Free as a Dodo: UK Politics Welcomes 2021

Hate it when ilx starts codding

Always enjoy a whole flurry of “ministers are considering” stories floating covid control measures we should have had since the start, best part is they’re not gonna do any of this shit are they lol

floating covid control measures to be introduced due to inadequate flood defences in manchester

come on, be fair, they will likely adopt new measures long after they would make any difference to the current state of affairs, like how they've only just tightened international travel restrictions nearly a year after the pandemic started and killed 100,000 people in britain

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/21/ministers-ponder-paying-500-to-all-with-covid-in-england

how much is the new playstation?

Interesting the "should we pay folk who are clearly at it" story gets floated on the same day as "400 people attend secret wedding" story

xp whatever the scalping cunts on ebay are demanding, currently

I’d be surprised if they went ahead with that, the very possibility that someone might claim a poxy £500 who wasn’t “entitled” to it is so horrifying to them that they would rather deny support to people who actually have the virus just in case, and the great British public probably with them on this

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/21/johnson-raises-fears-of-covid-lockdown-in-england-continuing-into-summertime

While the vast majority of Tory MPs have toed the line since the new variant of the virus sent cases soaring, Downing Street’s reticence is already causing anxiety among a few backbenchers, who are urging an easing of the restrictions if vaccination rates stay on target.

Here we fucking go, the 1922 Committee making sure the pandemic rages into 2022 by herding the populace into the grave in their thousands.

Probably too much to hope the 1922 lads are antivaxxers who were born then?

They have to celebrate next year's centenary somehow.

is it awful of me to regret that probably not a single one of these fuckers is going to die from this thing?

awful of you to conjure the picture of them not dying

1401 dead today, UK now the 6th worst in the world for total deaths per population.

more content from an upcoming briefing being leaked by bobby pesto is it

The government's New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (or Nervtag) has concluded that the new Covid-19 strain may be a bit more lethal than the existing strain. I've spoken to the influential Nervtag member, Prof Neil Ferguson (@neil_ferguson)...

— Robert Peston (@Peston) January 22, 2021

The new variant is especially dangerous for people who spend long hours on latest generation games consoles. Just following the science.

Of course it "may" be more lethal ("some evidence") but in any event if forced to better support people isolating they'll find it impossible to resist doing messaging to disuade teens from having presumed rona parties.

From that Twitter thread - how and why are only 25% of those who go on to die with it getting pillar 2 tests before being hospitalised? Are they not getting the main 3 symptoms, are they unable to test for some reason, or don't want to do to lack of support for isolating? or just putting it off/too dozy/selfish to realise it might be an idea to test (a la someone in my family)?

It seems a bizarre stat and obviously not having a confirmed positive test they're unlikely to have been isolating?

yes x3. not everyone can get a test so easily

while I can believe this strain could be more deadly I can’t believe that won’t become the all purpose excuse now for an inexcusable death toll (i.e. more tory eugenics)

don't want to do to lack of support for isolating is a known issue that there is no will to do anything about

It’s interesting to note that other countries (Ireland eg) list shortness of breath on top of the 3 “main symptoms” we have as criteria for getting a covid test

We have a huge lack of capacity in Ireland, health service has been a disgrace probably as long as I’ve been alive

Going to hazard a guess too that the strain’s mortality rate might be related to the tens of thousands of NHS workers off sick or self isolating atm

and unprecedented increased burden on the remaining hospital resources

yep

i'm not gonna conspiracize about the reaction to the "£500 to isolate" story because i'm not following much and it's not worth following but i'd like to note that ime the gammons are fucking foaming about it and it's doing satan's work in destroying the notion of financial support as a means of encouraging lockdown measures

when it gets to 2000 deaths a day Pat Valiance will be saying you have to batten up your doors cos this new Rona variant can shape itself like a key and unlock them.

Earlier I was walking past the local rugby clubhouse and although it was blacked out there was the sound of music and pissed up noise. Do I get a PS5 for grassing them up to the pigs I was briefly thinking, because in their war against dog shit they put poisoned food around the rugby pitch and my dog got very ill once. Right bunch of thugs and knaves - I would grass them up if I wasn't so strongly driven by the no grassing rule from the pickpocket regs.

I just turned on the radio and was thinking is that Bernie I can hear and forgot his brother Larry is in the UK Green Party. Lammy talking bollox as usual, he seems to think the British Empire went to war with Nazi Germany because they didn't like the way they were treating minorities.

There might be some truth in this claim (or not). Case fatality rates in the UK over recent weeks may be compatible with infection with B 1.1.7 being associated to a marginally worse outcome, but this could equally be explained by strained ICUs, seasonality or whatnot.
1/ https://t.co/ozKVSFg5SH

— Prof Francois Balloux (@BallouxFrancois) January 22, 2021

Never mind the Balloux though.

Do I get a PS5 for grassing them up to the pigs

See you could have mentioned it to one of the local curtain-twitchers and got them to do the dirty work, nowt to do with me squire you could tell the rugger buggers

but first I'd get counsel over who gets the console

lol that is bad, but it still made me laugh

My dog growled at Laura Kuensburg on our daily walk today, can I get a ps5?

You need to claw a kuensberg for that

I’ve been training him too well. Maybe if she went near his tennis ball.

"I'll put my dog on the lead when you stop spinning propagandist lies straight from CCHQ during a G E ... ok?"

Not ocnvinced it was the dog that growled at her.

according to Private Eye the only reason LK gets so much shit from lefties is because of her gender, so perhaps hoy hoy's labradoodle is a bloody disgraceful misogynist that needs running off this message board

just throw a ball into reddit

Nick Robinson got tons of shit too, gotta love imperial feminists weaponising being criticised.

see also: Suzanne Moore

Kenneth Branagh to play U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Sky Original drama This Sceptred Isle

The five-part drama will chart the events surrounding the U.K. Prime Minister, the government, and the country in the face of the first wave of the global pandemic.

goddamn everyone involved with this project to hell, oh sorry I forgot we are already there

Maybe he'll be portrayed as a cunt

will they show his domestic violence that everyone pretends to have forgotten

who’s playing starmer? will jezza be in it too?

Will it be one of those novelty pornos like Who's Nailin' Palin or something?

Michael Winterbottom has co-wrote it, that's all you really need to know

Nobody’s forgotten it but the victims and witnesses won’t stand up the story. They’ve been approached multiple times.

So it will be one of those novelty pornos like 9 songs xp

Xp lol yeah i bet they've been approached