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

as i say, the economic cost of this u-turn is effectively nil and it's easily spun as Boris listening to his people and choosing to do the right thing. there's no victory in this except hopefully slightly less malnutrition.

bought Carrie her own laptop even xp

Slightly less malnutrition is the bit that really matters.

The campaign should continue really, the government is evidently reluctant to concede even a fraction of the argument that it might be its responsibility to prevent its own citizens from starving.

it's easily spun as Boris listening to his people and choosing to do the right thing

Even Laura K doesn't seem to think so.

Question many Tories asking is why on earth Govt tried to fight this anyway - one says it was ‘mental’, another that it’s a ‘shambles’ and they’ll now get no credit for it

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) June 16, 2020

hey it's all good, anything is better than nothing.

i expect Laura will be back on her meds by teatime.

a savvy opposition should be extending this argument to "people in the UK are starving and what are you gonna do?", you're right about that

I'm not sure the list of people who care about Boris' u-turns is ever going to include Boris, though.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53061281

What the fuck is going on this lunchtime? This isn't even the top story.

yeah I just heard about that on R4 and was thinking this must be quite a big deal really.

Lads.

We did it! Thank you to everyone who campaigned for #HolidaysWithoutHunger 🙌 https://t.co/pXgTzSKJXC

— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) June 16, 2020

canny political instincts there

It woz starmzy that won it!

oh my

Not to take anything away from Rashford but it is kind of odd that so many people who until recently strongly identified as Rebecca Long-Bailey supporters appear to be totally unaware of what she's been doing.

— Dan Davies (@dsquareddigest) June 16, 2020

RL-B has been pushing for schools to remain closed and for extension of food vouchers through the summer almost entirely unsupported by the leadership. Starmer didn’t even retweet her schools tweets and that ghoul Rachel Reeves was despatched to the studios to talk about reopening schools! So absolutely not having that at all.

Let's not overlook JOLYON on all this

Very proud at the part @GoodLawProject has played, alongside @UKSustain, @MarcusRashford, @RLong_Bailey and some other fine campaigners, in forcing this switcheroo. The threat of litigation certainly sharpens minds. https://t.co/62WeBIXYDw

— Jo Maugham QC (@JolyonMaugham) June 16, 2020

everybody loves a bandwagon

nb of course Rashford wasn't the only person advocating for the extension BUT

Yeah what an insult it is to be undermined by that fucking arsehole Reeves talking over your brief. Props to RLB

it is striking that rashford has got more out of the govt than nearly any opposition politician, makes me think back to chinese criticisms of british-style western democracy, where you give a blank cheque to the ppl you hate the least, and the idea it's more important to be able to influence the ppl who are in power than be able to pick who they are

that dan davies tweet is ridiculous, conflating supporting a leadership bid with being a loyal fan

Be very interested to know who it was that originally approached Rashford about this, I'm guessing one of the charities or campaigning orgs that have been involved.

Whichever individual had the idea has probably been on the socially distanced lash for a couple of hours already.

Marcus Rashford looking up ‘leader of the opposition’ on Google Images pic.twitter.com/I2rhEKxTdD

— Rhys (@rhysrmann) June 16, 2020

People who pay attention knew RLB was on it but also know she has been undermined (or at least doing the job of opposition in a quiet way). She doesn't cut through.

Johnson is definitely trying to play the 'cruelty is the point' card with transgender rights and Mirza's appointment but it might be easier to knock that out at times.

Partly due to covid and the odd intervention.

After everything that has gone on the thing that gets Cameron out the shed is "save dfid".

Meanwhile there's this announcement of the merger of the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development:

Johnson justified the decision, saying: “Dfid outspends the Foreign Office more than four times over and yet no single decision-maker in either department is able to unite our efforts or take a comprehensive overview.

“We give as much aid to Zambia as we do to Ukraine, though the latter is vital for European security. We give 10 times as much aid to Tanzania as we do to the six countries of the western Balkans, who are acutely vulnerable to Russian meddling.

Hmm curious examples, you complete fucking bag of cunt

It is notable that it was RLB that was on BBC Breakfast this morning, after it had finally cut through, and not Reeves or Starmer. It probably is bandwagon jumping from the leadership's office but equally if they'd been fundamentally opposed they would have shut the whole thing down ages ago, even Starmer asked the question at PMQs a week ago.

Rashford takes the vast majority of the credit, alongside probably a lot of people who worked hard to get it to this point and will never be acknowledged publically.

is Starmer going to have a scrap Universal Credit policy or does he just fancy a few little reforms here and there, because even after a small victory like this there is still going to be a lot of hungry children about in the long term as the benefits system currently is. But apparently it doesn't matter what he says at this stage, but i strongly disagree! I can't remember if he committed to scrapping it during the leadership campaign, not that you'd take it as a solid commitment from such a duplicitous tory cunt!

They've been pushing the meals policy for weeks though, it's legitimate to ask why a lot of people are apparently unaware of this.

I think they're still committed to scrapping UC, though the campaigning is likely to be around chipping away at elements of it for now.

This DFiD thing really does smell of Cummings. Especially shoving it through at this pace, at this time, like there was nothing else for the govt to be focused on.

am suspicious of foreign aid as a political activity in the first place, but that said this is effectively taking funding away from some of the world's poorest regions just at a time when the impacts of climate change on those communities are becoming ever more palpable. climate change that we and our partners are largely responsible for. sickening tbh

Replying to a question from the Tory MP Steve Double, Johnson said:

"What is actually happening, of course, is that Dfid and the FCO are now joining together to become a new Whitehall super-department for international affairs which will be of huge benefit to our ability to project Britain’s sense of mission about overseas aid.

For too long, frankly, UK overseas aid has been treated as some giant cashpoint in the sky that arrives without any reference to UK interests or to the values that the UK wishes to express or the priorities diplomatic, political or commercial of the government of the UK."

no moral responsibilty here at all

also i'm pretty sure that's absolutely untrue

mmmmm britain's sense of mission

I'm agreeing with everything people are posting today, but just saying the deeply horrible phrase "smell of Cummings" needs to be thread-banned lads!

How about 'Cummings all over' as an alternative?

was going with "a taste of Cummings" but Matt ftw

the very essence of Cummings.

a residue of Cummings, if you will

Cummings leaving his mark

"Taste of Cummings" playing to the tune of "Taste of Cindy" in my head

the idea that britain has been acting too selflessly overseas is a real corker. reminds me of big supermarkets starting to ditch fair trade and come up with myriad weird own-brand versions so they can scrutinise the supply chain more intensely and ensure they're getting #valueformoney. the differences between how countries invest overseas and bid with each other are ofc grimly fascinating. in cameroon they joke that a chinese-run mining operation will build a railway to the mine, an american-run one will build a road there, and a french-run one will fly the ore out by helicopter.

A military aircraft is receiving a secret makeover to give Boris Johnson and senior cabinet ministers a Union Jack-coloured jet for official travel, defence sources said https://t.co/V8WRngQIUm

— SkyNews (@SkyNews) June 16, 2020

meanwhile we're back to 200+ deaths in 24 hrs again, thank goodness we can join the Sports Direct Death Queues though!

We've been sitting around 200 on weekdays for awhile now, right?

Private Eye has been good in the past on the relationship between DFID and the commercial / military objectives of the government.

Imagine being a country vulnerable to Russian meddling.

have always assumed that Foreign Aid is predicated on backdoor subsidy of UK industry, especially the arms industry. no way it has ever been apolitical