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

This is pure wishful thinking, Boris has just won the biggest Tory majority since Thatcher, he's going nowhere.

Also there's 6 million more people in the UK than Italy.

The other unexploded bomb here is, after fawning praise for the big promises made by Sunak a couple of weeks ago, there is still no website available or any other means for businesses or self-employed individuals to actually apply for the furlough support that's been promised. If the government bungles this, or if the site doesn't work or is beset by delays, then it's curtains for huge numbers of small businesses and probably a lot of larger ones as well. Then there will be an even larger spike in people being driven to a Universal Credit system that isn't fit for purpose.

There is probably a reasonable argument in favour of the idea that Labour should be seen to be engaging constructively (eg "how do we save lives and livelihoods?") rather than hammering the government for the sake of it while we are still in this phase of the crisis - a lot of the country is still at the fear stage rather than the anger stage - and once again look at how Cameron behaved during the peak of the financial crisis. The government isn't going to listen to what Labour say in any case but it prevents Labour being sucked into that stupid and self-defeating media-driven "waaah why are you politicising this?" cycle of defensiveness - the country in general might react badly to the sense that it's being exploited clumsily for political gain. There will be plenty of time to hammer the government later. The problem is that it doesn't create the pressure that might actually save lives.

The one area where Starmer might actually succeed - being able to pinpoint every single fuck-up and not let the government off the hook about it as the crisis itself recedes, is offset by the fact that he just lacks the personality and political capabilities to channel the inevitable public anger in an effective way. And it only works if he is inclined to really hold the government to account, which is a big if. If he isn't he shouldn't be in the position at all.

One line of attack is not necessarily what the government is doing now - although that is obviously going disastrously wrong - it's what they were doing in late January and February when they should have been preparing for this. The likelihood is that Cummings will be hung out to dry (and maybe Whitty or Vallance as well) and Johnson himself will survive.

I'm sure Johnson will try to come up with some way of pinning blame on Theresa May's government or, even Cameron, since he has very successfully managed to persuade the British public that that Conservative Party is not his Conservative Party.

Oh fuck, just looked up from my laptop to see Jess Phillips doing some sort of advert for ITV.

I'm sure Johnson will try to come up with some way of pinning blame on Theresa May's government or, even Cameron, since he has very successfully managed to persuade the British public that that Conservative Party is not his Conservative Party.

He won't even have to mention names or eras, he'll just say "previous governments" or even "the last Labour government" and while people who can count will mutter about that being ten years ago, enough people will go "ooh yes, we voted for A Change in December" or "bloody Corbyn!", apparently

sigh.

Johnson got enough people to vote again for what they voted for in the 2016 referendum.

If there are more than 20K in deaths and if a fifth or more of small businesses collapse I don't see how that is going to stick.

Oh fuck, just looked up from my laptop to see Jess Phillips doing some sort of advert for ITV.

was it pizza hut

lol was just thinking better make sure her pizza is bland + lukewarm but on time in the itv green room or heads will roll!

funny hearing Laura K talk about "media sources usually friendly to the Government" like she means somebody else

apologies because this is potentially triggering but jesus fucking christ

Also today, three services (in Somerset, Derbyshire and East Sussex) where GPs have contacted the teams to say that they have deemed the people we support should ALL be DNR. No consultation with families, no best interests. Mostly working age adults. We will fight this.

— Andrew Cannon (@VoyageCEO) April 1, 2020

wow!

much less horrible, but another classic bit of Blitz Spirit Britain

#Coronavirus: Woman fined £660 for refusing to tell police at Newcastle railway station why she was out https://t.co/be4TCCMDOj

— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 1, 2020

Reminds of some distant memory of a 90s doc about fare dodgers on trains. Some posh guy gets caught bang to rights with no ticket and just keeps repeating his name is Authur and address is Camelot until the police intervene.

earlier tweet from the same guy nv posted, absolutely horrifying

Learned today of DNR applied by a hospital for one of the people we support; man in his 50s, no underlying health condition and great quality of life. Family not consulted. Can only conclude ReSPECT form put in place because he has a learning disability. https://t.co/5UnGLKvsun

— Andrew Cannon (@VoyageCEO) April 1, 2020

it ought to be criminal irrespective of the age or underlying health if it's done without informed consent tbh, but it looks a lot like a few doctors are getting pretty turned on at the prospect of playing eugenics Shipman

good thing no-one in government shares their views eh

They are probably under extreme pressure to free ventilators up, which doesn't excuse anything but does signal where the blame and responsibility really lie.

