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

... just been described as such, more or less, by Peter Bone LOL.

the fact that you can't model for the effect that this will have on behaviours could be used as a good example of the limits of modelling

BREAK: Boris Johnson is chairing 5pm news conference at No 10.

— Joe Pike (@joepike) May 24, 2020

Omg

*prepares brick*

it would be awful if boris suffered a fatal covid-related pulmonary embolism in front of the assembled press pack

This only goes two ways, I think: a big defence which burns the entire public health message away trying to defend the indefensible and so ends up literally killing people, or a sacking.

If it is a sacking then the questions all become “what did you know and when, PM?”

(I guess he could also try a “poor Dom hounded by the unfair campaigning press” but that move just doesn’t work when the people are against it. And this isn’t abstract expenses. People have absolutely gone through the exact same scenario Cummings did, and chose differently)

Can't imagine he would announce the sacking of Cummings on live TV. So...

could try to kick it into the long grass w/some sort of inquiry nonsense too I guess

“i will be suspending him, with pay, until this blows over”

he could do a trump, talk absolute shit then not take any questions, cummings is probably telling him as much

Anyone expecting Dominic Cummings’ sacking, or en even an inquiry, at 5pm from Boris Johnson is going to be disappointed. I’m told the PM believes it’s “case closed”.

— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) May 24, 2020

Non-public enquiry delayed to 2021 seems likely, the lid's rattling the Cummings pot too loudly to be quieted by any more bullshit. Don't quote me on that though.

loltastic xpost

camaraderie otm

we should have a quick poll in the next 4 minutes

no sacking, no resignation, Johnson is taking this one to demonstrate that he's backing Cummings

This will be nothing, just like all those Maybot ones except that ppl will call it great leadership

If anyone can be relied on to waffle aimlessly without coming to any sort of salient point...

Wait until 7.30/8pm to see if the Campaigning Newspapers have more.

I think you might be about to see someone wriggle their way out of a jam folks

Why would he sack Cummings though? Boris Da Boss Windross is either the boss or he isn't.

You either get rid off the bat or not at all. Anything else is centrism

CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNT

of course, but thats what UK wanted

That's it then, dismissed out of hand in the first 60 seconds, CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNT indeed.

Double-tier lockdown rules confirmed

he could do a trump, talk absolute shit then not take any questions, cummings is probably telling him as much

OTM except he'll take questions but not bother giving any sort of answer.

Summer holidays may be cancelled, warns ex-Ofsted chief

can we just round up and exterminate everybody who's ever been in charge at Ofsted please

i mean really anybody who's ever worked for them but i don't wanna drag any innocent ilxors by accident

June 1st - Extermination Day

He still sounds a bit short of breath, which is good, less oxygen to those lungs pls.

If the British media can't rise to this challenge then fuck them for all time.

not sure this is going to go away - seem to be burning a lot of political capital on this one weird wee goblin

Brilliant news that we can now travel 500 miles if someone in the house has CV. This is going to be like Trump's "we're banning all flights from Europe" which purportedly ampped up infections across the US as everyone rushed home.

Followed the instincts of every parent? Every parent I know is locked down in their only home, rationing time on Animal Crossing.

This ain’t over.

cummings is the real pm, and he's not going anywhere

I'm assuming someone had to explain the meaning of the word 'integrity' to Boris beforehand - and still he used it to describe Dominic Cummings' actions.

Cummings understands and presumably learned from the US that, when it comes to things like this, nothing matters and you can flood the news cycle with shit and people just get exhausted and move on.

I'm assuming someone had to explain the meaning of the word 'integrity' to Boris beforehand

There is no shared agreement on the meaning or definition of any particular word this isn't 1961

“This is not going away” they said confidently, as it went away.

bingo

shall we have a sweep on how many days before we're outraged about something else?

Power is the only thing that matters in any situation, the rest is for bullet point journals and memoirs

The today programme and the papers do not set the agenda any more because the agenda is flooded with shit.

If the media were less compliant it wouldn't go away - however

I think (and hope) you need a Fox news to make that work, and we're not quite there yet. He's also struggling to turn this into a culture war thing – and Labour aren't obliging there either.

Our papers are evil and expert at turning the public away, but they're also good at channelling their readerships' anger (and the majority hate Cummings to boot.)

Penny from Hampshire, that was not the question which needed asking.

Kind of sends the message out that lockdown time is over, which is what they wanted I guess. Not that they're bright enough to have planned the whole thing this way, but it's working out for them if the press don't follow up on it - which they probably won't. Herd lolmmunity here we come.

If you want a media thats not compliant buy some media. That's what they did while your were wasting it all on avocado toast and weekends away in Gothenburg

I don’t disagree that the media is compliant, but you’re missing the point if you think the problem is that. It’s that they’re chasing shadows created by an unbelievably cynical government. Look at the guardian liveblog. It’s gibberish. Not having Fox News is not going to save you.

There are a bunch of people on this thread whose “this is big! He has to go!” predictions used to be reasonable and correct, but they don’t seem to get it any more. Nothing is big. You’re not going to see many resignations from this government.