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

https://rss.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/cms/asset/b3e6ac92-59fc-40f8-8266-b6871e51d74e/sign051-gra-0001-m.jpg

xxp
Give him another 5 years to start behaving like a Toryson at least

map checks out

Soft southern bastards.

this pretend-autism thing is some high-level zone-shit-flooding

Kindof interested in how the terrible genie that lockdown has let out of the bottle is solidarity. unlike austerity or immigration that worked to divide people into those attacked and those jealously guarding, the need to get people to undergo a rather harrowing collective experience (in spite of the extent to which it reproduces all the existing inequalities) has generated something of a collective understanding that is not immediately available to culture war tactics. it's interesting that this took a while to set in (at the outset there was so much stuff about 'bad' stockpiling etc.) but it maybe reveals the extent to which the petty jealousy that props up Tory rule is based so totally on the purging of any notion of collective experience.

anyway just a thought, not very optimistic about 'what this means' as it kindof suggests a very limited possibility that endless Tory rule will ever be over and that's not really how I like to think. maybe by dinnertime Cummings will be hanging from a barnsbury lamppost and we'll all join hands and sing the Internationale but I suspect not.

Its just disturbing to see laid bare somewhat the extent to which the crowd psychology of little England requires such detailed guarding if the possibility of commonly occupying the same world under similar conditions with unifying obligations and expectations. trust this cadre of fucking numbnuts not to understand the volatile possibility inherent, I suspect they won't make this mistake again so it's troubling to consider what this might mean for the next inevitable spike

The people I hear most pissed off about this Cummings story aren't leftists - who are pretty split on whether it's an issue worth pursuing - but people who tend towards the apolitical, seldom post about the govt, some might even vote tory for all I know. So I get the reservations as to what we actually expect to get out of this, but having the general populace furious at the tories is a good start imo.

Times Leader is calmly posting thrash as usual:

I think this Times leader is the result of many, many people in the senior ranks at that paper having taken lax notice of the lockdown rules. pic.twitter.com/M10RkwFRAf

— Mic Wright (@brokenbottleboy) May 25, 2020

well another way of thinking about it then is that Cummings is just being positioned as the culture war scapegoat position, standing in as the neighbor that has been out exercising as much as they want. while it would be poetic justice for the Tories to become victims of the curtain twitching they've encouraged it doesn't fill me with optimism for a brighter tomorrow

The South Bank might be fucked:

https://amp.theguardian.com/culture/2020/may/25/southbank-centre-warns-it-may-have-to-stay-closed-until-spring-2021?

Right now the story has weakened, not strenghtened, the curtain twitchers. General stance is well fuck this then there's no rules I'm just gonna do what the fuck I want, which is concerning for different reasons but yeah, the scolds shouting about too many people in the park have gone very silent.

I'd be more concerned about Cummings being positioned as a sacrifical lamb if there was the slightest indication that they're willing to sacrifice him.

but the thing about the curtain twitchers is that they are the embodiment of something I saw James butler say that the only thing the English believe in more than rules is that those rules apply to everyone but themselves. Cummings has made a mug of everyone who went along with the lockdown, however halfheartedly, and anyone who has been negatively affected by it in any way (seemingly everyone but me, guiltily I fn love it) I think this has the same 'energy' and it doesn't necessarily emanate from a feeling towards justice or equality

xps

It’s likely to be every arts venue. The South Bank centre isn’t going to put on anything before before Spring next year even if it had the money to do so. I can’t envisage any theatre or concert hall will. The entire sector will be bankrupt long before then without intervention.

You’d assume that this is not top of the list of government priorities but ‘culture’ plays a huge role in keeping London’s position as a financial hub strong, even if you don’t care about intrinsic value.

I don't think the curtain twitchers actually are that. From what I can tell they seem to be very content in following the guidelines, mostly because that kind of person has no joy in their life anyway so what would be the point for them to go to the park or visit friends when they could be having a much better time lecturing people online?

The energy I think for many people is one of personal betrayal and grief at not having been able to say goodbye to their loved ones - this doesn't translate into more abstract feelings of justice or equality necessiarly but it also doesn't need to, it is valid on its own.

