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

forecasting is one thing, using those forecasts to act appropriately in a timely fashion is something else entirely

Worth pointing out that Corbyn didn't ask Johnson a question about coronavirus until March 4th, by which time Italy had closed its schools and a lot of the damage over here in terms of poor preparation was already done. If it caught the government unaware then the same is true for the opposition, they didn't scrutinise the government when it might actually have saved lives.

The Labour response since has been woefully inadequate but the notion of an opposition that would otherwise be hammering the government and holding them to account is as fanciful as any "finally, a real opposition!" twaddle.

no it isn't!

if you trying to say Corbyn would be as useless as Starmer you are talking absolute shite

And he was an outgoing practically gone leader at that point.

No he would be better but I doubt it would be making any difference because they'd just be ignoring him.

Really the problem was that Labour disappeared into its periodic bout of navel gazing at exactly the time when it was really needed. Neither of the parties were paying sufficient attention in January and February and we are where we are.

At this stage they aren't doing enough to make sure the government is adequately prepared for the second spike and that's a whole other disaster in the making.

so the realpolitik position on how to do opposition is don't do it nobody listens anyway unless you take money from bet365 and broadly agree with the tories on most things ? corbyn managed to pressure the govt on austerity enough that they had to pretend it was over again. That won't won't happen awith sensible grown up opposition utilising the powers of politeness & civility that you apparently need if you want people to listen to you..

It was a really shit timing for a leadership election, but stuff happens.

They are pretending they've got the crisis under control now - pressuring them into lying about shit is the easy bit, pressuring them into genuine change is quite another. I don't really have an answer to your question sadly, the whole thing just feels like a gigantic fuck-up from start to finish.

sorry if I was a bit rude back there, just had a can of lomza and it went straight to me!

It was a really shit timing for a leadership election, but stuff happens.

It was only shit timing because they decided to make it longer than 4 General Election campaigns combined.

Nah its fine, it's the exasperation and despair talking for me as well.

And in case of any doubt I am absolutely not suggesting there's real culpability on Labour's part here because only one party had any power to do anything, but saying that the notion of 'complicity' from the opposition at times like this is a slippery one.

so the realpolitik position on how to do opposition is don't do it nobody listens anyway unless you take money from bet365 and broadly agree with the tories on most things ?

Nah, no-one listens even then. I'd like to have Corbyn as LOTO for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that the conditions for that happening preclude the shellacking that Labour got at the election, which is the reason why it doesn't matter who the Labour leader is, and it won't unless the government start to worry about their majority.

So angered by this shit.

RT'd this initially but it's so horrific i didn't feel right leaving it at that. rajesh's landlord sent him out of the house and changed the locks, leaving him to sleep in a car with covid19. he later died in a room he borrowed 4k to pay for upfront. https://t.co/LqLXBvmkKA

— egg (@emmaggarland) April 28, 2020

jesus christ

That entire story is just awful. No words really.

Landlords are amongst the worst parasites of humanity... just absolutely sickening.

Privately-funded healthcare for the NHS!

The Daily Mail has flown 20 tons of coveralls and masks - worth over £1m - from China to give to NHS staff. It has also created a new charity, Mail Force, and is hoping for support from big donors, readers and the public to help deliver more PPE. https://t.co/NrC4NKghqr pic.twitter.com/M0njvMUrR7

— Press Gazette (@pressgazette) April 28, 2020

how does that chime with their raging xenophobia?

Earlier I noticed a ten deep queue of appropriately distanced people waiting on the forecourt and some waiting in parked cars outside a local Chinese takeaway. I thought all the 5g conspiracy nonsense and xenophobic right-wing press might have killed their business off, but some folk just want to eat!

I think the 5G thing is about 20 people tbh, plus a million or two more who picked up on it for a week or so then moved on. Fail!

Cummings in SAGE: apparently the one who made them do lockdown, finally.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-28/top-aide-to-u-k-s-johnson-pushed-scientists-to-back-lockdown

i heard he also personally built the nightingale hospital himself in one night and taught joe wicks everything he knows

According to two people, SAGE were hammering the table shouting “let them all die”

How much can an advertorial in Bloomberg cost nowadays?

One attendee at the meeting described feeling uncomfortable that the panel with Cummings’s input was taking more of a decision-making approach than simply drawing up options and giving advice to ministers. The attendee added, however, that it was also a relief that Cummings had pushed for a lockdown because there were concerns that politicians had not fully understood how serious the coronavirus emergency had become.

absolutely transparent counterspin from the government, fucking awful

the mercurial, enigmatic special adviser was simultaneously agitating for a lockdown whilst saying: protect the economy and too bad if a load of pensioners die. You can see why they pay him so much.

I remember @jeremycorbyn being ridiculed for putting questions from the public at PM questions? Or am I missing something? https://t.co/arLzrSs1BA

— Peter Dowd (@Peter_Dowd) April 28, 2020

if Corbyn was so bad why would the Tories bother trying to bite his style heh?

doesn't that give the government the choice of which questions to answer? the bloke just on radio4 was avoiding all the not-even-hard questions he was being asked by the pesky interviewer and this skips all that.

if someone says 'that is an important question' you can tell he's just about to not answer it. if he starts talking about how germany handled the situation but how things are different here he's not going to answer it.

yeah I don't think any of the questions that they use will be inquisitive enough to upset Lord Sugar.

Hey Boris how come your dog seems to have a better idea of what a pig's ear looks like than the lickspittle uk press?

His babby is born btw.

he's totally armoured against criticism now!

the bairn should have a borg type name like Sixteen of Four to avoid confusion

How about Thirteen? Imagine that’s how he keeps track of them.

the good news is that we can be assured that the babby won't divert his attention from being pm because he has years of experience in ignoring his kids

also, he's not paying much attention to being pm anyway

that could be good news because time he tried to be PM he set the country on a disasterous course to have the highest c-19 death toll in Europe

he's just delivering on his promise to put britain first

Wait hang on she's only been pregnant five minutes?

Another PMQs escaped there then

Are you suggesting she's not human?
xpost

She was due in early summer which in this country is June, right?

Disturbed by the headline 'Patel probe should be public 'as soon as possible'

I have just seen the phrase "Some much needed good news for the nation!" and am shopping around for another nation.

You’ve already got one 🙃

She was in big coats in December and I reckon his divorce (and its potential cost or delay if his wife wanted to play hardball) may have played a part in keeping any announcement back until it could’ve combined with an engagement.