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

The tories were quite reluctant to open up the tube stations for the great unwashed to shelter in during the blitz iirc.

(xxp) One of my favourite novels! I think there's the sheer tedium of hanging about wating for something to happen which, when it does happen, is worse than you expected.

When you compare the blitz to what happened to Warsaw or the war of annihilation and hunger plan to starve 30m to death in the Soviet Union. Its like endlessly talking about an autoglass cup final from '94 or something.

The idea that Jonson are co are going to suffer from this makes no sense to me. This is a national disaster. Cummings' MO is making hay from disasters. They will spin this so that upsides are created out of thin air, foreigners, immigrants, the press, the public themselves will be blamed and scapegoated for the economy (and eat it up), the PR will reach new levels of Brave New World totality, mendacity and psychological penetration, and the press will dutifully report it because the tone will be overwhelmingly "Don't do down Britain". Lies work, we have seen that, and lies are are supremely effective when you only need 42% of the vote, or polling.

And Keir Starmer will go along with all of it.

the other complicating factor is that we’re in all likelihood going to end up with a catastrophic brexit so fuck knows what state we’ll be in by the time of the next election and how the great british electorate will be taking it

Twitter bots all using same text about “journalism missing the mood” - I’ve heard that same phrase from some people too. Who is paying for this? pic.twitter.com/bB5jFjhPSo

— Paul Joyce (@bergersmicer) May 3, 2020

I was going to say I can't wait for them to turn on the NHS but they've already started with that Mail story rubbishing doctors with links the Labour Party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxqvwkmTNy8

> already started with that Mail story rubbishing doctors with links the Labour Party.

there were a ton of nhs fuckup stories in the news at the start of the year (just as brexit was being "done"). almost every day some neo-natal unit was underperforming or something was massively over budget. felt like an attack at the time and i wonder how much worse it would've got without the covid thing.

09 dec Deaths of 4,600 NHS patients linked to safety incidents
09 jan A&E staff 'despair' as NHS delays are at their worst ever level
21 jan GPs in revolt over NHS England's plan to increase their workload
23 jan England's poorest 'get worse NHS care' than wealthiest citizens
13 feb Record number of A&E 'trolley waits' reached in January, NHS say
26 feb NHS failing stroke patients with 'postcode lottery rehabilitation'

(and that's just the Guardian articles)

and the war stuff on tv is being ramped up this week too, what with VE day on friday. it includes that big churchill thing, Darkest Hour.

55 years since VE Day? What kind of a crappy anniversary is that?

LOL 75! OK, fair enough.

still crap, still maddening

"it includes that big churchill thing, Darkest Hour."

lol just look up the ludicrous train scene on youtube if you want a laugh!

every day is VD day when boris is pm.

lots of countries national myths are mostly bullshit, but I don't think many have the same levels of delusional triumphant smugness as the UK.

I recall reading some UK foreign office attache colonel major type made a pissed up prick out of himself at a drinks event during the Tehran conference in '43 by insisting that blitz had been much worse anything they had suffered!

I will bet money there'll be a picture of Boris flicking the Vs by the end of the week.

When you compare the blitz to what happened to Warsaw or the war of annihilation and hunger plan to starve 30m to death in the Soviet Union. Its like endlessly talking about an autoglass cup final from '94 or something.

Sure, but if plan A is the UK realising that history happened to other people as well, you'll need a Plan B.

Matt, that's the same text from the Jay Owen article you posted yesterday though - it seems to be genuinely going viral (though it's no less chilling that people are happy to just repost it)

*Owens

Claire Danes performance in Homeland has to stand as a landmark in 21st century acting / dramatising a thing most ppl don't even know exists, via a vulnerability that is all too familiar. Homeland is over but the reality it portrays sadly not... pic.twitter.com/iW9QNfVlHw

— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) May 3, 2020

"a landmark in 21st century acting" no wonder this clueless cunt thinks Starmer is the bee's knees.

French House asking for donations to make rent??

Save the French House https://t.co/pmgT8dcn5B

— The French House (@FrenchHouseSoho) May 3, 2020

The Minister for the Cabinet Office is antisemtic?!?

Just for a second, imagine if Corbyn posted a picture of a book by David Irving on display in his home.

Michael Gove has a full curriculum of white supremacist propaganda on his bookshelf. You don't acquire that by accident. pic.twitter.com/ZDQV3hgKSV

— jewdⒶs // ייִדהודה (@jewdas) May 3, 2020

he likes a plurality of holocaust denial/nazi voices!

