Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

no shit. at this rate, the coronavirus crises will consume boris johnson's entire premiership

is it still a premiership if there's no country left?

think some of the deaths are backlog from Scotland not reporting - i avoid "date reported" numbers especially at the moment.

Wonder if a lot of businesses that were funded last time and have been on edge all year will now go:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jan/05/hospitality-sector-unimpressed-with-sunaks-lockdown-grant

Remarkable data from the ONS just published which shows that they think just over 2% of the population in England had Covid-19 in the week to January 2nd.

That's 1 in 50, potentially as high as 1 in 45. pic.twitter.com/1GW5PUZXka

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) January 5, 2021

over 1 person for every two school classes then

Lol so the question is when were these fuckers shown the figures that they had to announce lockdown a day into the new school term?

Really if it wasn't for unions just basically saying enough is enough we would not be here today. Or so it seems like it xp

going back to the old herd immunity tactic by the back door or something?

it seems very unlikely that Johnson or Kieth would have shifted on schools without the union pressure, yep

should start a union affiliated political party, that would be a good idea wouldn't it?

pippa crerar was told the london figure on saturday apparently, not that she reported it or anything

going back to the old herd immunity tactic by the back door or something?

― Fenners' Pen (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 5 January 2021 bookmarkflaglink

The government aren't in control of the situation beyond printing money and doing as little distribution of it as possible.

talking of printing money...

Somehow the Royal Mint giving four legs to a famously three-legged monster sums up the current state of Britain far better than even a dozen shambling performances from the PM. pic.twitter.com/qXzHp2cMUH

— J Courtenay Grimwood (@JonCG) January 5, 2021

extra legs for tripods is part of the brexit dividend iirc

lol nothing matters but at least we are all gonna die is how I break it down to an extent

And what was it that did for Wells' Martians in the end, hmm?

lol nothing matters but at least we are all gonna die is how I break it down to an extent

And what was it that did for Wells' Martians in the end, hmm?

5g wells

moderna utopia

lmao view the full pic

We are here to lift the nation’s mood 😬 on @BBCTheOneShow in a few mins! 🤗 https://t.co/hiIAEstFzn pic.twitter.com/VICMjQnJqr

— Dr Xand van Tulleken 🏳️‍🌈 (@xandvt) January 5, 2021

ok nm this worked better on Twitter where you couldn't see Keef's face until you clicked the pic

Fucking horrendous. This poor family.

Mother fears son could die as Brexit stops medical cannabis supply https://t.co/ir11auXbfV

— The Guardian (@guardian) January 5, 2021

One more.

Matt Hancock has just told MPs that nurseries are being kept open because they are private and “would otherwise go bust”.

The Health Secretary should not be making public health decisions based on private profit.

— Nadia Whittome MP (@NadiaWhittomeMP) January 5, 2021

i haven't been keeping up itt, but on the same note, sunak's per property business grant is effectively a pure siphoning of cash to landlords, and doesn't take into account the business as a business as a going concern with staff and perishable inventory etc. put in the column marked rentier capitalism for Brett Christophers (though I disagree with some of his definition). although incompetence clearly has a large part to play in much of the fiasco, it would be useful to have two columns, one marked 'incompetence' and the other 'decisions driven by rentier capitalist interests' and i'm not at all sure that most in the first column couldn't be assigned to motivations and incentives of the second.

That would still be better than this if done competently because as actual capitalists keep pointing out the best result for them isn’t a collapsed NHS either. Independence Day cartoon dot jpeg

Sunak is there for the taking - he's a lightweight in every sense of the word apart from his blown up rep. The only thing that makes him powerful is the right-wing UK media and elements within CCHQ who paint the simpering boy wonder as the next PM elect and I've not seen anyone from Labour meaningfully ripping him a new arsehole since Rebecca Long Bailey silenced him in at the televised debate in 2019. but alas what we have now is Starmer Labour, which will often do it's best to make him look even better than them.

