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

his trembling hand on the mantelpiece even scares me

https://24.media.tumblr.com/5690eac39d8f848475872c77317c98fa/tumblr_n0nf58wycJ1s0a80fo1_500.gif live footage of Starmer in action at pmqs after his statements supporting the government get read back to him

Details of the £12.2bn Affordable Homes Programme released this morning.

Couple of key points:https://t.co/nnpS9xV10p

— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) September 8, 2020

Theresa May...thank you

Theresa May is second on the list of urgent questions to NI Secretary Brandon Lewis in Commons at 12.30 - after Labour NI lead Louise Haigh - who is asking about plan to weaken the NI protocol and Withdrawal Agreement

— seanwhelanRTE (@seanwhelanRTE) September 8, 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/07/eu-has-powers-to-punish-uk-if-it-breaches-brexit-treaty-experts-warn

This is good on what could actually happen to the government if it breaks the agreement.

🚨 Brandon Lewis confirms the Government will break international law on EU Withdrawal Deal:

"Yes, this does break international law in a very specific and limited way". pic.twitter.com/6B8pU5M2cH

— Adam Schwarz (@AdamJSchwarz) September 8, 2020

The Empire's back, baby

https://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdyd1cbIqU1rby04wo1_1280.gif

quotes to live by.

everything's shit and it's getting worse and we're all going to die but hat tip to the first wag who came up with "Brittania waives the rules" which I've seen scattered around social media today

ha that phrase is fucking ancient

the Exploited had a single with that title in 1982!

Look it's limited and specific not deliberate ffs.

The departures of the two most senior civil service lawyers - the head of the government legal service and the director-general of the Attorney General's office - made public the same day as a minister announces in Commons that government will deliberately break the law

Well

— david allen green (@davidallengreen) September 8, 2020

Brandon Lewis has real bent copper who spent it all on a pub energy.

It is telling that in “Left Out” the authors insist Starmer wasn’t particularly Remain-y until he saw it as the way to connect with the broad base of the party, isn’t it?

— Tom Gann (@Tom_Gann) September 8, 2020

some interesting excerpts from Left Out on Starmer in the thread. I didn't realise he was previously a get brexit out of the way pragmatist (as opposed to the pioneer of lol progressive pragmatism© he is now) and he switched to a 2nd ref position to curry favour with the sizeable remain chunk of the membership, the little schemer. I always used to switch off when he was on Marr, but just thought he had strong FBPE energy, but it obv wasn't as clear cut as that.

fbpe had big starmer energy

It’s cool how I remember Corbyn being targeted for exactly the same sentiment when Labour were actually in a place to influence the outcome 🙃

"Get that deal over the line."

Labour leader Keir Starmer tells @GaryGibbonBlog "the Leave-Remain argument is over" when it comes to Brexit. pic.twitter.com/4XfNT5mYBN

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) September 8, 2020

I guess if you look at Starmer's career path it should have been obvious that his core belief is "I like being a boss"

This “yeah we might break the law, but only a bit” has a certain type of Tory going pop-eyed. Real meaningful vote vibes again

It's the old 'I did nothing wrong' as opposed to 'I did nothing illegal'

😵😵

The party is over: Boris Johnson announces tonight that from Monday, it will be the law that nobody can socialise in a group of more than six people, inside or out, even if they’re from the same household. It’s going to be a quiet Christmas if it isn’t lifted by then.

— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) September 8, 2020

Gatherings of more than six people banned in England unless its a wedding, funeral, workplace, educational establishment or 'organised team sports conducted in a safe way', or for support bubbles larger than six people. Apparently this counts as simplifying the rules.

Getting this grim looking over the cliff edge feeling right now.

I think we can safely ignore this

Would you settle for you can ignore it?

Ignore it in a specific and limited way.

(Yes I also have that cliff-edge feeling)

i have no idea what this means, if there are two tables of four people next to each other in the pub are we not allowed to talk?

I'm assuming the pub is out?

They haven’t released the wording yet, but potentially yes if it counts as “socialising”. Certainly no tables of more than 6 (except from the same household) xp

No restrictions on the numbers in schools, workplaces, or Pret.

why are pubs open?!?!?!?

