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

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?

SBed gyac for being a cat owner

True NV.

pic.twitter.com/06CGMI0Tf2

— Joanna Walsh (@badaude) May 22, 2020

xps, i'm currently measuring everything in red squirrels as they seem to be more of a consistent size than either benches or fridges.

i'm going with the 8 grey squirrels #fuckred #endthegenocide

A woman freaked out at me this morning because I was leaving TOO MUCH room in the queue for the supermarket. "That's your mark there, move forward!" Lots of anger and shouting. I pointed out to her that it made no difference to how soom she'd get into the shop.

lmao, have had to laugh at all the drivers on the roads speeding. it's like, mate, nowhere's open, what's the rush

I have also had the same conversation as fetter, sometimes with the Sainsbury's staff - it's a minimum not a maximum! Also we are all the way around the car park, nothing we do matters.

not like Brits to get anal about queueing

The SAGE advice seems to suggest that if the R number is substantially below 1 then there might be ways to partially open schools and not immediately return to exponential growth but if it's pretty close to 1 then there probably isn't.

Current estimates are somewhere between 0.7 and 1, but they can't be more specific than that - so there's no way to show that re-opening schools wouldn't lead to exponential growth again.

Given that we have been in lockdown for two months, and as blase as Britishes have been about lockdown there's been relatively little movement between regions afaik. So the R number could be substantially lower in some parts of the country than in others.

The R number isn't the only consideration here, it's about the prevalence of the virus more generally. It's less safe to open schools in areas that are coming down from a higher peak.

Although the communications are enough of a mess without throwing regional variations in on top of that.

They are going to need to get really unambiguously clear on comms if they want R to drop further because it's getting proper busy out now. I had to wait to cross the road, ffs

so anyone coming into the uk who breaks the 14-day isolation will pay a £1000 fine on the very small chance that they’re found out

so basically rich people have carte blanche to do whatever the fuck they want, who’d have guessed it

I know of one rich person who has five trips booked in the next four weeks. All the tickets in her name.

Wonder if that surveillance infrastructure they built to monitor poor immigrants will swing into action to stop her.

taking all bets

CLAP THE CUNT IN IRONS

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/22/dominic-cummings-durham-trip-coronavirus-lockdown

Police spoke to Dominic Cummings about breaching the government’s lockdown rules after he was seen in Durham, 264 miles from his London home, despite having had symptoms of coronavirus

At the time, the government had instructed people not to travel and to stay at their family homes. Cummings, however, was seen in Durham. A member of the public is understood to have seen him and made a complaint to the police.

lol

I feel like phoning someone to complain every time I see him too.

His parents can't exactly be spring chickens so what exactly was he doing visiting them a few days after displaying symptoms? This can only be attempted murder as far as I'm concerned.

I know it’s Laura K, but she’s now tweeting in defence of Cummings, clearly on behalf of Cummings, in reply to the journalist who broke the story? fucking hell

Source says his trip was within guidelines as Cummings went to stay with his parents so they could help with childcare while he and his wife were ill - they insist no breach of lockdown

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) May 22, 2020

how the fuck is any of that within the guidelines

He who writes the guidelines can bend the guidelines

my wife’s been ill on and off for weeks and my parents live a lot closer than 250 miles, if only i’d known i could just pop my daughter over to see them because it’s been challenging sometimes

Yes, there’s no fucking way it’s in the guidelines, apart from a passing ref from Deputy CMO made weeks after his trip. Wonder if he’ll last until next PMQs

Knight Andrew Lilico
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYpuzYRWoAMMWsk?format=jpg&name=large

There are several Laura K tweets after that suggesting this isn't going away.

Given that virtually everyone - the media, the civil service, rival Brexiter camps, is desperate to get rid of Cummings this might be the start of open season on him. I wonder if Johnson has convinced himself he can't survive without him or if Cummings has something else on him.

Yes, I think there’s a reasonable chance this does for him.

The five-dimensional chess master, undone by a nosy neighbour who dobbed him in to the filth

What is Lolico for? Is there a soul alive who doesn't think he's a lickspittle cunt?

yes, and his name is andrew lolico

Johnson has presumably been protecting him too - he was ill at the same time, so might have some room to say he didn’t know he’d done it.

What is Lolico for?

true satire or something, he's much funnier than any bbc comedy I can think of.

If he turned out to be a slow-burn parody account it would be surprising, but not *that* surprising.

Remember this? How does a person even dare to assert that this is the opinion they hold?

There is not a "huge problem with racism and prejudice across the whole uk political spectrum". Just in the Corbynite bit of Labour. The rest of the UK mainstream political spectrum isn't racist at all. https://t.co/VDpkJORrH4

— Andrew Lilico (@andrew_lilico) April 2, 2018

The Cummings farrago is the first news story to give me genuine pleasure in months. Will be less pleasurable if he manages to squirm out of it with job intact.

Which he will.

Talking of squirming, watching BBC Breakfast this morning it was painful to watch Naga Munchetty having act as Dominic Cummings' defence counsel when interviewing Ian Blackford - I know that's what she's paid for but ffs.

The "I was just looking after my family" defence appears to have only made people angrier. Its also full of holes re: the claim that it was all within the rules really.

First genuine test of Sir Forensic next week I think. Boris hasn't stepped up to defend Cummings yet either fwiw.

More to the point playing fast and loose with the rules in order to defend your mate when he broke them is going to sow more confusion with the wider public and lead to unnecessary deaths.