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

The number of cops is irrelevant if they can’t solve burglaries but are all over black teenagers as busywork.

Not naivety, just thinking with the press actively working to hush up bad stories and hyperfocus on the opposition, any old cunt could do what they liked and get away with it, and thus far that’s been the case.

― scampos mentis (gyac), Sunday, 19 July 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Well as I said covid has been covered by low borrowing rates to shore up unemployment, and also tell me of another government that is in serious trouble because of its actions on covid? I'd struggle to find any resignations of top cabinet officials. There is a very good piece in The New Republic talking about how governors and Mayors across the states haven't even said sorry or resigned over the mountain of cases and deaths.

I think Cllr Shepzy is real.

lord help us

gyac - If "It’s yet to really play out" in a country with a bad handling then I'd say the same for the UK, which has been a half-way house in its handling, as in it has borrowed a lot to keep the show on the road but it's obviously far more tailored to big business and property owners.

We've seen tens of thousands of lay-offs in the last three weeks, and protection from eviction lapses in a month.

fairly stinging assessment of the UK's performance during the crisis on A1 of the NYTimes

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/world/europe/coronavirus-mistakes-france-uk-italy.html

"Alphie your post is slightly playing down the ability of the right to make hay out of a crisis though."

Oh yes...well, I think we might all be underplaying the other crises we could find ourselves in though.

I often think of the generation that vote Tory do so because they've done well out if the system that has come into being (and social democracy is as much part of that as post-Thatcher capitalism). But if the crisis being engineered make us all poorer then I'm not sure the property class will indulge in pro-union backing when a lot of other things are falling apart.

Lower socioeconomic groups are more likely to vote Tory these days. Pains me to say so.

Labour have no little to offer to a lot of the lower social economic groups now. But it needs breaking down, poor BAME groups would vote Lab, as would many young, educated but also in precarious positions.

By the time the next election comes along there could be some serious shift for a lot of socioeconomic groups.

For sure.

and also tell me of another government that is in serious trouble because of its actions on covid?

Brazil 100%, US possibly.

get Modi as well and that's the four horsemen

AMLO not doing particularly well out of it either.

Bolsonaro didn't replace the sacked health minister, the choice insider quote about dealing with C-19 in Brazil sounded a bit like they are copying the UK: "this is like fixing an aircraft while it is flying".

Serbia, Israel.

No governments have fallen in India, Brazil or the US so far -- the trouble is purely from a polling perspective, so far...and my understanding is that Netanyahu was saved by the covid crisis?

Prove me wrong covid, kill Bolsanaro.

I think there's still rally-round-the-flag effect even in hard-hit places, it's hard to price that in. When the dust settles it's going to be whether the most incompetent govts can successfully play it off as "we did our best in the toughest times" or if they can't get the stain off.

Wasn't the Mexican President being almost as dismissive about it as Bolsanaro at one point?

...and my understanding is that Netanyahu was saved by the covid crisis?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-jerusalem-and-tel-aviv-thousands-rail-against-netanyahu-covid-19-polices/

I don't know how reactionary Dr Moderate Phone is - but it's tiresome that his (?) analysis = to look at polls and say 'Starmer's doing well', as if it's KS's own achievement rather than a reflection of the political conditions that exist for KS - or, by comparison, JC, for whom politics was mainly set up to stop him 'doing well', whatever he did.

Dr M might as well look at polls and say that the current government is doing well. That wouldn't tell you much about what they're actually ... *doing*.

The phase 1/2 Oxford COVID-19 vaccine trial is now published. The vaccine is safe, well-tolerated, and immunogenic. Congratulations to Pedro Folegatti and colleagues. These results are extremely encouraging. https://t.co/oQp2eoZYIg

— richard horton (@richardhorton1) July 20, 2020

No governments have fallen in India, Brazil or the US so far

You said "serious trouble", not "dispensed with altogether". I think it's reasonable to say Bolsonaro is in serious trouble, certainly compared to Boris.

Don't get the sense that Bolsanaro will be impeached.

He's in serious trouble whether he's impeached or not - his support is eroding both amongst his political allies and amongst his supporter base (plenty of ppl who were broadly sympathetic to him are angry as fuck now that the shit has hit the fan - I'm speaking from personal experience here). He might not be impeached, he might even turn the crisis around from an electoral pov at some point, but he is undeniably in serious trouble.

jess phillips has written a thing for the independent, can you guess from the first three paragraphs what it’s about?

