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

Among the leading voices calling for a U-turn on the policy was Hunt, who introduced the fee in 2015 during his time as health secretary. The now chair of the health select committee urged the government to change its mind just as No 10 announced it was dropping the surcharge

I noticed at the start of the lockdown a lot of local heroin users were in disarray and hanging around fields to score on a regular basis. But that was obv just some nervous dealer teething problems that have been sorted now.

― calzino, Thursday, 21 May 2020 17:36 (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

There is a churchyard in Bethnal Green where I can no longer walk Winston that can sort anyone out in these unprecedented times

Although tbf it was getting worse and worse for the past couple months pre-c19 as they raided the brick lane nomadic gardens to death

is Winston a labradoodle puppy perhaps now slightly grown up i have some vague recollection of ?

have wondered what people are doing here now or at least when the lockdown first started and police seemed to be more actively enforcing it

I don't live right in the middle of the heroin epicentre of the south anymore I am about a mile away from it and we don't really have that much trouble, sometimes they come to the alleyways near me but I think only because the heat is on somewhere else and it's a temporary alternative. at least I haven't seen any of those spoon things on the ground lately

Winston is a 9 month all black labradoodle, yeah :) Size of a bloody horse, or so I thought until he got obsessed with the police horses they walk around here.

I remember asking when you first got him : is he a big labradoodle? yeah because the big ones are huge big beasts, smaller ones just as manically energetic but much smaller! all variants of Labradors make me laugh, the funniest dogs, like hanging out with a f/t clown!

At 9 months he’s at about 22 kilos and still growing, way above knee height. He’s already as big as a standard lab when I meet one in the park. Currently going through his twee teenager period, smelling flowers like anyone finds it cute and then rubbing his face like crazy on anything he can dirty (the vet got me some meds today). He isn’t that bad when it comes to being energetic but he has a worrying habit when he hasn’t worked it out in the park and going too fast around the horse, running head first into something solid without breaking that will slow him down for the rest of the day, whether he likes it or not. Nearly knocked over the TV yesterday giving himself a massive bump on the head yesterday; I went to go catch the TV, my gf went to go catch the dog, we ended up head butting each other!

How’s your lab? Oh wait, sorry for ruining the lol we are all gonna die thread

Melts, ey?

Douglas is a huge beast by lab standards. he's still intact so he's hard work at times. But i have introduced a snacky treats regime to his walk to condition him not to go doolally every time he get's a scent and run off. He's adjusting very well and is a vgb, he's grown into a stunningly beautiful dog, he's well socialised with other dogs, a bit of a handful at times but never grumpy. I might have topped myself by now without him. He brings me much more cheer than any humans do rn!

kier starmer is an insipid tory prick and I genuinely hope he dies a painful death btw.

As a current cat owner and former dog owner, dog talk is fine imo

I love it when you get those hilarious standoffs with salty dude cats that stubbornly stand their ground to dogs on the pavement with arched back and are not willing to give an inch - just total war!

obv the cat wins every time!

I'm thinking of doing a "I'd completely forgotten about who Lee Rigby is but tbf he was very unexceptional if we are going to be quite honest here" meme on twitter to own some Rangers fans, but you can't even disrespect dead soldiers these days without MI6 putting you on some list ... again!

cat talk is thread instaban tho

Yes the cat wins every time! Although with Winnie he can’t even win a fight with even dogs over the balcony - he’ll run inside when he hears a bark to start barking back to them. Does Douglas go mental over footballs? It’s the one thing we can’t seem to get a handle on, he loses his shit every time he sees one.

no he isn't that interested in footballs/tennis balls. When I'm out he's always more focused on meeting other dogs, and isn't that interested in humans or fetching things for them. When I used to bring a tennis ball out he'd play for keeps and never fetch it back to me and lose interest in it after 5 mins and lose it the long grass somewhere. Big sticks is his thing and if I try and take it off him he will play hard to keep it.

I’m jealous. Winnie loses his fucking marbles if he sees people kicking a ball around, will try to pull off his leash, he’s even been successful a few time and nicked some kids ball and ran around the park with it, parading his victory while no one can catch him. A couple times I’ve had to pick the big lug up and carry him kicking and screaming out the park to get him away when treats and distractions don’t work.

branch manager

xp

Funniest thing was when this bloke was trying to fly a kite with his daughter. Doug got tangled up in the string and just to make sure it was a proper tangle he ran around the kite master about six times. I feigned an angry act for show was pmsl when I got out of sight of flustered dad.

Seven years ago today, Lee Rigby was murdered while serving his country. We will never forget him or waver in our commitment to tackling violent extremism and hate.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 22, 2020

whit

can’t believe it’s been seven years since them slags done lee rigby. still freaks my nut to this day

Please rewrite all Starmer tweets in the style of Danny Dyer from now on.

we will never waver in our commitment to tackling hate

*tory islamophobia inquiry throbbing in the background*

I'll never forget this Ruggers fellow.