Sir Keir Starmer calls for "round the clock" vaccinations

The Midnight Jabber!

you snooze you zoos

:p

Ha

A shot in the dark

capacity in terms of space isn't the issue. having enough people trained to do it is. no-one is going to be working 24 in a shift to do this. you might have two teams working 12 hour shifts. no reason they both can't function during the day though. this plan is fucking stupid. also can you really see the most vulnerable people getting up at three in the fucking morning to travel to some godforsaken carpark and then filling out a bunch of forms in the middle of the night? what planet is this fucking idiot on?

I can see healthcare workers who are already on shift getting jabbed at 3am, yeah. I would, too.
I would imagine physical space plays some part - there's already been talk of schools using community buildings to enable more kids to actually be in school (pre-lockdown). But yes like every other problem we are facing, having enough trained people available is going to be a bottleneck.

Sir Keir Starmer calls for "round the clock" vaccinations

See You Later, Vaccinator

well obviously vaccinating healthcare workers during their work hours makes perfect sense and i assume that managers would already plan that. if that's what starmer is calling for, it's hardly worth him raising the issue xp

It's hardly worth him raising his head off the pillow in the morning tbf.

he's probably just calling for something the tories already started last week, that's how this knighted melt rolls.

Isn’t 24/7 vaccination what Israel is doing? Not that he’s not still hopeless, but I can’t see how having 24hr availability is a bad thing in itself.

Working 24hrs isn't going to make any more trained staff available or any more vaccine available. If it's just needing a physical space to do it, there are thousands of empty buildings right across the country right now. Not sure what Israel is up to though

it wouldn't be a bad thing if the NHS was adequately funded beyond the kind of meaningless lip service that Starmer Labour does, but the current message is: Labour spent too much in the past

i haven't been keeping up itt, but on the same note, sunak's per property business grant is effectively a pure siphoning of cash to landlords, and doesn't take into account the business as a business as a going concern with staff and perishable inventory etc. put in the column marked rentier capitalism for Brett Christophers (though I disagree with some of his definition). although incompetence clearly has a large part to play in much of the fiasco, it would be useful to have two columns, one marked 'incompetence' and the other 'decisions driven by rentier capitalist interests' and i'm not at all sure that most in the first column couldn't be assigned to motivations and incentives of the second.

― Fizzles, Tuesday, 5 January 2021 21:58 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I was trying to do an hmrc calculator to see what I would be entitled to (Towr Hamlets as a council usually take a couple weeks to be assigned the money and what to do with it) and am in the bracket where my shop pays between £15000-£51000 in rates a year. We pay £16000. That seemingly entitles us to £2k a month. Our rent is £2500 a month. I’m emailing the landlord, who we have 5 months left with, in the morning to essentially say “lol” if they want the extra £500, and kinda assume their nick it from our initial deposit. Fuck knows how much rent arrears people who pay £49000 a year in rates will be in.

I presume they've made a calculated decision that businesses accruing huge rent arrears or going into liquidation is the lesser evil than disrupting the rent income of their precious rentier friends. Or maybe they just don't know what they are doing and are haphazardly making this up as they go along.

Toby Young and Ian Dunt on Newsnight look like a pair of disgruntled testicles: pic.twitter.com/hERS7zGYlx

— Paul O'Connell (@pmpoc) January 5, 2021

Unfair to bollocks imo

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eq9NsbmWMAEIlAG?format=jpg&name=900x900

perhaps not a serious and intelligent enough person to be given a platform on national television at the time of a new lockdown or have they got van the man and ian brown on next week

Clapping for the NHS is apparently making a comeback as Clap for Heroes so all's well.

I only clap for cowards

Extended to clap for all heroes ftr. I've been told that I'm learning to be a real hero a lot in this Yakuza game I'm playing...

Oh are you playing Like a Dragon too? I am about halfway through but haven’t picked it up for a few weeks cos work/Christmas.