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

"but what I am an expert in is life" is prime #accidentalpartridge

You'd think he'd be good at taking orders

I haven’t done this myself yet but most of the young people I know were drinking with friends in mass video chats and the like. Strange, but that’s where we are now. There are ways around it, the more people stay in, the easier it will be to get past this stage, and at least the pubs are closed now. Weirdly because some of my best friends live overseas, and because I play PS4 with people too, a lot of the stuff people are doing now is easy for me to introduce them to.

professional jealousy innit, ant spent his life learning to slot enemy combatants and now some pissant virus has overtaken his lifetime killcount in a matter of days

Enemy combatants? Aye, right.

Today there are lots of Irish people on Twitter saying B.O.Neil definitely isn't from Ireland and hoping he contracts and dies from Covid19

We are all @andrewismaxwell pic.twitter.com/cdppxhsR18

— Naomi O'Leary (@NaomiOhReally) November 4, 2018

morelike direspora, amirite

We've been using Houseparty for group video chats which is pretty fun if you're all drinking together because the mobile version has quizzes and other games built in, so you can make it feel more pubby.

Zoom is good too but I definitely think of that as more of a work thing. Tbh it was pretty considerate of humanity to finally achieve half decent videoconferencing at this precise moment in history.

Was thinking the same thing today!

NEW: Boris Johnson initiated a partial shutdown only after Macron threatened to close the border, warning that the rest of Europe would follow suit. “We clearly had to threaten him so that he would finally move.” https://t.co/BM8HBEplbX

— Benjamin Ramm (@BenjaminRamm) March 21, 2020

And via one of those briefing things he has tonight told people not to visit their mothers. These fucking incompetent cretins, fuck me.

We can also see it was ~10 days after China’s lockdown that its mortality curve slowed.

Countries are looking at daily deaths in the dozens and thinking "It’s not that bad".

Next week it’ll be 100s, and by the time lockdowns flatten the curves, daily death tolls could be 1,000+ pic.twitter.com/1fXUnmFZuR

— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) March 21, 2020

Sorry wrong link, should be this

And it’s probably worse than that.

Italy locked down in stages. It closed schools 17 days ago. It locked down its worst-affected region 13 days ago.

So: UK is already on a steeper mortality curve than Italy, and has apparently learned no lessons so is locking down more slowly. pic.twitter.com/ovp6nUpXRU

— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) March 21, 2020

" On current trends, UK could hit Italy’s death count in ~9 days. Italy locked down 10 days ago. UK is already behind that schedule. https://t.co/Ywf1dsdzVS "

Breaking:

NHS strikes unprecedented deal with private hospitals to boost fight against #COVID19

20,000 clinical staff to join the NHS from Monday

Private sector will reallocate practically its entire national hospital capacity to the NHS, includes 8,000 beds, 1,200 ventilators

— Andrew Gregory (@andrewgregory) March 21, 2020

1200 ventilators will barely scratch the surface but still

‘strikes deal’ means they’re paying our money to private enterprises to bolster a health service that they spent the last decade stripping of its essentials

trebles all round, eh what

Thousands of nurses have responded to the NHS and are going to join the register temporarily. 4000 was the number I saw.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETs0cG5U4AAn6xU?format=jpg&name=large

"protect the economy, if some pensioners die that's too bad"

"Herd Immunity" will be the end of this government.

What paper is that?

Sunday Times

Paul Johnson.. I might be wrong

sorry.. Its the Graun I'm on the phone

It is the ST I think.

Cummings will get the blame (or as much blame as can’t be shifted onto the public) but Johnson is responsible.

Also being reported that they’ve only taken the half-baked lockdown measures they have because Macron and others threatened to close off EU borders if they did not.

this is the (free to read) article

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-ten-days-that-shook-britain-and-changed-the-nation-for-ever-spz6sc9vb

This is why it bugs me that anyone at all is going along with the narrative that the reversal of their strategy was due to “new data” - they could have “seen what was happening in Italy” before they came up with the strategy because it was already fucking happening in Italy at that point, and it didn’t take a bombshell study from imperial college to see that the same would happen here. Half the world and the WHO was screaming “what the hell are you doing you reckless idiots” at us, it didn’t only become a thing when some our own boffins said so

A lot of it is face-saving from journalists and commentators who swallowed and then took to social media to start mocking members of the public who expressed perfectly rational fears and doubts about the approach. This is different from the group who took the approach "I don't really know enough about but this but I'm relieved they're listening to the experts", who in general aren't parroting absurd lines about the science changing.