I have been libelled many times. It happens near daily that someone posts a weird meme on Twitter claiming that Rupert Murdoch has paid me £50,000 in order to make me think a certain way. I’m not sure which annoys me more, the fact that I am being shamed and judged for receiving money of which I have never got to spend a penny, or that people think I can’t have my own opinions and must have some powerful man or another puppeteering me.

I guess that money must be sitting in a bank account somewhere with all the cash that people have claimed I get from the Israeli government for daring to speak out on antisemitism. One day perhaps my great-great-niece will be contacted by heir hunters and receive the spoils of hundreds of thousands of pounds I never knew existed.

Periodically, I get so annoyed about the lies I read about myself that I contact a lawyer and ask what can be done about it, but I always end up concluding that the amount of money, time and personal pain that would have to be endured isn’t worth it. Much like the fact that I ignore an old injury that causes my ankle to fracture every couple of years, I can’t be bothered to take a few weeks out of circulation to undergo the surgery to fix it. There are too many other things going on and I simply don’t have time.

i count fifteen ‘I’s in those three paras btw

Much like the fact that I ignore an old injury that causes my ankle to fracture every couple of years, I can’t be bothered to take a few weeks out of circulation to undergo the surgery to fix it. There are too many other things going on and I simply don’t have time.

Are we sure this isn't a Private Eye parody?

JP refers to 'lies' about herself.

But the truth about her is dreadful enough.

there is no doubt she has taken a big donation from a property developer in her constituency, factamundo!

god knows what this Jess Phillips bbc show will be like, it might include the time she told a random black guy at an advice surgery he looked just like Omar from The Wire or maybe some of her offensively stupid opinions on how some Star Wars characters have autism totally mandated by her having a friend with an autistic child!

Hopefully a scene where she demands to see the manager when a deliveroo driver is five minutes late with her pizza

He's in serious trouble whether he's impeached or not - his support is eroding both amongst his political allies and amongst his supporter base (plenty of ppl who were broadly sympathetic to him are angry as fuck now that the shit has hit the fan - I'm speaking from personal experience here). He might not be impeached, he might even turn the crisis around from an electoral pov at some point, but he is undeniably in serious trouble.

― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 20 July 2020 bookmarkflaglink

That may affect Bolsanaro's re-election chances but a failure on this scale would, perhaps, have meant people on the streets demanding a swifter end of term.

Much like the fact that I ignore an old injury that causes my ankle to fracture every couple of years, I can’t be bothered to take a few weeks out of circulation to undergo the surgery to fix it. There are too many other things going on and I simply don’t have time.

the stupidest thing i have read about an mp this year. congratulations.
who the fuck puts up with a fractured ankle every couple of years unnecessarily.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EdYYRQDXgAAHeon?format=png&name=900x900
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/42/New_Labour_New_Danger.gif
that look when he knows he's getting some tonight!

he isn't remotely demonic though, he's just a stickler and a dork

yeah Jess's ankle bullshit is the worst kind of "i'm too important to look after myself" posturing

would cross the road to avoid eyes like Rory McGrath there

anyway, i'm not reading the whole article, is it about her not being racist or about her not shilling for Murdoch etc? she's quite right it would be patronising sexism to assume her terrible opinions are the result of some svengali figure, i'm sure she's capable of having her own terrible opinions for money.

also since we know she consistently lies and dissembles about her upbringing and class background, why should we assume anything else she says is true?

the holiday home in Provence was a one up one down ffs!

it is, of course, on the subject of johnny depp and amber heard’s current court proceedings

MPs have voted against New Clause 17, with 340 votes to 251.

The New Clause intended to protect the NHS and publicly funded health and care services in other parts of the UK from any form of control from outside the UK. pic.twitter.com/KIrFe5Slyc

— UK House of Commons (@HouseofCommons) July 20, 2020

who the fuck puts up with a fractured ankle every couple of years unnecessarily.

Hi dere - football injury written off as a sprain that gets really fucking sore every once in a while and doc thinks it was probably fractured and probably never quite healed but probably not worth the surgery as it always settles down again.

I am Jess Philips aicmfp now what's keeping thst pizza?

I have a piece of metal screwed into and holding my right ankle together after breaking it really badly 12 years ago, and it gives me excruciating pain. And also I have problems with my left ankle because of it compensating for how dysfunctional my right is. Yet I still walk at least 50 miles a week, without recourse to self-victimising melodramatic bullshit or taking 50 grand cheques off dodgy property developers or bullying pizza hut staff during a pandemic! Fuck off Jess!

She doesn't have the time to walk 50 miles a week.

previously unreleased Proclaimers demo

And me wi' a bad ankle.

Idk what the point is of not withdrawing the whip over stuff like this, esp with a big majority.

wow. this guy's a real piece of work.