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

and suddenly we find that the demonised unskilled labourers from the eu are actually key workers after all

Sorry to hear that, plax.

xp up to clissold park from angel via st pauls rd/highbury new park and then back down via green lanes/southgate road. although a little more aimlessly.

That's a nice walk - did you hit the road around there with the animal topiary?

American ilx is quite inescapably melt-ascendant

I don't really think that stands up though? Particularly not in this case, which started with something that'd be over the line here and then got more batshit. I believe silby's on their second tempban in two weeks, and tbh that sounds like a good idea?

That road is Kelross, I think? I still have some photos from around there.

I'm wondering if we'll get to "Congratulations, non-key worker, you are confirmed immune! Turn up at this address for your new life as a delivery driver / farm worker / food packer"

xp that's the one!

Do north London born/living ilxors all inhabit the same stretch of Islington/Hackney or are we just really predictable

Prime minister Boris Johnson is set to warn British citizens that the worst of coronavirus is yet to come, and that tougher measures may be necessary. The UK’s 30 million households will receive a letter from the prime minister including the warning, along with details of the government’s orders on social distancing, symptoms and handwashing.

pls dont send me that

I did crop-cutting in the early 90's when they'd bus Inglis degenerates from council estates in Yorkshire to remote parts of Southport to cut Cauliflowers and Cabbages for £3.84 an hour and full bennies*

*the bennies were unlimited free high quality fresh air

British tourist trapped in India complaining that locals are treating foreigners with suspicion and assuming they're all carrying the virus

*Tom looks up from his newspaper*

my machete technique with sprouts was up there with the elite of the cropcutters

xps no I checked and it stand up

wonder how many foreign thumbs have been casually lost in the gentle sprout fields of england

xps - I think it used to be on Jen's walk from her work to come see me, so once or twice when we went for a saunter she'd take me down there to see the animals. Clissold's not our closest park or anything but she goes down there to see the excellent dogs, she loves a good walk (see also: an hour-long walking commute). I try not to think too much about what comes after this, because you could go mad quite quickly, but a big walk as soon as possible is on the list.

One for your other thread, but there'll definitely be people who freak out the first time they have to go on a tube, and she's pretty certain she's going to be one of them.

there was this keen as mustard fellow, who when it was a bleak -5 frosty morning would say quite emotionally "ahhh! those sprouts will be thriving in these conditions!"

I'd love to do some crop-cutting again tbh. Just to work a bit off the beer gut and get in touch with the land and all that. The only vehicle I have ever driven is a tractor as well!

I hate the idea that bringing in vital agricultural produce has been so fucking denigrated by a capitalist system that most of this country think they are too fucking good to do it. I've nothing but respect for people do that vital job but fucking pay them right as well ffs!

rough job too. only ever grown my own but a whole day of doing that and my back's knackered for the week

you see that is why we need collective farms :p

could you imagine a campaign to clap our mostly Eastern European agricultural working force that help prevent famine and scurvy? That would be such a big success!

Clap them in irons more like.

All those commiserating with plax: getting furloughed isn't that bad really is it? I got furloughed last week but my employer is making up the difference and paying 100% of my contracted hours. I'd say it's the least of my worries right now (tho that may be partly because I hate my job)

Furloughed? Is that American for laid off?

nah think it's just when your job is put in airplane mode and you get 80% of your wage. laid off = dundo innit

Never heard it used before.

Originally, layoff referred exclusively to a temporary interruption in work, or employment[3] but this has evolved to a permanent elimination of a position in both British and US English

... I still thought it meant this. I'm right naive, me.

Not sure Johnson's entreaties to observe the lockdown better have the ring of authenticity about them, still blitz spirit and all that, just pretend the bugs are doodlebugs and we'll be blacking out the windows before you know it. Not to mention fast-tracking the production of powdered egg and lard so the grocer can tick them off in our ration books (blue, naturally).

For second time, President Trump has said that on call with PM yesterday, before he could even get a word out of him, he asked for ventilators - context being President saying the US production ramp up can’t make too many, as UK & others also need them pic.twitter.com/nm00IqS6pj

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) March 29, 2020

thanks for the well wishes everyone. it has been heartening.

Good luck Plax.

Asked why the UK had not mass tested like Germany and was not “hunting” down Covid patients like the World Health Organisation has urged, Gove said:

Its certainly the case the Germans have had success in testing. There are other countries that are also ramping up testing.

