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

How come? Sorry if a stupid question, there’s so much stuff coming out atm.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVai_D1XsAMocoo?format=jpg&name=900x900
This thing being leaked in a million low quality JPEGs. This ones after the 2017 exit poll.

What a truly bizarre, carefully co-ordinated attack on Starmer this is pic.twitter.com/LyW00vnzEU

— Sam ✌️ (@samisam147) April 11, 2020

Well this was predictable.

Even the most uncontroversial criticism of the government is whipped up in an attempt to generate hysteria but apparently political point scoring in a crisis is fine when the CCHQ social media team do it.

Also you've got to be pretty dumb to retweet several other posts that confirm how obviously pre-scripted it all is.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-government-close-to-lies-over-coronavirus-deaths-warns-expert-11972083

it's possible that their realisation of how badly they could come out of the other side of this is gonna make them hyper-aggressive but it's Steer Karma ffs, it's like savaging a dead sheep

chill the fuck out Kier for goodness sake, you impetuous angry radical firebrand you!

So what’s the story on how this child of a nurse and tradesman named for an ancestral Labour lion grew up into a doughy lad that calzino loathes? (I only looked at Wikipedia for about six seconds here)

it’s a real nature-vs-nurture case study

xp oh mate

Was it due to a grievous illness, didn’t mean to offend

Kinnock had a grittier origin story and was still a complete plank!

he was bitten by a radioactive centrist iirc

lol didn't Joe Biden once get into trouble for plagiarising the gritty Kinnock origin story?

xps it’s more to do with the fact that calz hates him & doesn’t need a reason to say this!

He’s appointed some dodgy people to his shadow cabinet and hasn’t had much interesting to say on the pandemic, when Labour should be dragging the government for the hideous death figures and its failure to protect NHS staff and other key workers.

not nearly enough trouble if current events are any yardstick xp

Lads
I know this thread is very serious and we shame the whole site etc etc BUT

I’ve genuinely just had a telephone call from Ian Austin who is threatening to take legal action against me because I referred to him as a “sheep botherer.”

— Jon Argles (@JonArgles) April 12, 2020

Let the man sue

My defence would be in light of Austin's character any accusation of bothering sheep couldn't possibly diminish him further in the public's opinion

His argument is that the sheep didn't seem bothered.

— DB (@D_B_90) April 12, 2020

So what’s the story on how this child of a nurse and tradesman named for an ancestral Labour lion grew up into a doughy lad that calzino loathes? (I only looked at Wikipedia for about six seconds here)

― silby, Sunday, 12 April 2020 16:33 (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

gyac has covered the current situation well but i'll add that calz hates him more for what he isn't than what he is tbh. he isn't a lot of things. what he is exactly (beyond a capable prosecutor) is something of a political mystery, meaning that he could be all things to all people, which in practice has greatly emboldened the centre & right of the labour party

Oh good

I was saying that my neighbourhood whatsapp group was nice on here, I think yesterday? well today our alarm went off, I thought it had been disabled years ago, very odd. after I had found how to reset it, saw these messages in the group chat.

An alarm going off somewhere?

It's come from the Chinese House. 🤬

Having no obvious political convictions is a real bonus in a party leader

and what the fuck does he mean by "the chinese house"? racist cunt.

Ffs cam some people are just moronic scumbags

xp absolute cuntery, I’m sorry 😞

pretty staggering fact here pic.twitter.com/hrXyVhrWq9

— Hadley Freeman-on-the-land (@wariotifo) April 12, 2020

xp I have just called him out in the group chat, I don't like conflict at all, so almost shaking now, but it's got to be done.

what a cunt

don't do whatsapp groups with the British public folks.

10 minutes since I posted that in the whatsapp group, 82 participants in there, not a peep since. Hm.

they're all building the wicker bojo

*wicker covid-19 cell

in all seriousness though, that is grim

My neighbourhood groups, in descending order of goodness, let me show you them:

Covid Mutual Aid slack group - good at getting stuff done, no nonsense organizing, no chat
Covid Mutial Aid FB group - mostly sound, mods delete stupid "waaaah there's people in the parks!" posts
Building whatsapp group - cool, got to pawn off some veggies I didn't want on neighbours and got a potted tomato plant from one. Occasional frisson caused by the lad downstairs who posts in reddit snark mode, apparently oblivious that that's not the right tone for the place, bless 'im
Covid Mutual Aid whatsapp group - mostly abandoned for slack
Regular neighbourhood group - Absolutley abysmal, quarantine stasi out in full force, endless handwringing about civility when someone disses Boris. You wouldn't think there's too many tories in Stoke Newington but every last one of them is in this group.

xposts

(that last one's FB too)

Notice how the highest paid jobs in society (banking, hedge funds) have been proven utterly useless and unjustifiable when there’s been a global pandemic, and the lowest paid (nursing, cleaning, teaching) jobs have proven the most useful and essential for a society to function?

— Mangal 2 Restaurant (@Mangal2) April 12, 2020

Mangal 2 kebab shop OTM.

mangal 2 kebab shop go on trashfuture

Presumably Mangal 1 is silent on this because it doesn't think we should be talking down wealth creators at a time of crisis.

There absolutely are Tories in N16 ime Daniel, I was once trapped behind a drunk one in a queue at our corner shop who was trying to banter with the man behind the counter (“What part of Turkey are you from?” “Kurdistan” “Never heard of it”). Ofc they were the ones screaming for the army to be sent in during the riots/praising the Turkish & Kurdish shopkeepers turning out in the street when they’d never normally pass air with them otherwise.

The Mangal2 guy is otm about politics more than 98% of the nation’s columnists put together.

those riots really brought the tories and the racists out of their hidey holes

i'll add that calz hates him more for what he isn't than what he is tbh. he isn't a lot of things. what he is exactly (beyond a capable prosecutor) is something of a political mystery

Who the hell doesn't know what Starmer stands for lol.

forensic niceness

starmer

Sensible
The Grown Up In Charge
Arsenal Season Ticket Holder
Reluctant Leader
Moderate
EU saviour
Respects The Ladies

lol

Who the hell doesn't know what Starmer stands for lol.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 12 April 2020 17:53 (nineteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

granted, 'square-jawed white man' is about the limit of what he truly represents in the minds of most, and it's appalling how this is ample qualification