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

Shame they haven’t suspended him already.

Starmer's got to follow his procedure ofc..

Stan knows where it’s at.

A fucking badge?

The French have literally just given €1500 to those on the front line in health care and we're giving out fucking badges?

What the!!

— Stan Collymore (@StanCollymore) April 15, 2020

"These politically crooked officials were prepared to risk dramatic damage to the interests of the British economy and working people just in order to scratch their factional itch.”

quite at odds with Starmer's account of events of the Corbyn era. it's almost eerily like he's part of a faction himself

I think people have got to stop re-running the debate between globalists and nationalists.

think gordon brown is in for a shock if he thinks all this palaver is going to mute that debate. while we'll definitely need co-ordinated international action, with the closing of borders, suspicions about foreigners (5G, "the chinese virus" etc) it will probably retrench a type of extreme national solidarity which could mutate into a toxic nationalism if allowed

“Being isolated, people realise the need to be connected, the importance they attach to friendship, the importance of acting as a community.”

I mean I think that's right, it's just 'community' can have various very different meanings within that debate

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/apr/16/gordon-brown-on-covid-19-recession-and-trump-when-theres-a-crisis-you-have-to-act-quickly

Journalists should stop asking about an ‘exit strategy.’ There is only one way we can ‘exit’ full lockdown and that is when we have a vaccine. Until then, we need to find ways we can adapt society and strike a balance between the health of the nation and our economy . #COVID19

— Nadine Dorries 🇬🇧 (@NadineDorries) April 15, 2020

"Prof Neil Ferguson, whose modelling has guided Downing Street’s crisis strategy, this morning told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that when the UK lockdown does eventually end, social distancing measures are likely to remain in place “indefinitely” until a coronavirus vaccine can be rolled out.

Ferguson warned that it would not be possible to relax the lockdown until a significant infrastructure was in place.

He said the UK’s ability to come out of lockdown would “depend on how quickly case numbers go down”. But it would also require an emphasis on scaling up testing and contact tracing, because if measures were relaxed without a strong plan in place there was too much risk of a resurgence in cases."

I'm sure this is right but am struggling to conceptualise what 'indefinite social distancing' means in practice.

Aside from that, The Guardian suggests that there's no central planning on easing restrictions and different departments are running with their own projected timelines / plans - which is likely to continue at least until Johnson comes back to work.

I'm sure this is right but am struggling to conceptualise what 'indefinite social distancing' means in practice.

'we'll continue sacrificing essential workers in a slightly more controlled fashion until science saves us' is basically how i break it down to an extent

it would also require an emphasis on scaling up testing and contact tracing

that would mean scaling up contact tracing from essentially zero since the government chose to abandon it before they'd even really started

I think that's probably correct but...also sacrificing pretty much everyone else?

You can't have social distancing and, idk, commuting, using public transport, running schools and universities as normal, etc. I find it hard to imagine it's going to mean anything other than 'if you have the luxury of working from home, you can, otherwise get on with it'.

lol

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/66c6fbf1f0b9effc30e128f5b6faaec6c9107642/0_0_784_403/master/784.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=31a1ab0902b3ad4233cf0ba6efc5967c

yeah i think it's becoming increasingly undeniable that herd immunity remains the government's strategy, just stretched out over time instead of taking boris' suicidal 'take it on the chin' approach

think gordon brown is in for a shock if he thinks all this palaver is going to mute that debate. while we'll definitely need co-ordinated international action, with the closing of borders, suspicions about foreigners (5G, "the chinese virus" etc) it will probably retrench a type of extreme national solidarity which could mutate into a toxic nationalism if allowed

I don't think he's saying that, if anything he's warning against it. And I agree with you that this is probably the way it's going to go but there will be currents in both directions, in the UK at least. It might be moot anyway because the question of when you can practically and safely open borders again is not going to be answered for a while, even in Schengen countries.