But the acceleration here in the UK is significant. If one looks at a league table ... then the UK is rising up that.

But frankly, the most important thing is not to look backwards but forwards and do everything to increase the number of deaths.

Is that a typo from the Graun?

been corrected to “tests”.

the important thing is not to look backwards, not to learn from our mistakes and certainly not to rightfully hold to account those in government whose recklessness will cause thousands of avoidable deaths

But frankly, the most important thing is not to look backwards but forwards

Gove every time he remembers her married Sarah Vine (and vice versa)

But the acceleration here in the UK is significant. If one looks at a league table ... then the UK is rising up that.

Pretty sure that, like all league tables around Europe, this one too will be rendered null and void tbf.

Not a terribly popular opinion right now but, while Starmer has been entirely milquetoast or absent during the crisis and will likely continue to be useless during it, having an actual prosecutor as Leader of the Opposition might come in handy during the post-mortem/reckoning.

https://t.co/eg47vmjJLR pic.twitter.com/iA1G2Wyc0t

— Sarah_Woolley (@Sarah_Woolley) March 29, 2020

Not a terribly popular opinion right now but, while Starmer has been entirely milquetoast or absent during the crisis and will likely continue to be useless during it, having an actual prosecutor as Leader of the Opposition might come in handy during the post-mortem/reckoning.

"Young soft lefties who are brainy, who most people don’t recognise and who haven't spent last few years doing factional stuff."

Lol at "soft left and brainy" when they are referring to Rachel Reeves as Starmer's new potential Shadow Chancellor. It is so fucking dismal, how does it degenerate from such a beautiful living legend like McD to such an unremarkable, austerity positive, full legit concerns stanning, charmless as fuck right-wing career pol? Obv she'll be singing from a different hymnbook now because the weather has changed from ominous clouds on horizon to full apocalyptic. But I fucking remember her from 2010-15 Labour alright.. she's fucking gruesome.

quote is from a Times hack, so probably comes from Starmer's office. fucking gruesome.

This fucking endless "slightly stricter, no a wee bit more, just another wee bit" bollocks from the top of government is a shameful, confusing and ultimately deadly attempt at clinging in to the last tiny Tory need to put the economy first.
It's been led by a guy who took a fortnight off in February then called for an emergency meeting but not really an emergency coz it was a Friday so he put it back a few days.
There better be a fucking reckoning for this.

Can't help thinking of plax's failure to get a concertina as a metaphor for the government not getting in the orders for ventilators, I'm sorry if that puts you in the matt hancock role, p. Credits roll to sound of sad wheezing as the jig of life comes to an end

The last film that me and Jen saw in the cinema was The Lighthouse, which in retrospect..

not a glimmer of recognition of this policy from this disingenuous cunt

Broadband now being considered as a proper public utility that people need-to-have by the government, who’ve got providers to agree to lift all data caps, prioritise repairs to the vulnerable, and avoid cutting off people who can’t pay their bills. https://t.co/kO4Oj6Lcuj

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) March 29, 2020

No, it's fine because it still costs money, like all the best things in life.

Left Twitter is crowing about that right now but do people really believe its the same policy or even especially similar? The most you can say about it is that it's acknowledgement of the argument that was the foundation of Labour's broadband policy, but that's about it.

clearly it's temporary and i assume anyone already paying is still going to be paying but if keynesian shibboleths are set aside it puts them back in the future toolbox maybe

definitely think the best time to appoint a chancellor famous for repeatedly saying that labour shouldn't represent out-of-work 'benefit scroungers' is during a global pandemic where the majority of the country has been put out of work and is being paid by the state https://t.co/TYHPAsrBeo

— Stan The Golden Boy (@tristandross) March 29, 2020

I am so fucking furious about the idea of Rachel "Labour will be tougher than Tories on benefits" Reeves back in the shadow cabinet.

The last film that me and Jen saw in the cinema was The Lighthouse, which in retrospect..

Same! Had some nice dim sum in Chinatown and then strolled to the PCC for a matinee. Look forward to having another day like that sometime in 2025.

xp
it's fucking sickmaking. Starmer isn't even trying play to the left gallery anymore, obv the votes have been counted so now he can get on with being the tory cunt in disguise he plainly is.

Calzsandra increasingly proven to have had the right instinct re ks