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

oh dear, bad luck wins .. if you hung on a couple of more weeks you'd be a taurean like me and bizarro!

geminis unite

✌🏻♊️

Keir Starmer backs Mirror's campaign to give NHS coronavirus heroes a medalhttps://t.co/mFfnJNOBb9 pic.twitter.com/41poeH2Ghy

— Mirror Politics (@MirrorPolitics) April 9, 2020

I see the Real Opposition is holding Tottenham Hotspur to account more than they are the Tories https://t.co/Bln9XAkx62

— Clause IV concern (@Mwdsly) April 9, 2020

The British government defended its early handling of the coronavirus epidemic after a Reuters investigation found its scientific advisers were too slow to communicate their growing concerns about the outbreak to the public and ministers.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson initially approved a much more modest response to the outbreak than other major European countries, who took more stringent measures, though he later approved an effective shutdown of the United Kingdom.

Reuters reported this week that the scientific committees that advised Johnson did not study in detail, until mid-March, the option of the kind of stringent lockdown adopted early on in China, where the disease arose in December.

As they watched China impose its lockdown, the British scientists assumed that such drastic actions would never be acceptable in a democracy like the United Kingdom, the Reuters investigation found.

But Patrick Vallance, the government's top scientific adviser, said that modelling was carried out quickly enough to effectively inform Britain's reaction to the pandemic.

"It's not correct that we didn't model it until March. We modelled it throughout February," Vallance said at a news conference in Downing Street. "We modelled all of the interventions you have now seen."

Asked by Reuters why members of the modelling committee said that they had not carried out detailed modelling for a lockdown until March, Vallance said: "I know what happened, and I've just told you what happened, and the modelling came in from a variety of different sources."

Just realised it's a Bank Holiday tomorrow lol

how am i to deposit all these government handout cheques now

finding that Reuters report pretty suspect

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/covid-19-hundreds-of-uk-care-home-deaths-not-added-to-official-toll

I walk past a local care home every day and see the staff strolling away. Who probably haven't got adequate PPE on site and are going back into the mix. There doesn't seem to be a govt strategy to protect these vulnerable people. It's just a bloodbath that is unfolding, and let's keep clapping though.

More wages:

Also, the new Nightingale hospital is hiring for support staff which is advertised at £9.21 an hour which is below London living wage at a £1.54 difference

— edna (@ednamohamed_) April 9, 2020

don't worry I'm sure Kier will be pressing them hard on that!

Just realised it's a Bank Holiday tomorrow lol

Maybe it's just me but the days are rushing by - which is obviously a good thing! Though it's probably an illusion caused by the fact I never know what day of the week it is anymore.

£9.21 an hour to go into a building with an almost certain risk of infection.

Give these selfless heroes a round of applause!

I’m told my presence here is missed. I just read A Place is Greater Safety and it’s got some really interesting anecdotes about how one might go about establishing a republic that y’all might want to try out.

https://t.co/YHOUncF2Cg pic.twitter.com/OsUDdQnG7h

— Captalist Gravedigger (@Ecoclown) April 9, 2020

lol this creepy tool once made a pathetic program about Churchill's shitty Sunday painter daubings and now he's threatening to use his own "celebrity" to bring art to the people!

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/JauntyUltimateAnaconda-size_restricted.gif

the handwriting alone says all it needs to say https://t.co/H6wofKGFuf

— joe (@cillanoir) April 10, 2020

ALL ESSENTIAL WORKERS MUST

- HAVE A UNIFORM
- WEAR IT AT ALL TIMES

fuckin’ richard scarry-ass thinking

Bags ferry on the vagabond uniform with a cob of corn pipe!

Only in my damaged memory was there a Richard Scarry dolie vagabond character but it's a good idea imo

ah for fucks sake the fucking hands are fucking back pic.twitter.com/Zjgyw1CATz

— CAPS LOCKDOWN (@newliquidvessel) April 9, 2020

should have seen the rolled up sleeves full-kit blairite wanker coming.

