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

I was feeling totally chill about the current situation before I learned that Dominic Raab is the only thing standing between us and the total collapse of society.

There's a chance Raab could die?

The people in parks will see to that

Co-raab-avirus

love him or hate him he is a figure that people can rally around

Have seen no evidence of this whatsoever, then again I don't read the Mail or have a Russian-funded Facebook feed

Raab's Power Graab.

Need a walk today, wonder where the best place will be to avoid stop and search and a kicking

i believe this was all foretold in the old testament? 'after the pestilence cometh the age of crustaceans' - domini craab = lord of the crabs

Guy N Smith tried to tell us

The UK will start to return to normal in the next 10 days after the peak is reached.

this is 5G-level thinking

The golf courses tend to not be where the people are, mind.

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 6 April 2020 bookmarkflaglink

That is true of say inner cities, but not so of other places.

How far down the line of succession is Lord Buckethead?

So in the unlikely event of Queenie, Chaz, Wills, Harry + associated kids all dying, does Andrew become King? Yes I've seen King Ralph btw

this is 5G-level thinking

I'm just the messenger. We're approaching a return to normality alongside a societal breakdown

what if they're both the same?

https://i.imgflip.com/1l8thn.jpg

James Meadway on 'Labour's legal turn'
https://www.thesocialreview.co.uk/2020/04/05/labours-legal-turn/

There’s no point to engaging with that shit but this is one case where I would be tempted to remind them they said that in, say, 21 days, before asking them to shut the fuck up about everything forever xps

BREAKING:
· David Lammy, Shadow Justice
· John Healey, Shadow Defence
· Ed Miliband, Shadow BEIS
· Emily Thornberry, Shadow International Trade
· Jonathan Reynolds, Shadow Work and Pensions
· Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Education

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) April 6, 2020

· Jo Stevens, Shadow Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
· Bridget Philipson, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
· Luke Pollard, Shadow DEFRA
· Steve Reed, Shadow Communities and Local Government
· Thangam Debbonaire, Shadow Housing

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) April 6, 2020

· Jim McMahon, Shadow Transport
· Preet Gill, Shadow International Development
· Louise Haigh, Shadow Northern Ireland (interim)
· Ian Murray, Shadow Scotland
· Nia Griffith, Shadow Wales
· Marsha de Cordova, Shadow Women and Equalities

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) April 6, 2020

· Andy McDonald, Shadow Employment Rights and Protections
· Rosena Allin-Khan, Shadow Minister for Mental Health
· Cat Smith, Shadow Minister for Young People and Voter Engagement
· Lord Falconer, Shadow Attorney General

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) April 6, 2020

Seems ok.

ian murray

The Tories did this in 2015 when they only had one Scottish mp, as soon as they had more than 1 in 17 Corbyn replaced Murray with the newly-elected Lesley Laird.

Said Andy Mcdonald would be in there the other day. He's quite impressive tbf

No Dawn Butler!

But good to see de Cordova in there.

Cat Smith is very good and a Corbyn protegé

Jess Phillips still waiting for her close-up, LOL

Wales and Scotland seem fucked forever.

Dawn Butler really the biggest omission here.

No Yvette Cooper. Also lol no Jess Phillips what a surprise.

No Hilary Benn either thank god.

lol if chuka had held on for 8 months he probably could've been shadow chancellor

The melt WhatsApp group will be having a mini meltdown over some of these omissions perhaps

I'm just trying to imagine what it's like being in a group chat where the consensus is Starmer is too much of a lefty.

Be like the us politics threads I guess

Lol yep!

butler def a poor omission but folks admit you were slightly blindsided by this cabinet lol

the proof of the broad church approach is yet to come (and i know it's not ideal) but for all of starmer's weak rhetoric and collaborationist demeanour there's enough for me to keep a shaky faith for now

nice to see phillips, benn et al punished for being essentially snakes

NEW: Sir Keir Starmer's new communications director is reportedly to be from a private healthcare lobbying corporation set up in 2013 by Bill Morgan, ex-special adviser to Tory Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, architect of most recent rounds of NHS privatisation. #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/uvnCLtzNQf

— Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) April 6, 2020

all PR people are amoral shysters tbf

crankish account as well like, but that Nunn seems extraordinarily awful and I wasn't a Milne fan either tbh but at least he wasn't from a private healthcare lobby background

now more than ever we need the influence of private healthcare in politics

a lot of shit stuck to milne alas, i guess the thought here is to hire someone utterly beige, but that background is odious if accurate, yeah

a sexy PR campaign isn't why a party sells. You tell me - Get Brexit Done? What was that? There was nothing in that goddamn manifesto.

Excuse me. We'll talk about this after.

Shadow chancellor is actual work though, Chuka was probably holding out for shadow culture or shadow defence.

butler def a poor omission but folks admit you were /slightly/ blindsided by this cabinet lol

the proof of the broad church approach is yet to come (and i know it's not ideal) but for all of starmer's weak rhetoric and collaborationist demeanour there's enough for me to keep a shaky faith for now

xxp Sometimes it's the lies you don't tell.

INCISIVE HEALTH's logo reminds me of the excellent 70s board game AMOEBA (my sister has our edn of this with her in hastings i imagine)

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/183520314107_/Vintage-1960-70s-amoeba-Board-Game-by-Marx.jpg

butler def a poor omission but folks admit you were slightly blindsided by this cabinet lol

the proof of the broad church approach is yet to come (and i know it's not ideal) but for all of starmer's weak rhetoric and collaborationist demeanour there's enough for me to keep a shaky faith for now

― ban laggy jazzer (imago), Monday, 6 April 2020 14:21 (thirty-four minutes ago) link

Lol stop pretending this isn't your politics it's embarrassing.

butler def a poor omission but folks admit you were /slightly/ blindsided by this cabinet lol

It's pretty representative of what i've always thought Starmer's base to be, tbh - a bunch of soft-left technocratic people bookended with a smattering of unreconstructed Blairites and optimistic leftists. It seems pretty clear that the Labour right was briefing the sympathetic press on what they wanted to happen, not what they knew was going to happen.

One of the other founders of Incisive Health was an adviser to Jon Trickett and their client list is the usual mix of pharma companies plus the General Medical Council, health charities like Alzheimers Research UK and 38Degrees. They'll take anyone's money in the healthcare sector.

Not a hill anyone should be arsed to die on but it doesn't necesarily mean he'll be lobbying on behalf of private healthcare from within the leader's office, although I'd worry how many of them will have his phone number already. TBH I'd be OK if he stuck to what PR guys are supposed to do rather than the modern version which appears to be to control every aspect of policy despite being completely unelected.

I'd be more worried about the fact that he worked on Owen Smith's campaign and we know what a rousing success that was.