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

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

The timing of this announcement feels so calculated to appeal to the "why are we sending all that money there for, why can't we feed our own kids?" crew that I wonder if they rushed it forward by a few days/weeks.

Does anyone particularly know what the UK's objectives / policies for Ukraine and the Western Balkans are? Do we even have any?

Foreign policy other than China / the EU / the US seems like a relic from another era.

France is v busy running things in a lot of Africa too ofc

In our bio we previously referred to Blue Labour’s tenets as “Work, Family and Tradition”. We were told that this is actually the slogan of Vichy France. We have updated it to the real Blue Labour slogan of “Work, Family and Community”. Apologies for any offence caused.

— Young Blue Labour (@BlueYoungLabour) June 16, 2020

Does anyone particularly know what the UK's objectives / policies for Ukraine and the Western Balkans are?

*does Tarzan howl/chest bump*

lol glum is that a spoof? it looks real

resultant cummings

hahahahahahahahahahaha omg

can’t be real??!

"Mr Johnson, as foreign secretary in 2018, said he would like a "Brexit plane" to help him travel the world."

should paint the £350M slogan on it

xxp
Either they are very confused or they've crafted something that's flown under many people's radar, including mine

i think the most obvious explanation is that Blue Labour share a world view with collaborative Nazis and it's real

psy op imo

it does feel we’re headed towards a world without a lot of subtext

The Scottish Covid Deaths over the past week were Wednesday 1, Thursday 5, Friday 3, Sat 4, Sun 5, Mon 0, Tuesday 5

wow

Still a high total figure overall though.

@BlueYoungLabour
44m
Where do you think the Corbyn era went wrong? It’s something I’ve been thinking about in recent weeks...

Lonley guy thinkin bout things

think we need a "take off and nuke the Labour Party from orbit" thread

well, maybe we've already got enough

in what sense is painting a plane a "secret" makeover?

apparently this is the one thing that's annoyed me today

Beijing: 106 infections is described as "severe". UK: 200+ deaths - it'll be reet.

Maybe it's for a reality TV show and Boris isn't supposed to know, Pimp My Plane or something.

cd changer in the tail, sub-woofers in the wings, Xzibit in the pilot's seat

put some sick spoilers on it!

doing handrake turns in the middle of some clouds... woooy!

pimp my plane is clearly some ‘i like to make cardboard buses’ domcum scam to make jeffrey epstein-adjacent google results go away

Jerembly Crobryn, you have made it impossible for me to oppose plunging millions into poverty https://t.co/8v9E0bJXfs pic.twitter.com/eK669cUI3o

— tom (@malaiseforever) June 16, 2020

Oh the cuddly nicey nicey tories are blaming Jez for toryism rn. Oh hang on a minute the DWP was his brief whilst the biggest UC unrolling happened but nothing to do with him!

Pretty sure Gauke is behind that "Young" Blue Labour account now.

The Scottish Covid Deaths over the past week were Wednesday 1, Thursday 5, Friday 3, Sat 4, Sun 5, Mon 0, Tuesday 5

― Heavy Messages (jed_), Tuesday, 16 June 2020 16:22 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

wow

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 16 June 2020 16:23 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Still a high total figure overall though.

― Heavy Messages (jed_), Tuesday, 16 June 2020 16:24 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's worth adding here that we were slightly below the rate for the rest of GB (above NI) until we diverged strategies) (and I also know there's an additional caveat that Scotland were being more honest in declaring figures, which makes it harder to draw out) but I adjusted the figures roughly per capita (England + Wales combined having about 12x the population of Scotland and the figures being given at the westminster briefings are for E+W) but since the divergance our figures are about 1/5th to 1/4 of those in E+W.

There were the 6,000 person (combined) raves in Manchester last weekend. On the other hand I saw footage of youngsters doing conga lines in Glasgow parks over the weekend and I'm sure illegal raves will happen up here too.

let's assume that people across all social/political/demographic groups are crossing the lockdown advice now but there's a very specific focus on the transgressions that the mainstream media chooses to report

They were saying that it's still illegal to have gatherings of more than 6 people, were using it to arrest people at the London demonstrations last weekend.

Do those Scottish numbers include care homes etc or are they just hospitals? If so that's roughly similar to London which has been in single daily figures for a few weeks now (compared to hundreds of deaths a day in April).

It appears that the NW, NE and Midlands have had the worst of it for a while now. Not sure about Wales.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/

At some point it might occur to the government that the areas where infection rates are higher include a lot of former Red Wall seats that are going to be hit worst if they're rushing the transition of of lockdown.

Since the Conservative party's been taken over by someone with no real affiliation to them above his own ambitions (Cummings), I don't think they're looking any further ahead than the forthcoming Brexit calamity. The next election's probably 4+ years away, worry about it when it comes.