC but she didn’t call for his sacking! Again, an inquiry! Fucking hell, why?!

What are they going to flood the media with that isn't connected with the pandemic and which can't find it's way back eventually back to the Dominic Cummings story?

It’s cynical to look at opportunities for change and shrug “nothing is big”. Big things are still big; anger without an outlet is still anger.

The deck is utterly stacked here and things are dreadful, but the situation isn’t hopeless. Hell, even if he stays there are a lot of ardent supporters who are being turned into conditional supporters today and that’s worth something. My Tories twitter list is quite the sight. Even Lolico is reduced to “well, they can’t prove it”.

Arrogant and offensive.

Can you imagine having to work with these truth twisters?

— UK Civil Service (@UKCivilService) May 24, 2020

??

Wow.

Arrogant and offensive.

Can you imagine having to work with these truth twisters?

— UK Civil Service (@UKCivilService) May 24, 2020

I just got sent that, fair fucks to whoever tweeted that.

Also, lets be real here - what is the sacking of Cummings supposed to achieve? How does it help me? This falling back on individual character misdeeds, what is it for? Put the moral high ground in the bin and the slates on the roof

Sincerely hope the mirror are sitting on some cctv footage that gets dropped tonight.

xp consequences? That the government can’t act with impunity, that we all obey the same law.

I think the inquiry line is good. It keeps the focus on finding out what actually happened and doesn’t turn it into a Red vs Blue fight which they will lose as always.

“i don’t care. who is he? who cares what he does?”

He's the prime minister, a beloved figure off HIGNFY

Also, lets be real here - what is the sacking of Cummings supposed to achieve? How does it help me?

It makes me feel better. That good enough for you?

Because he's a sociopathic eugenicist and Johnson would be floundering without him

It makes me feel better. That good enough for you?

Sure!

At last some positivity.

He should be sacked imo

Johnson absolutely seems more dependent on, and committed to, Cummings than Trump was on either Manafort or Bannon.

Because he's a sociopathic eugenicist and Johnson would be floundering without him

then it makes no sense for Boris to sack him? Why would he cripple himself over some sbort term media kerfuffle that will be forgotten by August

Of course he should be sacked, they should all be sacked, and jailed.

Lol even the Tories I know want blood and I can’t disagree, meanwhile

Millions were watching for answers and they got nothing. That’s why the Cabinet Secretary must now launch an urgent inquiry.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 24, 2020

Well he wouldn't, that's just how it would help me
xpost

Keir, FFS.

He's the prime minister, a beloved figure off HIGNFY

she was talking about cummings, who she’s never heard of, because the inside baseball aspect of politics is not her thing, which is something i suspect she shares with a large majority of the public. so somebody in the government disobeyed the rules? well i never!!

Look, don't get me wrong here, I've long advocated for physical violence towards Conservative MPs and their goons but from his perspective...why would he get rid of him over something that will be forgotten in 8 weeks. Just launch some bullshit inquiry or something

Kier does just love a good inquiry

My family in Ireland don’t follow politics here and yet they were sending me Cummings memes all afternoon, if my parents were circulating those memes then they’re going to be going around WhatsApp groups here no question. No consequences, as I always say, but if people didn’t know before, they do now.

Meanwhile, in Canada, both Justin Trudeau and Ontario premier Doug Ford acted like royalty by spending Easter weekend at their respective cottages. It was a mini-scandal for a couple of days then everyone forgot about it. If anything, their approval ratings may have gone up because to err is human.