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

Letter in The Guardian, 19 June 1997. pic.twitter.com/fkUsLhfXai

— Francis Wheen (@FrancisWheen) August 26, 2020

Every area of a school is a communal area pic.twitter.com/6yNWkccYfv

— Your Mum says Black Lives Matter (@judeinlondon2) August 26, 2020

So is the game here to blame schools for not policing mask wearing properly when the infection rates go up and the govt has to potentially close schools again.

i stand with gavin williamson, national vice-chairman of conservative students

They’re sacking both the Perm Secy and the head of ofqual to try and save him, perhaps now he can realise his dreams.

As this stage I can only assume he's being kept in place as a human shield for Boris. Either than or he has some major dirt on someone that they don't want him to spill.

A lot of people are guessing that he's lined up for the chop when COVID's rampant in schools but idk. I'm not sure they have a lot of competent people to replace him or that a more competent Education Secretary would have done a lot different. As with Jenrick and Cummings, Johnson seems keen to send the message that he's not going to be pressured into firing people by the papers.

Well, he's already exhibited enormous courage by refusing to remove the statue of Churchill and preventing the Proms from taking away "Land Of Hope & Glory". Impressive stuff.

He's a former Chief Whip, so dirt is probably the better guess.

Don't forget the Brave Bazza intervention also saved the Harold Wilson statue in Hudds from getting dynamited by the out of control commie hate mob. Well one excitable egg on twitter that got 4 likes.

I think it’s a Cummings-inspired attempt to make “Nothing Matters” as real here as it is for Trump. There’s no consequences if you refuse to resign and you can use it as a pretext to sack bits of the blob, so win-win.

(Also helps to defang any “I have dirt” threats for when you do decide Williamson is a useful fall guy)

Johnson seems keen to send the message that he's not going to be pressured into firing people by the papers.

This would be Johnson like Cameron before him forgetting his place in the chain of command.

stet's is more likely explanation tho

They're probably counting on their voters indifference regarding the tendency of cabinet MPs that step down to just re-appear a couple of years later e.g. Patel, Johnson himself.

Can anyone identify the fifth book along on the top shelf? Because apart from that one, top shelf from left to right goes: The Subtle Knife, Fahrenheit 451, Betrayed, The Resistance, The Toll, Crisis Point, Glass Houses, and The Twits. Supreme trolling from the school librarian. pic.twitter.com/z0I2vJValB

— Nicholas Pegg (@NicholasPegg) August 26, 2020

nice work

Exodus is a science fiction novel written for teens to young adults by Julie Bertagna, published in August 2002. The story is set on an island faced with the problem of a rising sea level, caused by melting ice caps and other forms of global warming.

I know all the most irritating people on Twitter will shortly ruin this moment forever, if they haven't already, but this is good work from the school librarian nonetheless.

one of the comments said it was the previous librarian who did it when they left several months ago as a dig at the school governors, and nothing to do with boris at all.

You will notice that every book on the top row is carefully chosen. It was political pop, but not at Boris, more the leadership of the school . Interestingly not a book has moved in the last 6 months since the last Librarian left.

— Jonathan Rennocks (@JonathanRennoc2) August 26, 2020

lol, good reminder of the entrenched layers of shittiness effecting education in the UK that goes way beyond "anyone but tories"

affecting even!

I mean the school has been closed to everyone but a handful of kids for the past six months so that's hardly surprising.

£13

in Germany ssp is 100% of salary for up to 6 weeks, 50% in France up to 43.80 euros per day. In this country our state broadcaster indulges in contrived talking points about gaudy old national anthems while people live on pennies.

So for a standard working day that's about £1.50 an hour not to spread the rona.

when i was suffering serious depression last year one of the things that really helped was the government's attempts to leave me homeless and starving to death, the only thing missing from the equation is workhouses but maybe that's a policy goal. if i wasn't lucky enough to have people that were able to support me then fuck knows where i'd be now.

luckily this is nobody's fault and nobody should be held accountable for the ongoing murders.

When I broke my ankle I used up what holiday pay I had left got deep into my overdraft and received pitiful ssp. And this was in the New Labour golden era when poverty was eradicated and everyone was now middle class!

Could imagine these days what used to be a life changing injury could well end your life now.

Even aside from the pittance in normal circumstances it's incredible that politicians and policy makers still haven't cottoned onto the fact that, in a pandemic, incentivising contagious people not to go out to work might be more important than incentivising them to do so.

New Liberal Democrat leader today?

xp Look, as long as they don't work with politicians, what's the danger?

Electing a slimeball knight of the realm with ConDem baggage as the new party leader would such a bold move for the LibDems lol

Re: £13. It's a similar mindset to the discourse around the $1200 cheque at the beginning of the pandemic. "What if this one time universal benefit is a higher amount than we've ever earned for a month's actual work?". It needs to be low, the poor should never get the insight that money can be printed and your needs can be taken care of. Or that wage theft is a thing.

Ed Davey got nearly twice as many votes as Layla Moran despite being almost entirely invisible for the last nine months. Great job lads.

It's like they saw Starmer and wanted their own even less charismatic version

Layla join the...Greens?

the ideal retirement home for quirky Lib Dems

i find it warmly reassuring that Lib Dems are gonna continue to Lib Dem, forever and ever and ever

Moran really is in the wrong gig though

i think you make a statement about yourself the day you decide to join the Liberal Democrats

Ed Davey possibly insanely unlikeable every time I’ve seen him on TV

xp Probably true. As long as there's no similar line about the Greens. I can sense Alphie hieing this way apace

Shame Labour have moved into the space the Lib Dems were so excited to move into, eh

it's possible that they're just *all* shit, y'know and we don't need a team to cheer for

however i can envisage decent reasons why one might join the Labour Party or even the Greens, same can't be said for the LDs

these aren't football clubs, you only should support them if you feel they are worth supporting. my pro-environment, anti-Starmer vote is going to the Greens.

even I think the Greens aren't worth shit tbh!

though

Did Davey actually campaign?

god knows, dynasties have risen and fallen, entire batches of jam have been made since their leadership election started. Even their members fell asleep.

He looks like the pompous market inspector who occasionally turns up in Eastenders. That is the impression they've chosen to present to the electorate.

Also after a month of watching Swinson flounder in the face of furious attacks on her record as a member of the coalition they've come to the brilliant conclusion that what they need is yet another member of the coalition. Other parties at least take an electoral drubbing as a signal that they might need a slight change of direction but these guys just keep walking into the same rake over and over again.

i think you make a statement about yourself the day you decide to join the Liberal Democrats

― A Short Film About Scampoes (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 27 August 2020 bookmarkflaglink

Or push tactical voting.

User anvil is going to say he has big middle manager energy and I agree. Big “your boss who times your toilet breaks” energy.

The Lib Dems having 57.6% turnout in their own leadership election is peak Lib Dem

— Professor Piss Shitty (@DrFuck_) August 27, 2020

i lolled

Who remembers when ED Davey (@EdwardJDavey) played Bob Lister the Market Inspector in EastEnders ... #BBCQT pic.twitter.com/UnnNoZMzdA

— BeCo (@BeCo74) December 5, 2019