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

I've been enjoying Richard Leonard's lockdown hair

https://www.helensburghadvertiser.co.uk/resources/images/11762593.jpg

I'm not a fan of the guy tbh, but love to see the "fucking useless plotters" doing their thing again. He looks like he has a very stringent daily hair care regime and buys Head & Shoulders by the crate!

He's slow and deliberate and uninspiring. Nicola Sturgeon looks positively bored with what passes for FMQs when he's up.

What can you do but laugh at this cunt?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EhyT0Q5X0AIAbQM?format=jpg&name=large

Never mind that, what exactly is going on here?

This is the finest book written about Corbynism and the politics of the last five years. Also the greatest book ever published in SE15. Buy it! https://t.co/1k9wuYliOb

— John McTernan (@johnmcternan) September 13, 2020

He’s subtweeting Owen Jones, whose own history of the past five years is out today.

McTernan has (unironically) supported the New Socialist issue so there is um, a but going on (he still follows me lol)

John Harris has written a review of OJ's book today.

I'm gonna regret this but here goes

Cunt

Could've told you that without reading it.

It's possible I've missed part of the social media exchange here but I'm still not making the connection between McTernan/Lemmey and Owen Jones (unless McT is just taking it as an opportunity to throw indirect shade on OJ).

That’s it exactly.

Can’t believe xyzzzzz_ revealed himself to be a melt by not softblocking John McT when he followed btw (as I did).

softblocking john mct is bad praxis, this is canon

Perhaps ILX lurker John McT could explain this for himself.

If only he'd restricted himself to lurking

If you want a remarkably straight-forward explanation of Labour's organisational aims and electoral strategy under Keir Starmer, check out Bridget Phillipson's comments at the Labour to Win conference this morning: https://t.co/hbyjz9DEUE

— Sienna Rodgers (@siennamarla) September 13, 2020

"Our language and our framing must reflect the world as our electors see it, not as how we might discuss it at a GC" & "we cannot be thought of as a party whose reaction to every problem is more spending. It’s a habit we got into, and it’s a habit we need to break"

the fiscal conservatism or "austerity lite" of Miliband Labour is back on the agenda, because it was so popular with the electorate in 2015. Tt would have been polite for this cunt to mention this was going to be the direction he'd take the party in back in Feb.

next time the exit poll drops and Labour are facing a complete annihilation, I'm going to disguise my absolute glee worse than Jess Phillips did in December.

Randox, a Northern Ireland firm, pays Tory MP Owen Paterson as a consultant. It won a £133m testing contract unopposed at the start of lockdown

It disposed of 12,401 used swabs in a single day on 2nd Sept

The firm has voided more than 35,000 used test kits since August (3/5)

— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) September 13, 2020

don’t make me tap the sign⬇️

nothing will happen

Btw, the criticisms of OJ are also coming from the left.

"The actual existential danger to Labour’s left is resignation and disengagement" not failing to engage constructively with the leadership argues Nicky Hutchinson. https://t.co/NIMbBeH1Dn

— New Socialist (@NewSocialistUK) September 11, 2020

I’m wondering which MP is ‘Nicky Hutchinson’ but can’t identify one off the top of my head that’s from the SCG *and* writes well.

I didn’t think that was an MP? I think Nicky Hutchinson is a general pseud the NS uses for people who are published there.

Yeah it's almost certainly a left twitter person.

lol i thought you meant "generally a pseud" on my first read.

Bizarro journalism, in which people are asked questions and then the interviewer attempts to stop them answering. pic.twitter.com/W3uagpJLb8

— barney farmer (@barneyfarmer) September 13, 2020

Urrrrrrgh I hate sympathising with the fucking blueshirts

that's one of the most despicable elements of this culture war - you end up agreeing with melts occasionally!

just spend a few hours listening to a few Times Radio shows and then follow that Today or PM on R4 and tell me what the difference is pls

only if you really despise yourself and have nothing to live for anymore I should have added!

Lol I was getting the ads for Times Radio on Facebook and that was enough thanks

they use the same cast of dismal melts for *balance* on Times Radio, but the difference is they let people slag off the current Tory govt without interruption or as Marr would have it with impartiality!

when I was dying in bed of the 2010 swine flu once I fumbled about with the radio and became hostage to Talk Sport for a few hours. I was too fatigued to get up and change channels - that was a similar experience to me with Times Radio today with a severe hangover.

but listening to it is becoming a habit I'm noting with some concern!

Shortly after it launched I asked my "smart" speaker to play Times Radio and it played Radio X

One is a bunch of arrogant cunts stuck in the past etc

One of the Times Radio ads was about their presenters's favourite albums, that was enough without factoring in the politics

Are literally all of you listening to Times Radio? I don't even know what to make of this thread any more.

I don't want to know about Tom Newton Dumb's fave albums, although would like to hear him talking 'bout what it is like to lick Murdoch's boot polish for fifty guineas but be cursed forever!

I don't even know what to make of this thread any more.

"know your enemy" but everybody's the enemy

I put it on one day on the portable DAB to hear Hunter Davies doing his tiresome repertoire of Paul McCartney anecdotes and I was just completely hooked!

Does it have segments that are just people sitting around talking about cookery or travel or sport or whatever because you would usually trust Tory broadsheets to do that shit better than the Guardian but I couldn't for the life of me imagine wanting to listen to David Aaronovich sitting about talking politics with Hugo Whathisname.

Where is the lie

International law is a ‘political construct’ and breaking it is ‘routine’, Tory MP says https://t.co/Qvdy5XeHzU

— Jon Stone (@joncstone) September 14, 2020

Are literally all of you listening to Times Radio?

Nope. I attempted to put it on once to see where it was on the Talk/LBC/R4 scale and ended up on an indie landfill channel instead. For 5 seconds.

One of the kids in my son's year 9 tests positive over the weekend. The school tries to contact Public Health England to ensure they track and trace correctly. They CAN'T GET THROUGH to Public Health England, and today have had to send the whole year home.https://t.co/1PYTXcS9C1

— David Allison (@DavidHAllison) September 14, 2020

I suspect things like this are happening all over the country right now. Absolute shitshow doesn't even begin to cover it.

I wonder what proportion of the Cabinet would privately admit even to themselves that they are in way way way over their head and fundamentally not capable of doing their jobs.

What portion of the Cabinet's idea of "doing their job" would coincide with yours or mine?

i always hold to the "Tories know what they're doing" line as far as economic destruction is concerned but this is somewhat different, one of the unpleasant side jobs of governing a country is supposed to be dealing with shit like this and much as they don't really care they *are* also really incompetent to do that

New. @Keir_Starmer is self-isolating for Covid. Spokesman:
“This morning Keir Starmer was advised to self isolate after a member of his household showed possible symptoms of the coronavirus...

— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) September 14, 2020

god speed comrade rona

No ifs, no buts!