Because Boris likes to be liked.

tbh when i've been to the pub post-lockdown i've never sat at a table of more than 6 except twice: at a funeral and a wedding. there's varying degrees of the rules being applied but they mostly are being applied whereever i've been, they're just probably not very adequate rules.

I suspect the problem is house parties and other in-home gatherings first and foremost. People started ignoring the rules ages ago.

The other issues around workplaces and overcrowded housing haven't changed either but it's also clear that some places were taken out of lockdown way too early in their particular curve.

yeah the point is this is just an amplification of "the rules don't apply if you're spending money but god forbid anybody socialising for free"

why are pubs open?!?!?!?

Again only human activity that involves work or spending money is allowed. Whenever I walk through Islington it's full of absolutely packed restaurants, mostly with tables with 2-4 people. That won't change. You could go to the pub by yourself as my dad always did and chat to all the other guys at the bar, and the pub can remain packed. These are only new lockdown measures in the sense that they are an announcement the gov are making to give the impression they are doing something. They will continue to insist that people who have been working just as hard or even harder from home since april go "back to work" while announcing this unfortunate curtailment of freedom-loving brits right to do anything that doesn't directly feed the economy.

Those that take measures to limit their risk of exposure will continue to do inasmuch as they are not prevented from doing so by other people (their employer say, or the person who shows up at their workplace without a mask and keeps breathing down their neck, etc). What is notable, is that these measures do nothing to protect or empower those who wish to limit their own exposure. These random announcements of "no Ludo on a tuesday" are more an illusion of lockdown, recognising that people enjoyed a certain sense of protection that came from being limited and obstructed. and this was popular! it felt decisive, there was a mood of people meeting the occasion. They do not however empower people to protect their own health, there is nothing that makes employers more accountable, there is nothing to enforce literally any kind of measures in retail spaces or commercial hospitality spaces (as far as I can tell, these fell apart immediately). The people I know who are most fatalistic about the whole thing are colleagues who work in an SEN school, where senior management can now no longer be visited in their offices but children with high temperatures still stay on for the whole school day, hygiene facilities remain below the minimum requirements for basic dignity and playgrounds are overcrowded.

Hancock on #BBCBreakfast

If you’re a family of 5 you can only see one grand parent from Monday in England

Up to 25% of people getting tests are ‘not eligible’ & causing issues for others

Announcement on Doncaster Races (and other events) from the Prime Minister at 4pm

— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) September 9, 2020

What does the 25% thing mean?

Also Hancock:

Fucking hell. ‘Car crash’ really doesn’t do this justice. This is a multiple vehicle pileup resulting in the closure of a four-junction stretch of the M25 in both directions. But with added weird, creepy laughter.

My toes may never uncurl.pic.twitter.com/PwQcxlzp6h

— 🏳️‍🌈 Max 🏳️‍🌈 (@SpillerOfTea) September 9, 2020

the 25% thing is about people getting tests when they don't have symptoms — eg before they go on holiday, or go to a wedding or something. Which seemed like prudent behaviour to me given how they've been banging on about how many tests we've got, such beautiful tests, world-beating tests.

Turns out they barely have enough capacity to test the symptomatic and now they've maxed out

Lol ok thanks

They wasted lockdown, and they wasted the post-lockdown pissing about with civil service shakeups (including fucking about with PHE ffs) and now seems like that time's has just about run out. Good idea to start a massive Brexit fight as well, then.

Is it truly always a good idea to listen to someone's sister?

i'mma go with "no"

https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/images/9780252074677_lg.jpg

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1104/4308/products/The_Bad_Sister_1024x1024.jpg?v=1571830824

Oh yes it's here:

It’s all YOUR fault https://t.co/Gqa1A5nRIj

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) September 9, 2020

👀👀👀

St Leger Festival gets underway today @DoncasterRaces The government has given the go ahead for thousands of people to attend the four day event. It's one of the first sport pilot events to introduce spectators back to fixtures pic.twitter.com/0KqlPSYn6H

— ITV News Calendar (@itvcalendar) September 9, 2020

Now I'm not an epidemiologist but

i’m no mathematician, but

i'm no horse, but

looking forward to hearing the ronas and riders