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

Johnson is terrible news but fundamentally lazy and wants to be loved, which are two massive opportunities for an opposition. Gove is neither, and he's damagingly stupid in that Thatcherite way. Coupled with Cummings he managed to wreak some enormous damage at Education: the curriculum is still suffering as a result.

But he'd be yet another unelected PM, presumably without Cummings at first, and with Brexit waiting to murder him, so I think we'd be OK for a spell.

Gove is more dangerous than Johnson ideologically. Johnson more dangerous on a practical level.

anvil became the story, very unprofessional

Never, ever expect heroics from backbench Tory MPs but they can generally be relied upon to do what it takes to save their own skins. There are a lot of them on thin majorities with absolutely livid constituents right now. "No one will give a shit by the next election" depends heavily on whether you're sitting on a majority of 80 seats or 200 votes. So the number of Tory MPs who pipe up now matters.

It's very evident by now that the PM has decided that Cummings is still more of an asset than a liability to the government but it would be a gigantic mistake for anyone to rely on the unwavering loyalty of Boris Johnson so everything depends on where that line is. I think it's quite likely that Cummings will just be able to ride this out - assuming there are no more revelations, and he has made too many enemies within the civil service, the British establishment and the wider country to prevent anything else coming to light.

He was shockingly unlucky to have been spotted and recognised by random members of the public if they were his only two trips out of the house.

The fun will really start if proof comes to light, as is suspected, that half the cabinet were all at it too.

I would prefer Gove as PM, because it would represent failure and humiliation for scumbag BJ. And because I would be slightly more confident about Labour beating Gove.

I mean, the head on him. Even if you didn’t know who he was, you’d remember seeing him. He’s a gift to investigators, between his head and the way he dresses.

that head on him in full

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2Fa2%2Fa7%2Fbe%2Fa2a7be3d6405c7deea282b1ca0440b6b.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

I heard Sarah Vine once describing him as an alpha-male and suddenly i felt like Cary Grant

sniper's dream amirite

If I was a Tory govt doing a points matrix of Pathetic arse licking client journalists Pesto would score pretty low for his inability to ask a simple and direct question when that is all that is required. He's a fucking mess!

Precisely but let's not let that get in the way of allowing anvil perform his customary "You might think that but..." routine.

This fiasco just mirrors the pandemic response as a whole - if you fuck it up at the beginning, any further attempt at justification just digs a deeper and deeper hole. All they can do now is front it out, which they may well manage to do. Still, a thinker like Cummings only comes along once in a generation, so why sacrifice the opportunity of bathing in his superior intellect for the sake of a few junior minister resignations?

sarah vine providing vital outreach to incels by showing that no matter how much of a disgusting mutant you are, no matter how vile your views, someone out there will find you hot

That cuts both ways there tbh.

I still think it was more of an achievement for Gove to find someone who agreed to have sex with him tbh.

i'm still o_O at the way he kept talking about the inaccurate reports in the press where the problem seemed to be that he hadn't made an unnecessary 5 hour trip in his car after being exposed to coronovirus at work to visit his parents as reported, he'd actually made an unnecessary 5 hour trip in his car after being exposed to coronovirus at work to visit his *niece*.

that gove interview.

lol owned

My mum: “Are you going to be doing more stuff defending Cummings”. Me: “Yes”. My mum: “Then you’re an idiot”. So that’s going well then...

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) May 26, 2020

get Dan Hodges's mum on Twitter

OK I hadn't realised he was Glenda's boy, must be a tense lockdown

Glenda Jackson OTM. She must have spent the past decade silently dying of embarrassment.

Glenda iirc was very in line with Corbyn in many of her views? But yeah, the double Oscar winner and her large adult (still living at home) idiot son is a lockdown I’d pay to watch.

"Why is Dan in a newsagents buying Lynx" you wonder. Therein lies a tale. My mum: "When you're out, get me some cigarettes". Me: "I'm your only child. If I make an extra trip I may catch the virus". Mum: "With the sacrifices I've made you don't want to go there". I buy the fags.