In the absence of a vaccine you can't relax social distancing measures without either widespread and effective testing or public access to any antivirals that might significantly reduce the severity of the infection. The longer the government continues to fuck about on testing the more impatient people are going to be to get out of their houses, especially if they can see it happening in other, better organised countries. All this goodwill isn't going to last.

different departments are running with their own projected timelines / plans - which is likely to continue at least until Johnson comes back to work.

― ShariVari,Thursday, 16 April 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Why does Johnson returning to work matter here?

It's incredible how contact tracing has just...not been part of the conversation in regards to the UK response.

was the NHS app that's being developed not supposed to have anonymised phone-to-phone contact tracing as its USP?

Why does Johnson returning to work matter here?

No one is even nominally coordinating them and no one is trusted to make any decisions.

Most of the handwringing about what responsibilities Raab does or does not have mostly came from Tory backbenchers and centred around whether or not he would be authorised to take the UK to war over the next couple of weeks or what he would do in the event of an attack on the UK, which tells you a lot about how phenomenally stupid these people are.

I would've thought the head of the civil service could be coordinating plans from various departments.

Ultimately their execution or otherwise would be up to cabinet/johnson but I don't know enough here.

Stupid, war-horny, tomayto, tomahto.

Choose your fighter pic.twitter.com/RUDAlLfoyy

— Marine A Hyde (@spagbolshevism) April 15, 2020

I compare my cooking to the 2nd miles davis quintet, and these fules to shed 7!

you should see the fn glorious bread i've been baking

black market flour

Stupid, war-horny, tomayto, tomahto.

― Andrew Farrell,Thursday, 16 April 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Is this in the wrong thread?

We’ve got chicken tonight. Strangest damn things. They’re man-made. Roasted on top of a baguette. Very nice!

That chicken guy is a legend in food Twitter circles. All his cooking looks disgusting and he's a noted creep.

lol at ‘marine a hyde’

you can't beat a good piece of incinerated baguette completely saturated in chicken fat!

I hate to go there yet again, but you guys are a lot funnier than any of the tweets you post - apart from Simon Hedges.

According to my notes Sam Bowman food tweets ARE clearly a wind up though.

tbh I assume at least some of the left twitter gags with 7 likes that end up itt ARE ilxors

I need to master that grandstanding left twitter style because I probably get something like one like a year and that is usually someone liking someone saying I'm wrong!

some people seem to spend all day adding : what a twat! to every jimbob, toby young or whoever's tweet usually saying stuff like Tories are grand and eugenics is nuff good and all poor people should die of c-19 in factories to save the economy. I always agree with them but just aren't motivated enough to do it myself.

7 likes is the dream i never yet attained tbf

the best tweets but the worst clout

to be clear the tweets are bad

Is this in the wrong thread?

My recommendation is to read around a little.

my best tweet got me blocked by a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and it got one like from a scouser friend of mine called Dave!

i long for blocks more than likes tbh

Andrew - anything you'd like to recommend?

you should see the fn glorious bread i've been baking

We’ve got chicken tonight. Strangest damn things. They’re man-made. Roasted on top of a baguette. Very nice!

tbh I assume at least some of the left twitter gags with 7 likes that end up itt ARE ilxors

my best tweet got me blocked by a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and it got one like from a scouser friend of mine called Dave!

This is genuinely winning at Twitter!

xyzzz__ - I'm being snarky, the comment you quoted was replying to the comment above yours, feel free to deruffle yr feathers.

Ah ok. Multiple conversations and threads, it happens

Lol the state of this fucking scab union

NEW: GMB Labour staff branch will debate a motion today demanding that Jennie Formby "apologise personally' to staff named in the leaked report pic.twitter.com/sDZETio7Oj

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) April 16, 2020

This sounds horrific.

"don't call them heroes if they don't have a choice". today's @vittleslondon an account of what it's like to work on a production line producing ready meals for our supermarkets and the disempowerment of those who work at bakkavor, by @WorkersAngry https://t.co/BQy2p6hqAb

— jonathan nunn (@demarionunn) April 16, 2020

Keir's got their backs, he is just waiting until they are dead to award them posthumous medals.