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

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

haha otm everyone (even AF)

he's going to be the lousiest, weakest, shittiest LOTO in decades and the Labour vote will go back into the steep decline that started in the Blair era. I won't be voting for them again, probably not in my lifetime tbh - they are dead to me as party now and the apolitical feebles in the membership can all fuck off as well.

nOt AlL cOpS

Overnight 6 people have been summonsed for offences relating to the new corona virus legislation to protect the public:

These included;

Out for a drive due to boredom

Returning from parties

Multiple people from the same household going to the shops for non-essential items pic.twitter.com/FstjlfdEkD

— Warrington Police (@PoliceWarr) March 29, 2020

wtf is a non-essential item

esp with all the non-essential shops closed

not a scale model of da Rona thankfully!

Has someone... knitted a coronavirus?

I dunno, it'd be a lot easier to spot!

lol that's exactly what I was thinking! I wish they'd stop putting these big knitted Ronas everywhere ffs. It might be a bit triggery for folk who've just lost a family member.

starmer looking set to take labour back to the golden age of 2010-2015. it's at times like this I regret that ilx's melts are too cowardly and devoid of conviction to post what they think

Essential items are food and medicine including for pets.

I was wondering where the cops stand on picking up other stuff in big supermarkets - like can I buy socks or books or board games in Tesco?

I mean they’re allowed to sell them you’re allowed to buy them surely

Overnight 6 people have been summonsed

summonsed to... where?

is it better for tens of people to gather for a minor court hearing than for two people to go to the shops at different times and be found guilty of only buying, I dunno what the police are calling inessential these days, maybe beer or a bottle of lemonade? maybe a new Lego magazine to shut the kids up? idk

It’s total bullshit is what it is. Are they stopping flat mates going out for individual corner shop trips for rolling papers or chocolate buttons or what? What else do they mean?

Has someone... knitted a coronavirus?

https://i.cbc.ca/1.5498940.1584366884!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_1180/tahani-baakdhah.jpg

other stuff in big supermarkets - like can I buy socks

it's a good job I'm not going to work, one of my pairs of work trousers has developed a hole in the crotch and I can't go to Debenham's to buy a new pair as it's shut. however, some people are still going to work, and might actually need to replace any clothes that disintegrate, so... ?

knit us a ventilator at least ffs

I mean, I'm completely in favour of people spontaneously arranging to just go out for one or two big shops per week and that's it, but any attempt to police it without something even further than France's form, will just turn into power-mad cops like this. Would be willing to put a tenner on the skin-colour of the household, too.

'returning from parties' is also a head-scratcher - how do you prove that if you don't know there's a party on, and if you know that, why not just break up the party?