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

how are people who can’t work from home supposed to go to work if their kids are home?

“Go to work but don’t use public transport.” pic.twitter.com/DIqCrjfpTq

— Gwdihŵ 🦉 (@youwouldknow) May 10, 2020

here’s a helpful thread on who is going back to work

On the economic side the news is 1) work from home if you can 2) go to work if not UNLESS 3) your work is closed by terms of the lockdown (non-food shops/restaurants).

— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 10, 2020

Possible the headline writer didn't make the connection. Lol @ everything, including death

I’ve been trying to write and rewrite a response to the Telegraph ripping off the title of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography to cover that incoherent Johnson speech and I just... can’t. pic.twitter.com/rskvp0ZoQ7

— Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley (@lottelydia) May 10, 2020

it's like reading the accounts of Hitler expecting relief from Wenck's Wank's 12th army during the fall of Berlin. Delusion supplanting the reality of a situation. The propaganda machine still working but all other functions of government completely gone!

LOL our CEO has had to interrupt his Sunday night to send an email to everyone in the organization to say, in spite of what Boris Johnson has just said, we don't expect anyone to come to work tomorrow. Good work, Bozzer!

These cunts aren't fit to run a tuck shop

If your work involves going into clients homes, the government updated their guidance on 4th May (but didn’t talk about it).

The headline is that you can go to work.

Glaring omissions:
• No advice re. how to obtain own childcare
• No advice re. maskshttps://t.co/OnRFXmXNtK pic.twitter.com/OObwborv5Y

— CrimeGirl (@CrimeGirI) May 11, 2020

the fucking state of this "open a window" and "social distancing" inside someone's fucking house. I contracted 2009 H1N1 working in houses where you can't avoid common surfaces or often where rooms aren't even big enough for social distancing, and cleaners going into old people's houses - what could possibly go right.

What a piece of garbage

Anyone asking why not a general rent waiver please see this thread about the consequences: https://t.co/Zzug7U8WKU

— Thangam Debbonaire (@ThangamMP) May 10, 2020

Is it wrong?

I get that 'the ECHR protects the property rights of landlords' might be a politically and morally lousy situation to be in but if it's factually correct, there's a need to work through the implications of that.

I am leaning on the politically and morally lousy implications part of your post.

Saw in the mentions ppl talk about their precarious situation. Some of these people have stopped giving a shit about Labour since Starmer came in as LOTO but there they are practically begging this woman to erm, change her tone.

the first skim thru gave me the depressing vibe of centrist arguments for the status quo but reading further i can give them the benefit of the doubt. the real problem then is the likes of Debbonaire and Starmzy whose communication to their own side is fucking useless on this, because the argument seems to be "this is the most practical approach to avoiding evictions right now, it's not the shape of post-rona housing policy" and that doesn't come across clearly at all from any shadow cabinet pundit at the moment

that's ignoring the fact that it's all hypotheticals because huge Tory majority and i lol told myself yesterday i was just gonna give up on caring about this stuff

I think that's right NV - the proposals are about putting in place a short term bar on evictions without handing much to landlords, most of which has been lost in the comms. If i was going to be a churl, i'd add that left-wing journalists borrowing from the Dan Hodges (pretending not to understand things that they do, in fact, understand) and James Ball (aggressively bad-faith pedantry) playbook is compounding the problem, though.

Labour having to go check with their focus groups to see if saving workers' lives is a vote winner https://t.co/k08AcJ0Vs7

— Nick Srnicek (@n_srnck) May 11, 2020

this clown will do all he can to ensure they will be able to maintain that majority by the next election even with 2 million less votes

his first instinct is pretty much always in the wrong direction, yep

Everything has this timid tone, it's like a slow nudge for people to vote for them.

the sound of triangulation happening in real time

This is real bald-men-fighting-over-a-comb stuff.

I see that the UK has agreed to exempt travelers from France from its quarantine plan. I gather this is mostly to assuage tourism, on both sides? Given the clumsiness of the British response to the virus, I'm not sure I think this is wise for us, but at least it's reciprocal.

👏🏻 leadership

I notice there has been some more stridently old Labour stuff coming from the likes of Andy McDonald and even Ed Milli but I don't see how it is a good tactic having such a pathetic timid melt as a leader when they'll turn the dogs on him when an election is coming anyway and oh boy will he be an easy target for ridicule.

Shame that bald men fighting over a comb have life or death implications for some.

