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

convert it into a prison for breachers imo

I caught H1n1 whilst working on a public housing refurb site, it went through it like wildfire. I was going through a snagging list that involved going into about 11 different properties in one day, each one with often crowded w/ multiple trades in there at the same time. I didn't have a chance!

Connections pic.twitter.com/LBvk99Quc5

— The Justin Horton Show (@ejhchess) March 24, 2020

Keir has hope

It is disgraceful that ministers have broken their promise to renters. No one should be at risk of losing their home because of this crisis.

The Government still has time to reconsider - and I hope they will. https://t.co/jUVE60DD9B

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) March 24, 2020

Jesus Christ

Sweet Jesus. For the love of god, lock up your boomers. pic.twitter.com/nuxZqXPI8t

— 🏡🦠 StepHOMEanie 🦠🏡 (@YesMissMurphy) March 24, 2020

xp
I wouldn't expect Starmer to be to the right of Ed Davey on renter protection, not yet anyway!

Fuck me we’re all going to die.

This is excellent:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-nottinghamshire-52017811?

Bit of light relief

yes you all lost your seats https://t.co/aQBocJNOHe

— jonathan nunn (@demarionunn) March 24, 2020

Two supermarket vans were destroyed in “sickening” arson attacks in Bristol and police riot vans were called out soon after Boris Johnson announced the new restrictions.

The delivery vans were destroyed in the attack outside an Iceland store in Arnside Road, Southmead, on Monday night.

Richard Walker, managing director of the retailer, said:

At a time when home delivery is literally a lifeline for some vulnerable people, this is sickening.

In a statement, Iceland said police riot vans were called out and youths threw missiles at the police as they tried to disperse them. Later in the evening, the two home delivery vans were set alight and the fire brigade attended to put out the fire.

What are you rebelling against? erm.. frozen peas

rage against the mashed swede

I get pissed off with Iceland when they send me short-dated milk.. But.. Lads...

(receives text from the government)

(imagines the living rooms of gen x-ers/xennials quoting Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos all across the country)

seriously, other countries have been doing it for days so I guess it's a good idea though I think the Dutch one got some actual useful info in whereas this one's all Brexity buzzwords and a URL

It’s not incredibly convincing is it
https://i.postimg.cc/dVHsTyLY/D9-E66904-5-A8-F-4608-92-A7-27922967-FBE5.jpg

I had to go out (don't @ me) and it is definitely much quieter out there today. bank was only letting people in one at a time too; lots of places shuttered.

Lots of places only allowing 5/6 ppl at a time:

https://twitter.com/LeftieStats/status/1242439336878055428?s=20

Boris Johnson's favourability rating, via @YouGov, 22-23 March (changes since 17-18 March):

Favourable: 55% (+12)
Unfavourable: 35% (-11)
Don't know: 9% (-3)

— Stats for Lefties 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️ (#RLB2020) (@LeftieStats) March 24, 2020

Lol thanks don't know what happened to the link.

Obviously plenty of time for all that to come down.

I have seen plenty of "we should support the prime minister at this difficult time" around Facebook, of course later on it will be "all in the past and time to move on" and he will never be held accountable.

This is day one of this partial lockdown, give it time.

Aldi had got 2 metre individual zones marked out in tape by the tills. it was v quiet anyway

This is day one of this partial lockdown, give it time.

yeah just wait till neighborhood watch have had their bayonet training

I don't know why we're even looking at approval ratings, there's nearly five years left to run until an election, in all probability.

There are still two months left to run on the Parliamentary term that Cameron run in 2015.