God bless us all at this holy time of year.

FUCKING HELL pic.twitter.com/pLXjiIKTuE

— Dawn Foster (@DawnHFoster) April 9, 2020

lool ..beautiful!

good reference thread

Black Rose condemns with the full strength of its voice the appointment of Jess Phillips to the role of Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, believing her to be a direct threat to the safety of trans, non-binary and sex worker comrades.

This move is deeply concerning.

— Black Rose (@BlackRoseLabour) April 9, 2020

now we are finally seeing a plurality of sex offenders in the shadow cabinet he could have found a position for John Woodcock.

struggling with a mildly resurgent anxiety since lockdown, feel a bit paranoid and anxious about going to the shop, good to see the pigs doing their bit to help

Officers visited Tesco Barhill this morning as part of their patrols around supermarkets and green spaces this weekend. Good to see everyone was abiding by social distancing measures and the non essential aisles were empty. #1732 pic.twitter.com/yE8tkNXSkF

— Cambridge Police (@CambridgeCops) April 10, 2020

wouldn't want to get stopped and questioned for being in a non-essential aisle in Aldi

They seem to have been doubling up on the copper choppers recently as well. hovering about menacingly, reminding you they are always watching you. No doubt they've got plenty of pig drones as well now. I can understand the need to enforce a lock down but some of these wankers are thick as fuck violent sociopaths and they enjoy their job way too much.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcSwiucP4_NhyiEWw7G-k2WdDOdnKOQzBOapso2A8x6eHHUNXTEG&usqp=CAU

no days are Good anymore!

What exactly is a 'non essential aisle'?

that's taking policing to psychopath levels of control, wtf are they to say what is non essential?

so it's legal for supermarkets to sell non-essential items, but you can be be done for attempting to buy them? literally days until someone gets busted for kerb crawling for chocolate hobnobs

i'm ok, am feeling much better than i was a couple of months ago and can manage my mental health, but i'm sure there will be people incredibly anxious about leaving their homes *even when they need to* at the moment because of the noxious stew of micro-fascism on social media and every thick copper that amplifies that anxiety because they don't know how to police with consent is making that situation worse

potentially apocryphal but someone at my work said her sister-in-law was given a 60£ on the spot fine by the rozzers for being out to buy wine only

lol remember when people wanted to call out the army?

would be lots of summary on the spot "shuffle off this mortal coil you xunt"-s being doled out

I go out 3 times a day and usually twice with my son. The only trouble I've had was some arsehole painting his fence and moaning that Alex walked too close to him. I said paint your fence from your garden, dickhead. Don't plant yourself on the pavement and moan about someone with serious disabilities walking past you.

i'm really impressed how many people can work out what journeys are essential and non-essential from behind their net curtains

I'm worried if any cops approach me. I'm not good at being told what to do and have been in the cells a few times for telling cops to get fucked! need to practise being calm and not escalating situations when dealing with nasty gobshites.

tbf though when you have someone disabled with you they tend to hassle you less. well this is in my experience so far. obv this could be subject to change if you are unlucky enough to bump into a proper psychofash copper.

Social media has been a great tool for police accountability, in that instead of having to rely on patchy local testimony, overzealous police forces just tweet out when they’re going well beyond the law. https://t.co/sVUjb2GPTs

— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) April 10, 2020

Uh? pic.twitter.com/4GFUNzGaxL

— The man who hated Britain (@memereference) April 10, 2020

Pretty sure Miliband knows exactly what's going on there.

Meanwhile...

delighted to introduce "Jess Phillips's weirdly horny brother" into the shitpost canon pic.twitter.com/UGkbJ9KHDq

— Charlie (@vampiretraums) April 9, 2020

Is Ed a closet comrade now?

I think he's just enjoying throwing some quiet shade on Osborne. But you don't have his upbringing and like a post like that because you've taken it literally.

I wonder if pervy stalker brother has a cameo in to the jess tv series.