Just kill him

Kick his fucking head in

And, of course, The Bell Curve:

Some highlights in better resolution 🤮 pic.twitter.com/9M73JFehEf

— jewdⒶs // ייִדהודה (@jewdas) May 3, 2020

To defeat prejudice you have to understand it. https://t.co/tBLQAX0HDs

— Sarah Vine (@WestminsterWAG) May 3, 2020

The old Pete Townsend defence "I was just doing some research on the intellectual and psychological nature of holocaust deniers and fascist race-science cranks so I could understand them better"

Feel bad for calling Irving a dishonest nazi cunt now without having read him

To defeat prejudice you have to shake its hand, vote in support of it, give it its own radio show and chip in as much as you can to its Patreon.

This was the plan all along. By appearing in the Gove-Vine family bookshelf, David Irving's reputation has taken yet another disastrous blow.

— Simon Hedges (@Orwell_Fan) May 4, 2020

It’s fucking sickening, the amount of people queuing up to defend the right of a holocaust denier to free speech to own the left. Explains why so many are so comfortable sharing platforms with people featured in Anders Brevik’s manifesto. Fucking sick media.

It's actually very telling that she didn't think to take it off the shelf before taking the photo.

Also as an unrelated aside the absolute worst party I can recall going to was at a house where the bookshelves were 99% political biographies.

back in December Gove was steaming into Corbyn on Labour AS with a possessed vigour where it sounded like he might have been boozing and coking it. I think he even called him "evil" at some point.

It’s a troll. She’s a troll.

OTM, also Gove is always going to get an easy ride from journalists, he's one of them.

lol some years ago i literally turned the spine of my Bill Clinton autiobiog around so that 1) i wouldn't have to see his face all the time 2) visitors would not see it

"A close ally of Boris Johnson has resigned as a trade minister after being found to have used his position to try to intimidate a member of the public.

Conor Burns, the minister of state for trade policy, was found by the standards committee to have made veiled threats whilst attempting to intervene in his father’s dispute over a loan.

A Downing Street spokesman said Burns had resigned as a trade minister following a report from the parliamentary commissioner for standards. "

if only he had asked for Boris for some counsel on this matter first, he would have advised him to pay someone else to do the intimidation/leg-breaking, you never get involved in that stuff yourself fool!

If Labour aren't able to make hay over something like this then they're in real trouble.

i've gotta say using primary school children as canaries in the rona mine really captures the national mood

The proposed reduction of the two-metre rule to one metre seems completely bananas.

the virus is getting tired and can't travel as far

Coronavirus: Plan to use private firm at centre of outsourcing scandal to run contact tracing attacked
Serco and other giant contractors likely to recruit 15,000 call centre staff - who could be given only one day’s training

A plan to use a private firm at the centre of an outsourcing scandal to help run the ‘test-and-trace’ system crucial to curbing Covid-19 has drawn criticism.

Labour hit out at ministers after it emerged that Serco – and probably other giant contractors such as G4S – will carry out most of the contact tracing work, by recruiting 15,000 call centre staff.

They will be given only about one day’s training in the principles of contact tracing, The Times reported, stating Serco was in “advanced talks”.

Last year, the outsourcing giant was fined £19.2m by the Serious Fraud Office as part of a settlement over an electronic tagging scandal, also paying £3.7m in costs.

Look, I know we bandy the phrase around a lot, but lol we're all going to die.

i've gotta say using primary school children as canaries in the rona mine really captures the national mood

I don't really know what can be done about this, losing six months to year of educational and social development is going to have a major effect on the lives of a lot of children. It's not just the learning that might not be happening, it's the likelihood of forgetting things they've already learned up to now. Obviously not every parent has home internet access and/or engaged parents, plus it affects kids from deprived backgrounds the most on top of every other barrier they're going to face in life.

There doesn't seem to be any evidence that young children themselves are especially at risk from the virus itself so it becomes almost entirely an issue of whether or not they're likely to transmit the virus, and I don't think anyone knows that yet.

the risk is low but children have died from it. there is also plenty of evidence that they catch it, even if they're asymptomatic. and if they've caught it, they can spread it. i'm in the weird position that my kids have already caught it and gotten better so i'm not that worried but i certainly would be if they hadn't got it yet.

how many times must serco, atos and g4s fuck up before they stop being awarded zillion dollar contracts. it really is just fucking incredible.

Also the likelihood that a classroom full of asymptomatic kids all spreading it around is putting teachers, especially older teachers, at risk.

indeed

Repeatedly being rewarded for being shit is a Tory touchstone.

it's entirely possible that teachers would suddenly be in the same risk category as bus drivers, NHS workers, etc.