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

let the birds breed however they want, your priority is protecting the fucking ecosystems u fucking racists

I wdn't throw shade on any Jewish person hating Corbyn for antisemitism, fairly or not, but the tweet upthread was pure melt realism re: how to win an election by promising not to change anything

white-headed duck are a protected species in spain and if they disappear, the ecological protections afforded to their habitat will be eroded - it is about protecting the ecosystems xp

environmentalists in having a weird platonic notion of speciation shocker

basing protection of ecosystems on the genetic preservation of a single species is absolute madness, i will not budge on this

are you seriously telling me that if we end up with ruddy/white headed miscegenated superspecies then the Spanish government will wave in the fucking bulldozers

afaict if two species can interbreed to produce fertile offspring then really are they even two species anyway

wetland habitats are being protected becase the white headed duck are threatened; if they all hybridise with ruddy duck then the habitat will no longer be given protection by the spanish government - their habitat will be opened up to hunting and yes, development

lol at this offtopic tangent

also it seems to me that the problem is not the ruddy duck there

i mean it's not like there are no other rare species in the spanish wetlands

this all feels completely insane to me

can't we just trust the evolutionary process? the white-headed duck was not distinct enough to survive, it is a total toilet duck

if you want to protect habitat, a threatened species is your trump card - hence the newt thing with boris

it's not like there are no other rare species in the spanish wetlands

yeah but you need something that has some sort of marketability, some rare water lice or dull-looking sedge is hardly going to cut it with bringing in the tourists

We had a bit of problem with raccoons on ILX once.

they have pratincoles do they not?

also this isn't off-topic i'm getting to the dark racialised heart of the european mindset

also the fucked celeb-species-centric conditional biodiversity protection protocols

protect foxes. protect mice. protect crows. protect fucking ants

Re Tundra, I grimaced at that tweet and its replies, but as with another Jewish friend of mine who used to be v v Labour but hates Corbyn - I don't believe JC was antisemitic and think the claims against him were almost entirely made in horribly bad faith, but I also don't want to skate too close to implying to Jewish people that their concerns were made up by saying anything even least-worst-option about Corbyn, so... time to shrug and leave the room when these topics come up, I guess?

Tell me about it.

I wdn't throw shade on any Jewish person hating Corbyn for antisemitism, fairly or not, but the tweet upthread was pure melt realism re: how to win an election by promising not to change anything

Oh I absolutely agree with that

just, it was tempting to reply drawing comparisons (maybe not even so much to the original tweet but a reply doing the whole "why won't people get behind Starmzy" thing) but even hinting at Corbz as least-worst option in certain circles - which tbf it's possible neither MT or my old friend belong to but I don't want to test it - results in a "how can you not see why I absolutely won't acknowledge that man as ever having been slightly less of a very real threat than our current Johnson government" and that way lies nothing but pain

anyway. I like ducks

"We don't want to look like we care more about trans rights than jobs"

Substitute "gay rights" for "trans rights" and you'll read a sentence which could have been said in the 1980s. Gay people didn't want to be the centre of debate back then either. It was their opponents who decided otherwise.

Starmer's team lack understanding of minority rights. pic.twitter.com/wTfYYhELeT

— Owen Jones 🌹 (@OwenJones84) July 2, 2020

Useless shower

a few years ago our internet started to get unreliable and very slow and eventually as it continued to deteriorate we called BT round. engineer made a few cursory checks and then disappeared outside and came back to report that the wire from our house to the nearest pole went through a tree: squirrels ate our internet. am I even allowed to say what sort of squirrels they were or will imago throw me in jail?

Imago is no friend of the greys iirc.

user imago believes in the free market of natural selection and will happily leave our humble, troops-supporting red squirrels behind, just as he would consign to oblivion the entire cosmic order upon which #towns rest. fortunately he is part of a minority of rootless neoliberal over-educated elitists and the british people have voted so that they can speak plainly about predatory gangs of grey squirrels gnawing through cables without being told they're racist

well i can't exactly argue with that, love a #town tho (within reason)

RLB's melt replacement supports the govt's compulsory school attendance in sept, but not fining parents of students who don't return. No opposition just for the sake of opposition.

it's all very well finding yourself accidentally aligned with the countryside alliance on the broad topic of conservation until you realise they just want to hunt grouse and shoot hen harriers so that they don't get the grouse instead

oh sorry an actual politics has happened

Pretending that you can make a decision on September now is ridiculous – the conditions could change massively by then.

Fines should be opposed on principle, but the real question today isn't "do you support it', it's "we now have to time to preapre, so what are the plans for sustained schooling under the four phases, and what are you doing to support the likeliest scenarios?". This "we'll open schools come what may" is the "GBD we're leaving on Dec 31st GBD" approach, and both could end the same way.

if shadow education listened to teacher's unions she might be fit for purpose because they are talking more sense than the UK govt, but unions are bad in the Labour party now.

fuck off apostrophe, I'm multi-tasking at the moment - not as if my grammar is shot at the best of times!

banging revive

Why bother doing elaborate photoshops of Keir Starmer in an attempt to make him look bad when you can just post this clippic.twitter.com/Upv5ZFLOzT

— Labour 'Legitimate Concerner' (@LabConcerner) July 2, 2020

This paragraph from the DfE guidance is so depressingly centralising it is hard to believe it comes from the government of Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. Even the best-behaved pupils are going to struggle to adapt to getting back after six months at home. pic.twitter.com/GUSXucp2ba

— Jane Merrick (@janemerrick23) July 2, 2020

"sanctions" ffs

Does that mean food and water deprivation if you are naughty?

Betting Tory schools going to be cracking out the isolation again

kids crave boundaries, the narrower and more airless the better

I once did a rewire on a J+I school near Leeds where a caretaker informed me they used mains room as a cooler if kids got a bit too violent. Yes locking a child in a room with a HUGE 3 phase electrical distribution board in a cupboard!

hey, some of those kids weigh 17 stone

pmsl at that hotel story

just.... waht

me when I see stamrzy

Boredom and a need for a creative outlet pic.twitter.com/BmwAAikyOV

— H🍊🍊🍊ps (@HoopSketty) July 2, 2020

Apparently A&E departments have been told to prepare for this Saturday like it's New Year's Eve.

are there other countries with our approach to booze who have reopened bars? curious how it went there

My friend in Brussels was a bit taken aback that they went from full lockdown to boozers open with next to no restrictions.

NEW: Sir @Keir_Starmer has told @BBCNews he regrets his use of language in calling the Black Lives Matter movement a “moment” and has apologised for his words. Clarifying his position, he said he meant this was a “defining moment” and a turning point in race relations.

— Rianna Croxford (@The_Crox) July 2, 2020

okay so now he's accepting clarification and apologies? wish he'd make up his mind

Wish he would apply a zero tolerance policy to himself

that starmzy video nv posted is absolutely nightmarish

very charismatic adult

are there other countries with our approach to booze who have reopened bars? curious how it went there

Would assume Australia but they've not had it anywhere near as bad with the rona.