Seven years ago today, Lee Rigby was murdered while serving his country. We will never forget him or waver in our commitment to tackling violent extremism and hate.

— Keir Starmer

whit

― megan thee macallan 18 year (||||||||),

Potentially opening can of worms here but is the problem what Keir says here, or that he comments at all? I don't have strong opinions here, though I do have some time for Dyer's perfomativity

just odd that he even chose to comment at all, when as far as I can see no one else is marking this important anniversary. feels a little like he’s overcompensating against the image_from_rochester.jpg critique

he enjoys this variety of standard mealy mouthed empty politician burble, because that it is what he is.. just a complete class "a" reconstructed tory cunt imo.

He commented on the anniversary of the Manchester Arena bombing (also today) as well. It's basically a box ticking exercise but people do notice these things, you can tell because under the Rigby tweet there are people going "what about the Manchester bombing?", despite the fact it's literally in the previous tweet.

I bet the Jezza twitter get's about 1500 "what about drummer McRiggers?" when he's tweeting about some constituency matter.

It's basically harmless and kind of dumb but I guess you do probably have to do a dutiful round of commemorating the anniversary of every recent terrorist attack. When it's the anniversary of the Finsbury Park attack I can virtually guarantee his mentions will be full of people going "didn't see you say anything about Lee Rigby". There's something very rote and performative about all of this but then there is about so much of politics.

I suppose 7 years is a strange timeframe.

I realize its a box ticking exercise and performative, was wondering if there were objections beyond that

If Khan didn't get his Rigby tweet in before Starmer that's him done for.

in the context of it coming from Sir Kier, the creepy reconstructed tory cunt who is taking the PLP back to the 2015 model and disenfranchising a couple of hundred thousand members who thought the party could be changed, it's quite alright to say fuck off to him imo

If I read a gigantic dossier on Starmer entitled: Huuuge Evidence & Fact based report on how much of a Tory cunt Starmer is, that contained lots of fresh revelations about his political and personal history. I still wouldn't think any less of him as the Leader of the Labour Party.

This is a good piece on the care homes disaster (written by Cameron's speechwriter lol).

https://members.tortoisemedia.com/2020/05/18/coronavirus-care-homes-ian-birrell/content.html

cat talk is thread instaban tho

Yesterday's u-turn by Boris Johnson was the right thing to do.

We cannot clap our carers one day and then charge them to use our NHS the next.

When we emerge from this crisis we need a new settlement where we truly value those who contribute so much to our society.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 22, 2020

ffs Keir they're 'wealth creator creators' get it right

I hope some of these Tories that were complete stans for the 2010-15 austerity cuts and beyond that are currently being critical of the current government don't get any ideas that they haven't got blood on their hands as well.

There is an NHS doctor in today's Graun saying don't clap us, the NHS isn't a charity, just fund it properly.

That Tortoise piece is excellent but good grief it reads like an attempt at atonement from someone who helped get Cameron elected (although afaik didn't follow him into government).

The point that social care has received very little government support for decades is a crucial one, of course private equity was going to swoop in on what was a demographic no-brainer when there was next to no state support.

Of course it would have helped if the government wasn't basically funneling coronavirus patients straight in there and out of hospitals. For all the fetishisation of public-private partnerships over the last couple of decades, the real-world communication and co-operation between the two sectors is often woeful and the crisis is a particularly clear and lethal illustration of that.

i’m kind of surprised G4S doesn’t already run all the UK care homes.

or some other PFI behemoth that couldn't run a tap

i thought Lee Rigsby was just out having a walk in which case there's tons of us serving our country most days

fucking dickhead is posting like a Rangers fan.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYnaZWYXgAI5S3_?format=jpg&name=medium

Jeremy Dyer weighs in :get your brass tacks right, this Rigby fellow wasn't serving his country yer slag.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/21/what-would-negative-interest-rates-mean-for-mortgages-and-savings

Savings rates have already been hit by the two base rate cuts in March and most easy-access accounts from high street banks are already paying just 0.1% in interest.

Andrew Hagger, the founder of the financial information website Moneycomms, says he thinks it is unlikely banks will start charging people to hold their everyday savings. “Many would just withdraw cash and possibly keep it in the house, thus opening a can of worms around security and break-ins,” he says. “However, if the Bank of England did introduce negative rates, I’m sure we would see even more savings accounts heading towards zero.”

!

definite rangers fan energy emanating from the riggers tweet

"Mention fridges so people joke about the PM hiding in a fridge"

Keep 2 metres apart when you go outside. That’s:

🔴 1 bed
🔴 2 benches
🔴 3 fridges
🔴 4 chairs#StayAlert

— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) May 22, 2020

It looks like Hobhouse and Moran are both pitching to shift the Lib Dems to the left:

https://werahobhouse.org.uk/abandon-equidistance/

Hobhouse's is essentially positioning them as the potential junior partners in a Labour coalition.

idk where that leaves a huge chunk of their membership, if nobody else joins the race.

reluctantly voting Tory as per?