I was talking to a Boris loving teaching assistant on the phone earlier who was saying nothing can prepare a country for something like this, you can't blame the PM. yep, best just copying countries that did it disastrously wrong and then try and blame it on the disobedient population when the bodies start predictably piling up. Goddamn Tory shithole country.

i've seen genuinely decent but nicey-nice Labour members giving the government the thumbs up over this shit, this is why i hate blitz spirit, people need to stay strong and hold onto their hate

i imagine what johnson and cummings are counting on is that no matter how terrible things get, johnson will still be PM when this has run its course, and will then take credit for steering us through to the other side, 'sent the virus packing' etc

FWIW I think a similar thing happened with the Tory front benches during the 2008 financial crisis, there definitely seemed to be a suspension of hostilities during the height of the emergency and Cameron seemed onboard with everything Brown did.

Open season once the dust had settled, obviously.

"I don't know why we're even looking at approval ratings, there's nearly five years left to run until an election, in all probability."

It's interesting to see what might happen to that figure as the pandemic and lockdown go on, especially at the 65+ breakdown.

Jesus Christ

76,628! I've just been sent this from someone trying to apply for universal credit UC. pic.twitter.com/DbpivvrpTv

— (((Dawn Butler))) (@DawnButlerBrent) March 24, 2020

people wise that's more than the sold-out capacity at old trafford

The wage support application site for businesses is almost certainly going to crash when it's up and running as well.

Universal Credit was already a well documented nightmare for people who are not very online, don't have a passport etc. So many staff have been cut by the DWP in the last decade it's hardly surprising its practically dysfunctional during such high demand. Whole fucking carbuncle needs burning to the ground, obv with IDS at the top of the bonfire.

They're turning the Excel Centre into a temporary hospital, which anyone who has been there will tell you is a nightmarish prospect.

why'd they shut down the fucken emirates cable car then, i'll have to get there from woolwich arsenal dlr like a normal person ffs

The idea of a gigantic exhibition shed filled with long lines of beds containing Covid sufferers is almost uniquely horrifying to me.

I want to die going in there in the best of times; to actually die in there ...

Likely to be something along the lines of this:

Serbia set up a field hospital with 3000 beds for the people that get tested positive for corona. Mass testing will start very soon on everyone. Currently we have 3 deaths, but I'm glad they reacted way faster than a lot of the other countries did pic.twitter.com/5zO4aLFxEq

— Aleksandar Krstic (@BeastyqtSC2) March 24, 2020

it's a good move to set something up, but god, how bleak to be in there, no privacy, no family visits, no space for personal belongings, constant dry coughing from all around at all times, people moaning and being sick and dying...

er, good luck, everyone

(this post brought to you from Pointing Out The Very Obvious posting services, 2020)

Serbian field hospital looks like the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony minus the people

This fucking shitshow of a government

But on Tuesday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said those who cannot work from home should go to work "to keep the country running".

New FT piece says:

The new coronavirus may already have infected far more people in the UK than scientists had previously estimated — perhaps as much as half the population — according to modelling by researchers at the University of Oxford.

If the results are confirmed, they imply that fewer than one in a thousand of those infected with Covid-19 become ill enough to need hospital treatment, said Sunetra Gupta, professor of theoretical epidemiology, who led the study. The vast majority develop very mild symptoms or none at all.

“We need immediately to begin large-scale serological surveys — antibody testing — to assess what stage of the epidemic we are in now,” she said.

‘theoretical epidemiology’ u say

To provide the necessary evidence, the Oxford group is working with colleagues at the Universities of Cambridge and Kent to start antibody testing on the general population as soon as possible, using specialised “neutralisation assays which provide reliable readout of protective immunity,” Prof Gupta said. They hope to start testing later this week and obtain preliminary results within a few days.

huge if true, obv, but it’s not going to stop the nhs being overwhelmed in the short term is it

Yeah, even “just” 1 in a thousand needing hospital treatment is still 67k in a really short space of time.

how does this square with like whole families getting ill one after another? just a statistical outlier in the hundreds of millions who’ve been infected?

but then the vo’ study was showing something not dissimilar, right? bad time to be an armchair epidemiologist, really

Anything that leads to widespread and reliable antibody testing is alright with me.

well, yeah