Oh wait is this care homes rather than hospitals? Regardless, fucking hell...

I personally believe a lot of them are closet eugenicists, it goes with the territory and the arrogance in my experience. Of course not all docs j Mengele...

of course the blame ultimately rests with the government and senior NHS managers, but i don't think anybody in that profession should be making the decision that healthy adults with learning disabilities are somehow less worthy of resuscitation

Some of the ones I've dealt with can barely disguise their contempt for dealing with autistic nonverbal patients.

yeah i know, prejudice doesn't magically disappear because you happen to work in the health sector

I assume we've all encountered medical students in our time...

Now that the magic money tree has been discovered there are calls to put 10 billion into debt relief

https://www.ft.com/content/8fec00b8-a0af-4129-811b-8a1ccf98ad69

It would absolutely "help the poor" but presumably with the covenient side-effect of helping some very rich lenders

it would obv be welcome but would only be a short term solution and without radical reforms to Universal Credit and UK employment rights it wouldn't take so long to be straight back to square one i.e. lots of struggling poor people on zero hour contracts being vulnerable to unscrupulous lenders and literal leg breakers in some cases and getting into unmanageable debt spirals. And I'm guessing the tories don't give a flying fuck anyway.

keep hope alive

Boris Johnson is still displaying coronavirus symptoms, meaning he may not be able to leave No 11 Downing Street on Friday, where he is self-isolating.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said Johnson was still symptomatic, six days after he first came down with signs of the illness. If he still has a temperature on Friday, he will not be able to leave quarantine as planned, despite having observed a recommended seven days in isolation.

The spokesman said: “What the guidelines say is that if you still have a high temperature, for example, you should keep self-isolating until your temperature returns to normal. The guidance is that you should stay at home for seven days or for longer if a high temperature persists.”

When asked if the prime minister had a temperature, the spokesman said only that he continued to have “mild symptoms”.

Not like someone who hid in a fridge would try & prolong this as long as possible to avoid press scrutiny

I've heard the slow Rona is a real fucker - it could be months!

We probably need a separate thread on the economic fallout/restructuring side but the government would need to be really barefaced to effectively demand the shutdown of most of the economy for months and then wash its hands of the consequences of that shutdown. Unfortunately the current government really is that barefaced.

the bitterest lol

You know it's time when a BBC news reader can't hide their shock when confronted with the fact that this government have failed the people of this country. Thirty, that's right thirty. We had the offer of 1000's of ventilators but chose to ignore. Get the F**K out Boris #borisout pic.twitter.com/JCqBo0DA33

— Jon Jones (@JonJonesSnr) April 2, 2020

xp I'm not sure if that'll save them though - the trick is to screw the poor but allow the natural class stratification to mean that most of 'your voters' never have to hear about this (or never hear about it in enough quantity that they can't brush it off as "probably just a lowlife/druggie/criminal"). That's not a trick you can do if you torpedo small and medium businesses willy-nilly.

"You know it's time" - I mean, it's well past time for this, but it's time for what exactly? It's time for nothing at all to happen because it's 4+ years until an election?

to be clear, I am pleased people are finally beginning to push back, and hope they carry on even though it feels slightly futile - it's newsworthy that we're fucked and being lied to, even if I can't see a route to anyone doing anything about it

help us keir starmer, you're our only hope

brb just making a noose

rlb just making a noose

Keir could our very own Bernie.. if he worked on his comedy routine and got a dog called Schnorbitz.

sad news for these headline-chasing corporate punks cunts

The independent brewer BrewDog is considering reformulating hand sanitiser made at its distillery in Aberdeenshire after it was turned down by a local hospital because it did not meet medical standards.

The firm said last month it would be giving away its “punk sanitiser” free to charities and to the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, but a donation of thousands of bottles was turned down by the hospital.

While the sanitiser is 68% alcohol, well above the 60% minimum recommended by the Health and Safety Executive in the UK, it does not meet more stringent requirements for a medical environment, which requires more than 90% alcohol.

Who Will Run The Prog Hospital?

Looking at https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus showing deaths in the UK having doubled in three days. Fuck.

you absolutely do not love to see it

We are starting from a relatively low base, Italy is doubling every six days and that's absolutely terrifying.

When were the people currently dying over here likely to have been infected?

hatt mancock on the tv now giving off powerful nervous-supply-teacher energy as he addressed the nation

Errr also what the fuck is Matt Hancock doing taking a press conference right now? Wasn't he isolating with symptoms two or three days ago?

he said last week he’d be self-isolating until today

he still should have a permanent Twat sticker on his back

well, yeah