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

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.

Number 10 crowdsourcing less about biting Corbz' style, more about astroturf-fuelling the culture war between ordinary folx, joining together in knees-up Blitz camaraderie vs our disrespectful, perfidious fourth estate of {checks notes}... The FT, Panorama and Piers Morgan?

Oh and the Sunday Times, obvs.

our PM unquestioningly takes his public health strategy advice from useless incompetent crackpots that are completely out of their depth and takes his family planning advice from bin Laden. You can see why he's so popular.

Pesto seems to think if Hitler had managed to get one of his birds knocked up and survived a bout of the Rona he would have been a very different fuhrer!

maybe a case of 14th time was the charm

lads, lads, i know it's the game. but "wonderful"?

Wonderful news. Many congratulations to Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds. https://t.co/x3jD1cQUqY

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) April 29, 2020

There’s no good news, David. There’s only bad news and irrelevant news.

Starmer devastated by this in the replies
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EWwxFEqXgAALZ9d?format=png&name=large

Cromblyn: special day you say?

Today is Postal Workers Day and it is right that we pay tribute to the fantastic work of postal workers across the country.

I also call on Royal Mail to ensure workers have proper #PPE and an end to the delivery of advertising mail. #PostalWorkersDay pic.twitter.com/avNF3n2ZEu

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) April 29, 2020

Pesto getting a glorious Twitter reaming for pondering whether "having a baby" will change Boris

he's been plumbing deeper depths than Cousteau in 2020. From thinking aloud about why zero contracts are mostly bad for him when the rona is in town to unquestioningly parroting Herd Immunity and thinking aloud whether furloughing people rather than forcing them to die at work might be removing the incentive to work.

Is this sort of always-on credulity an editorial guideline or something? I remember him covering the financial crisis pretty well when he was Economics Editor at the BBC so maybe he's just a shit political journalist, or maybe he's just terrible at Twitter, or he doesn't even consider what he does journalism any more? Even Marr isn't this bad.

I can recall him doing a half reasonable, well compared to the BBC, job of holding the Maybot to account on one occasion during election 17. Not seen much since then to justify having Journalist on his passport.

Didn’t he cause a bank run when he was doing economics?!

That always felt like shoot-the-messenger stuff to me, he probably knew that a bank run would ensue but you can't just not report that a major high street bank is on the verge of collapse.

the daniel davies line on the bank-run* is that mervyn king was primarily responsible but the way peston handled it absolutely did not help, and thinks he wasn't good as an economics journalist

*(also apparently there was an unrelated greek run or near-run)

Davies wrote a short piece on it:

https://medium.com/bull-market/how-do-you-report-on-bank-runs-ee0d7e962b9b

didn't realise it was a reporter's job to protect banks

I've noticed something in common with France re-opening schools, the drumbeat towards easing lockdown restrictions in the UK, and Republican efforts to ease various lockdowns in the United States. That the 'pressure' to do so is largely - or entirely - coming from 'senior' people in government. Yes there are 30-40 percent of people who when asked will say they want to ease the lockdown, for whatever reason. But not enough to make politicians or their aides jump up and reverse literally the only tool anyone has for slowing the spread of infections and deaths. No the pressure is from above. And I may be going out on a limb here but I reckon most of these senior figures are getting an earful from their buddies who sit on the boards of big firms in various phases of completely flaming out. They don't care that reopening will actually hurt small businesses, who either can't reopen or if they do will face such pitiful demand and onerous restrictions that they might as well not (and who now will be responsible for unemployment $, rent etc and insurance won't cover it). In fact, they might be happy to see those guys gone. Anyway, I just find it astonishing that this dynamic isn't front of mind for reporters and the opposition. Where's this 'pressure' coming from? From the 1 motherfucking percent.

the pressure certainly won't be coming from people who plan to match their c-19 hawk tough-talk by getting on crowded buses and trains every day. no sirree, they won't be so cavalier with their own precious health and for what for what cause? for an nth of a % improvement on GDP for a month until the death toll starts spiralling out of control again.

That seems correct about France, where I have hopes of a general strike coming on 11 May. The media has portrayed the clash as Macron vs Philippe (the prime minister), with the latter being the président des riches & the latter trying to defend the interests of the people (by following the scientific commission). But I don't trust that portrayal: it's too facile, too much "good cop, bad cop". They can't make us work, and this will be the easiest general strike ever: just don't go back to work! Are they going to enforce anything under these conditions? For students it's easy, since going back is voluntary. For teachers it's not. But if they just don't show up, then kids can't be forced back so that their parents can go make money for the rich.

The plan is to reopen region by region (with a new color system to say how safe you are!), and I reckon the Paris region will be all red, and things won't be that different here. Actually I expect 11 May to be a total failure, and that a general strike won't be needed.

Ending the lockdown prematurely won't make any significant difference to the economy if people aren't prepared to change their behaviour anyway, and if there's an even bigger second spike, in fact it'll have a worse effect on GDP. Preventing mass unemployment has to be the priority right now.

Glad to see the Labour Party has abandoned Corbyn’s student union politics and become an effective opposition, ready for government by *checks notes* telling everyone to do self care on insta.

This is what voters facing homelessness want. Not rent controls. pic.twitter.com/xm7qa46XBF

— FS (@FDseale) April 29, 2020

“neoliberalism doesn’t exist”

"try practising relaxation techniques"

I do that by imagining I'm throwing darts and Sir Smarmer's actual face is the dartboard.

official uk death toll now more than 26k

Yes there are 30-40 percent of people who when asked will say they want to ease the lockdown, for whatever reason.

we're all enjoying not having to commute (or share space with our insufferable colleagues) too much

Foresee a concerted Back to Work putsch from the Spectator-Telegraph-Guido axis following the VE Bank Holiday weekend

media seem to have been gently presaging the return to work over the last couple of weeks, i've heard very little pushback from journos on the idea that it's coming

anyone else having a fucking nightmare trying to pick up prescriptions? they changed the system & it keeps fucking up, I’m being shunted between places each telling me medication should be at the other place that just sent me I’m losing my mind

it was a semi-nightmare last time, i'm phoning for mine tomorrow which is 10 days in advance of when i need it, we'll see how it goes

Oh man there's some peak Dunting right now.

Echobelly are underrated.

— Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) April 29, 2020

If we're going to call comics graphic novels then we should call literature word books.

— Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) April 29, 2020

i mean they kept fucking mine up before the lockdown so

Dunting: High and Low

my wife got somebody else’s medication on Monday. luckily she noticed (!) and she brought it back Tuesday and coincidentally the lady whose it was was standing in the queue next to her.

dunting kruger

i got a phone call a couple of months ago because Boots had given my meds to somebody else by accident and obv they were very embarrassed at potentially outing me as somebody taking antidepressants, not that i cared

fwiw I have been using Pharmacy2u for ages now and they have been fine, I don't have to do anything just click a button on an app and they come through the door a few days later

I will have to go to the chemist in the next couple of days tho cos my cat needs a new inhaler

afaik there is no vetpharmacy2u

anyone else having a fucking nightmare trying to pick up prescriptions? they changed the system & it keeps fucking up, I’m being shunted between places each telling me medication should be at the other place that just sent me I’m losing my mind