Johnson bears responsibility for elevating Cummings to a position of power unprecedented among recent aides (even Alistair Campbell didn't feel as dominant) and then not putting enough of a check on him, because all Johnson ever really wanted was the status of being PM with other people to do the difficult bits. But Cummings will get the blame, a lot of the media, virtually the entire civil service and probably a large chunk of Tory MPs are absolutely desperate to get rid of him.

Also in terms of the sheer number of enemies created in a short period of time Cummings is probably right up there.

I heard this consultant cardiologist on the radio yesterday who believed he had recently recovered from COVID 19 and he was absolutely scathing about Herd Immunity. He says the concept that you become immune is a "nice idea" but there was scientific basis for it. And he said when thousands of lives are at stake it isn't a time for road testing "wacky new ideas" you need to fall back on the tried and trusted methods that other countries have used to some levels of success. This should have been glaringly obvious at the time imo. Heads should roll over this.

no scientific basis I meant

All of which would cement his paranoid, confrontational worldview. Maybe once the death rate inevitable starts ramping up in a week or so there'll be a Rasputin(Rand-sputin?)-esque assassination attempt from the backbenches, wouldn't count on it though.

xpost

Also if the timeline in that report is correct then Cummings realised he'd fucked up within 24hrs of the herd immunity statement and then continued with the approach for days afterwards?

Right, woken up to this Cummings thing, all I'm going to say is don't focus on the oddball adviser. Focus on the elected people who are meant to be accountable to us, who hired the oddball. Don't be satisfied if they throw him under the bus when this is all done with.

— Sinan Kose (@TheSinanKose) March 22, 2020

I bet when it comes to self-preservation he's strictly locus communis*

*sorry for biting on yr style Pom!

probably got it wrong anyway but I meant received wisdom!

I bet Cummings would go down much easier than Ras.

When you work as a paramedic for the NHS and you get evicted over a text by your land lady. Because of this I now won't be able to work my 12hr night shift tomorrow, so that means one less paramedic on the road. At these unprecedented times we need our NHS demand more than ever. pic.twitter.com/gfxbIykElq

— Joseph Hoar (@joseph_hoar) March 21, 2020

what safety measures against landlords?

Surely that's illegal even under pre-crisis laws?

The "if pensioners have to die so be it" is being attributed to Cummings but it was absolutely the government strategy that was coming out of Johnson's mouth only days ago (and was called out for what it was on twitter). That piece is clearly setting up the fall guy for when the worst hits.

yes, cummings is toast and there will be lynch mobs after him. yeah I can see it now ..Johnson will be blameless.

Also the government announced a blanket ban on evictions days ago. The passive aggressive "I'm sure you'll understand" tone is peak landlord speak though.

From replies it appears unclear whether this person is a tenant or a lodger? I think the latter are getting fucked over

"Sorry I never normally do this" is that a Dr H Shipman quote?

yes, cummings is toast and there will be lynch mobs after him

Oh Domniepaws. The grudging admiration people had for this utter cunt because he sacked some old school Tories and rattled the Sir Humphreys in the Civil Service was always bullshit.

Johnson was already the least popular incoming PM in modern times. I know he has most of the media on his side but expecting him to evade blame when people's parents and grandparents start dying in their thousands is massively overestimating the credulity of the electorate.

AF going full xyzzzzz is it? We do love to see it.

I was, a while ago, considering posting "scientists now speculate that we may be entering what they call the 'xyzzzz_ timeline', where a natural disaster forces the adoption of widespread socialism" - and then Italy did some of that and he posted a tweet about it, so the moment passed.

I think of exhortations to violence against politicians as being more calzino and NV's department, to be honest?

me = regretfully, calz = gleefully

History has shown asking corrupt pols who are invested in the status quo and its policies of violence don't respond to being asked nicely, but I wouldn't really kill anybody. But I will predict wishing death on pols will be the height of fashion in April.

That eviction tweet - there is a hypothetical but not unlikely scenario where health workers are lodging with vulnerable, at risk people who are now being told to isolate themselves and for very good reason. Who knows if that applies in this case though?