I see that the UK has agreed to exempt travelers from France from its quarantine plan

Is this quarantine plan actually real though? Or just when you land you say "hey I'm staying at this address I won't go out for 2 weeks"

perhaps I should have written "quarantine plan". what a mess.

I see that the UK has agreed to exempt travelers from France from its quarantine plan. I gather this is mostly to assuage tourism, on both sides?

Given the importance of cross-channel trade to the British economy I don't really think the government would be able to say any different, even if they're threatening to seriously disrupt that link at the end of the year.

French coronavirus scientifically softer, tastier, more pliable that coronavirus from other countries

'guided by science' - quelle blague

Shame that bald men fighting over a comb have life or death implications for some.

The only way that Labour policy will save anyone's life is if the Tories can be either persuaded or forced to adopt it. They aren't going to adopt a policy they are opposed to with every fibre of their being especially if it turns out to be undeliverable.

Does that trade require much travel in person? I genuinely don't know. I read enough English-language news about France to know that British retirees make a lot of fuss about being able to travel between Britain and their country homes in the Dordogne, to know that there's at least some political pressure being applied. Maybe this is a preview of how the British government will end up folding on its current No Deal plan.

"The only way that Labour policy will save anyone's life is whether the Tories can be either persuaded or forced to adopt it."

That isn't true in this particular case. There are specific work safety regulations that are at risk of being breached here. Starmer should cite those and support workers at risk to stay away or for them to organise in workplaces.

Obviously I'm not saying that Labour should only float policies that the Tories might adopt - that would be mindless - but if you're going to float the idea of lives being at stake specifically as a result of what Labour does then the government has to take it on board. Otherwise it's theoretical or about positioning for the next election.

(xpost - sorry, I thought we were talking about rent?)

Sorry I then moved onto work safety after Calzino posted Starmer's quote.

I think on rent it's about a look to your base, which side are you on. It doesn't matter if the government doesn't adopt your policies. Like, we know this. The response is an indication of what would be the offering at the next election and that isn't looking good.

I missed the Srnicek tweet upthread. I was specifically talking about the rent issue, not batting the question off in the interview. I agree that was feeble.

I mean, the obvious interpretation of the Jon Stone tweet is that it's the "agree with union" that Starmer's anxious about.

The clips i've seen look like it was a pretty solid performance, for the most part, but I can see why his tone / language aggravate people - everything is 'surprising' or 'disappointing' rather than 'wrong' and 'unacceptable'. It's like he wakes up every morning to be freshly perplexed by how badly the government is letting the side down.

A question that I've been wondering about: do you think the average tory voter at this moment has stronger loyalty towards a) the party, b) Boris or c) the right-wing press? I kinda think it's c.

Keeping Labour out.

Isn't it more d) the State, and its ability to protect them? xp

there are definitely Tories on social media taking the piss out of the new "guidelines" and a lot of that probably relates to the government underestimating centrist Tories's appetite for clear authoritarianism during a blitz.

i think it'll make fuck all difference to future voting intentions tho. there's a long way to go. an eternity, even.

TBH I think it's a bit of a fool's errand identifying what the "average Tory voter" thinks right now because there are currently so many of them scattered across such wildly disparate parts of the country. Brexit was the big one but I'd be surprised if loyalty towards the press or any individual paper was much of a factor given how circulation is plummeting and how distrusted our press is.

also Matt DC otm re: keeping out Labour

also the Tory party - the right wing in general - has always been a warring coalition of coke-crazed full libertarians and old-school full Francoistas

Commitment, above all, to capital letters British Common Sense, which is shaped by the right-wing press, the Tories, etc, but not beholden to any one element.

it's on record that the GBP have the lowest trust of their media than anywhere in the EU28 yet they lap up some of the most blatantly dumbass propaganda that even Goebbels would have baulked at! wtf gives

When it really comes down to it, tory voters will be loyal to the tories through absolutely anything, right up to the point labour start to look & act temporarily like a more funky tories. We cannot count on them for anything, even in an eternity

Oh thank fuck, The Sweeney has started, I was about to put my foot through the telly watching Sky News where they've dug up some new cunt from Spiked I've never seen before to act as talking head - you can guess what he's saying.

is it "the lockdown is a very necessary and important public health measure which has saved lives but doesn't go nearly far enough"?

i heard a bit on the radio about the government advising what people can do on a sport-by-sport basis. kinda lol, mostly kill kill kill

also, while i recognise the very real financial and contractual issues pressing on football at the moment, anybody trying to get a restart in the next 3-4 weeks is at best a complete fucking moron