Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

there is, of course, a lot of this going down right now

I closed a zoo and I liked it

— Rosewood Shoehorn (@apiarism) January 3, 2021

i mean expecting the leader of the Labour Party to say anything about the largest trade union meeting ever in the UK taking place today is naive i guess

remember he is a zoo-master not a zoom-master, it's easy to get them mixed up

https://i.imgur.com/kUtg7sE.jpg

this fucking country

https://i.imgur.com/firpIyv.jpg

this is the opposition you get when you vote for Corbynism without Corbyn for all those who kept saying "why can't we just replace him with someone with nicer hair and lacking the troublesome political history baggage"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eq15GyJXUAYd6LN?format=jpg&name=large

As a black guy born and living in the UK this article makes me fear for my own destiny and for my family. Be clear these headlines are not far removed from 1930's Nazi Germany. I call on everybody to support the growth of #BlackLivesMatter to fight this in 2021 ✊🏿✊🏿 pic.twitter.com/JiisJuZImX

— Nick (@Nclarke30) January 3, 2021

THREAD - Covid-19 in England.

Things are going from very bad to much worse.

Here is where we are in 9 tweets. 1/9

— Christina Pagel (@chrischirp) January 3, 2021

Yeah...saw that yesterday...we have gone down such a bad route of just not thinking about schools that 'further restrictions' is what we might be left with.

Iggy Pop on Gibbon’s Decline and Fall is the most poignant thing I’ve read all week. https://t.co/jksAqwnpAQ pic.twitter.com/sG5aW5gN9h

— Mary Harrington (@moveincircles) January 3, 2021

Lol that is for the books board

The government has lost control of the virus. That’s why @UKLabour is calling for further restrictions to stop the spread while we roll out the vaccines and keep children learning. pic.twitter.com/GzgxzKqWr5

— Kate Green (@KateGreenSU) January 4, 2021

And 'further restrictions' will never be a curfew. Instead it will turn into a blame game where the public are turned on each other.

Kate Green go throw yourself in a skip you useless melt

"we don't think schools should close... but more closures are inevitable."

this is such a pathetic line

They won't even back the unions now.

blaming the population and saying non-essential retail needs to close before schools is just the kind of pathetic response from a non-opposition that will keep the right-wing press and the Tory party happy

and keep the Rona happy as well

was talking to someone at the school earlier and they were sounding quite flustered by the cluster-f. They already had to close some of the school early in December because of a Rona outbreak, and this is an autism school with average class sizes of 5-6.

We got a "ramping up" from Johnson this morning.
Good to revisit the classics in the week that The KLF hit Spotify.

"dither and delay" is another recent Johnson slogan that now has been repetitively adopted by Zoo-meister Flex aka Uncool Kieth

They won't even back the unions now.

apart from GMB who probably think he's too left wing!

tbf he's no Owen Smith, but he'll do for now!

Being at 0% ICU capacity means one bad car accident, one bad fall, one bad allergic reaction, etc. where you’d otherwise survive could literally kill you. 0% ICU capacity affects EVERYONE not just those who get covid

— marina (@marinara_sawce) January 3, 2021

Green's position is completely bizarre to me. Labour may think there's an angle in pretending that schools can remain open if the government follows Labour's advice (knowing that schools are going to close anyway so they will be able to say 'i told you so') but they can't even properly articulate what that advice is meant to be. Everyone from teachers to below-the-line commentators on Kent Online articles knows that, given infection rates, there's no form of national lockdown that can keep schools open safely. There's a series of open goals (failure to properly COVID-proof schools, failure to support parents expected to work while schools are shut, failure to better facilitate online learning, etc), they're missing.

All I can imagine is that Labour a) considers ever standing with unions to be part of the toxic brand they need to shake off and b) thinks overworked parents will be grateful not to have the kids at home.

These Labour right types sure do love taking executive jobs at trade unions and the party and doing fuck all to inspire members of either, don’t they?

ladies and gentlemen, I present our greatest living political satirist

This situation is dangerously out of control, and we need to pool all our resources, expertise and talent. This is a wartime situation and we need a government of National Unity now.

— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) January 4, 2021

we could just try doing _something_ first idk

i think he is joking tho right

we have a government of national unity in all but name iirc

xp don't think he is joking

In a de facto one party state each half of the party patiently waits for its turn to govern, no need for any of this gnunsense

Presumably Starmer could agree with Boris during the same press conference which really streamlines stuff

— Thursday Night LEGEND!!! (@ElRobak) January 4, 2021

When Lab had a plan

1/7 We know that the longer children are out of the classroom, the faster existing inequalities between children will widen which is why getting back to school when it is safe to do so is so important,

— Rebecca Long-Bailey (@RLong_Bailey) May 18, 2020

is the Ianucci thing serious bc it seems too real to be a joke. I know everyone is numb to this wartime rhetoric by now but it’s so awful, literally nothing is outside The War these days. seriously unwell country

Westminster Voting Intention:

CON: 43% (+6)
LAB: 38% (=)
GRN: 5% (+1)
SNP: 5% (+1)
LDM: 4% (-5)
BXP: 3% (=)

Via @DeltapollUK, 26-30 Dec.
Changes w/ 26-28 Nov.

— Election Maps UK (@ElectionMapsUK) January 4, 2021

hook it into my veins

Libs voting Tory is it

I'm guessing the 3% of BXP respondents are by extension voting for white nationalism, or the nearest thing they can get to it.

No deal truthers

british xenophobic party

I see Jeremy Hunt's repositioning himself as the saviour of the NHS now.

Scotland in full lockdown now at least for all January

that Zoo exit poll is going to be even more brutal for Kieth

And still, almost a year later, major policy announcements first to public attention via a journalist's DMs.https://t.co/ugu8GZtg3e

— Dave (@MediocreDave) January 4, 2021

im just saying zoos to myself here to keep spirits up

'zoos'