I saw a link about theatres on their knees a few days ago. I'm guessing because of the way 'culture' works with finance that some bits of it will get bailed out xp

I think we're basically agreeing, there's something happening that is partly collective and partly about individualist injury (whether real trauma or pettiness about curtailment of 'freedom') and there's some dissonance between the two that seems to be playing out in a way that would have been hard to predict, at least for bbclaurak

Some of the more prominent venues might be able to get by with the help of some big donations from the extremely wealthy. Theatre in particular is absolutely central to London and its self-image so you would expect cheap money to be flowing in that direction reasonably quickly when things can get going again, but no one has the slightest clue when that is right now.

A lot of smaller venues might be fucked and of course there are huge consequences for performers and others whose livelihoods depend upon them.

Booming Plax posts today BTW. (xposts)

Some of the National Theatre plays have been doing mad numbers on YouTube in the space of a week so they can at least point to pent up demand (even if they are free).

Just realised it's two weeks since bloody conga VE day, so if we're going to see an infection spike from that it should be imminent

the black lace noose of death tightens...

the national theatre online program has been crap when I've checked it (I saw that rubbish Jane Eyre production at the time, total nonsense) but the schaubuhne have a daily showing and many have English subtitles definitely worth checking (haven't watched in a couple of weeks, presume they're still going on....) I'm already concerned that the next documenta will be cancelled, they've already delayed the Venice biennale until 2022

not that I'm arsed about the Venice biennale

Wrote to my MP pic.twitter.com/y5xfH3wu8c

— John Wilson (@tug) May 25, 2020

so you did, sorry gyac. right on time otm

I remember enjoying that Jane Eyre at the time, up until the exact point at which they started singing Gnarls Barkley for no reason and then it rendered the entire production shit for me. The Magnolia of theatre adaptations.

the first line of Jane Eyre is "there was no possibility of going for a walk that day" it's about social convention (it's raining, but the 'possibility' is something that the passive construction of the sentence referes to) there's a characteristically 19th C novel tension between the active claim made by the sentence and the role of the social in arbitrating that claim (as in "its a fact universally acknowledged

the first line of the play was "it's a girl"

Cummings to make a statement and take questions, this should be fun.

"did you order the code red"

i almost admire his front tbh

He'd better rustle up some charm from somewhere pretty sharpish

I’m still furious and I’m not alone - this is just some of today’s in-box. I’m with you all.

Each has a story of lockdown suffering and painful sacrifices we were prepared to make to save lives. @BorisJohnson this is one rule for us and another for you. pic.twitter.com/CJYSIx9lI2

— Fleur Anderson MP (@PutneyFleur) May 25, 2020

Dominic Cummings is expected to give a public statement and take questions later himself, as calls for him to quit and explain himself mount

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) May 25, 2020

We're going to see some absolute brick shitting from journalists here when he gives them the eye, even over Zoom.

This could be awesome.

Somebody lock Peston in cellar though.

he’s gonna go full trump and call them all fake news

be interesting to see what happens when someone who doesn’t have his own slavish cult of personality tries that approach

you think he doesn't?

not to the extent that trump does, not even close

the awkward, abrasive brazen overgrown-whizzkid archetype is a british standard and the public love someone who fronts up, he will come out of today much more popular than how he began it, guaranteed

n.b. i am not saying that i actually like the bastard, he is ideologically menacing in a way that other tories can only aspire to be, but he has ideas and strategies on how to implement them; he has the charisma of the highly-functional

I don't know who Mr John Wilson is, but that letter from him above is tremendous. Poignant, desperate, furious.

his is middle england iirc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitchurch

It really is. The messaging that Cummings was only doing what any decent parent would do obviously carries the subtext for everyone who lost someone and didn’t see them before they died/didn’t attend a funeral of ‘what sort of husband/wife/child are you?’

I don't think it's possible to be more wrong than imago is being at this moment.

I have so many questions. like what is he going to wear? i hope he left the iron in Durham

i'll be pleased to be wrong this time, let's see

the awkward, abrasive brazen overgrown-whizzkid archetype is a british standard and the public love someone who fronts up, he will come out of today much more popular than how he began it, guaranteed

he'll selectively detail his timeline and selectively quote guidelines and legislation to support his actions then rigidly stick to both until we do the Limmy shoulder slump

yeah i still don’t think he’s getting fired

If they let Peston fuck it up again I’ll be so angry