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) April 24, 2020

Got to get around to watching 'Women in Love' one of these days..

Lads if you want a few laughs this afternoon search the word mum on his account, you could write a dissertation on the material.

Big LJ energy here (he’s talking about cricket)

My wife got a bit angry with me because I was listening so intently I started to drive away from RHS Wisley with my mum still hanging out the side of the car...

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) August 27, 2019

Hodges has also been busy in the Mail supporting Farage's attempts to get the government to sink boats of people crossing the Channel. Maybe Glenda doesn't mind that.

i'd've disowned the cunt long ago not joking

Glenda Jackson was in the Blair government for a couple of years but those early cabinets were quite different to the later ones. She was probably closer to the likes of Robin Cook and Mo Mowlam than Corbyn (but probably to the left of both).

if hodges had been given the ilx hazing treatment aged 19-30 he might've turned out like me 😇

I like to think Glenda is sitting there smoking and drinking, regardless of the hour, only acknowledging Dan when she absolutely has to.

@Ginabellman You think that's bad. I recently found out my mum has been spelling my middle name wrong for 47 years...

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) March 9, 2016

wait is he 50 omg

ahhahaha he is FIFTY

This is how I feel realising you’re only a couple of years younger than me.

:o

One MP has received 1,000 emails overnight complaining about Dominic Cummings. I’m told this extract is typical of most of them.

MPs worried this is causing irreparable damage. pic.twitter.com/O3ZJbYpUZw

— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) May 26, 2020

sorry your culture-war dog-whistle didn't work

NEW - YouGov poll

59% think Dominic Cummings should resign (up from 52% at the weekend) pic.twitter.com/h0Jxch9poJ

— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) May 26, 2020

#AccidentalPartridge pic.twitter.com/GJrLC6tzA4

— Accidental Partridge (@AccidentalP) May 26, 2020

lol

Downing Street lobby briefing

No10 spokesman said that when they said Dominic Cummings was “at home” through April, he didn’t actually know where he was and just knew he wasn’t at work. “It was very obvious at the time that what I was setting out was that he wasn’t at work”. 🧐

— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) May 26, 2020

Read that as Dominic Cummings didn't actually know where he was - which would explain the phone conversation with Johnson that neither could remember any details of.

I must admit I can absolutely believe Cummings shitting himself, freaking out and losing his marbles when he thought he had the 'rona.

That's pretty much what happened.

Looks like it. Have a word with him, Tracer Hand.

That would have been totally survivable though – "I panicked when I got the Rona and made a bad mistake and I'm sorry" would have more than done the job (and might have covered the birthday trip when it inevitably came up). It's the arrogance that's done for him

My mum: “Are you going to be doing more stuff defending Cummings”. Me: “Yes”. My mum: “Then you’re an idiot”. So that’s going well then...

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) May 26, 2020

if he apologised he would be failing in his mission to act as a lightning rod, trolling the media & making them look incompetent, & making everyone talk about him instead of rona

Talking about him is talking about rona though.

Tory MPs in marginals getting jumpy is one thing, Tories in safe seats is another.

indirectly, it's a sideshow, an outlet for public anger that might otherwise have a more politically useful target, as he gets to play the maverick villainous arrogant bad egg while making clear none of the rest of the govt had any idea. whether he eventually gets sacrificed or not the longer this goes on the less time the uk death toll is in the headlines

I note starmer is really going hard on the nandy-concerned-eyebrows in his rona-related weirdly slow, cloying announcements. this shows more humility than the more imperious, disdainful furrowed brow of blair

if I was starmzy I’d be tempted to just bunt johnson’s line back at him by saying “people can make their own minds up and don’t think any reasonable observer would support what he’s done, particularly in light of all the sacrifices ordinary people have made for two months up and down the country.”

There is no way this shitshow is 5D chess. The rona isn't going anywhere while this plays out; it's just waiting in the queue