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

luv to see virus on virus violence

Parliament rising today until 21 April so last Jez PMQs at noon.

Astonishing it's still open.

The government has also updated the list of premises which are allowed to stay open to include off licenses, which is kind of the perfect encapsulation of "We will be very strict unless you don't want us to be".

On which note I can absolutely see all of this called off for a full Dead Monarch street parade.

> I don't think anybody wants a dead queen while we're stuck inside in front of the telly

it's bad enough with charles. the same 5 minute clip of him shaking hands with most of a small welsh town is currently being shown on a loop.

Charles and Camilla are 'self-isolating' - presumably just them and all their staff then?

Charles getting cv should hit the 65+ approval ratings of the handling.

fuck the Times but this could be not-shit news

Neil Ferguson of Imperial says his modelling shows that with NHS ICU surge and new national lockdown, Covid-19 demand on hospitals likely to be "within capacity"

This could work...

— Chris Smyth (@Smyth_Chris) March 25, 2020

"This" could work? The "this" that the government ineptly managed and were forced to enact totally against their will?

if you think it'll work, why not shut the fuck up about it for a little while longer so people aren't tempted to go out and start it all up again

(also full credit to nv for an incredible screen-name i've only just noticed)

aw shucks, just trying to lift the nation's spirits during this traumatic Royal family scare

Fatality estimates with lockdown now 20,000 but "it could be substantially lower than that"

— Chris Smyth (@Smyth_Chris) March 25, 2020

that's still a lot of people, and it could have been less if boris wasn't such a fumbling dipshit

just two days ago i think a doctor on the radio was saying 20k would be 'a miracle'

Too much optimism going on for my liking >:(

yeah i find it very hard to square this sudden sunny-uplands talk with the ongoing stories of vastly under-resourced nhs staff and facilities just a couple of days after the extremely loose lockdown began

also with the ucl study's prediction of ongoing periodic lockdowns for the next 18 months

it's almost as if the media narrative is desperately supportive of the government

The "this" that the government ineptly managed and were forced to enact totally against their will?

And reading between the lines I think they still want to get back to managed immunity. This time with actual testing and quarantine, tbf

critical support for comrade... julia hartley-brewer???

It is immoral and wrong for Prince Charles to have used a coronavirus test when he has only mild symptoms & they are scarce. No one else would be eligible for such a test with mild symptoms. That test could have been better used by a frontline NHS worker or supermarket worker. https://t.co/uhaKHPVzEK

— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) March 25, 2020

I was wondering how the cunt got tested

An Italian view of Britain's virus response: It's been a slow motion train crash, says @FerdiGiugliano https://t.co/8XWXFk2Pkx via @bopinion

— Jonathan Hopkin (@jrhopkin) March 25, 2020

Harley Street doing its magic for the rich and celebs as usual. The Royals have permanent medical staff and can get checked out on demand.

Twitter full of grovelling twats defending him

Crazy Dom makes a great spectre of death

They should give him the full Seventh Seal make-up, he's a natural

But Chris Whitty, the U.K.’s chief medical officer, and Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific adviser, share the blame. It is normal for politicians to dither as they try to balance different interests — above all, keeping the economy humming. But why were the official scientists not screaming from the rooftop? Did they get their advice wrong, or did they fail to speak truth to power and to the public?

fucking gallows for these cunts

If that's Whitty on the TV advert he looks like they've strung him up already

This "might just work" shite from the same people who brought you herd immunity and ramping up testing and keeping the schools open is low risk.

We're a fortnight from wishing we were Italy.

_But Chris Whitty, the U.K.’s chief medical officer, and Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific adviser, share the blame. It is normal for politicians to dither as they try to balance different interests — above all, keeping the economy humming. But why were the official scientists not screaming from the rooftop? Did they get their advice wrong, or did they fail to speak truth to power and to the public?_


fucking gallows for these cunts

It’s Iraq all over again. You get the legal or medical advice that fits whatever you were going to do in the first place.

First you get the rona, then you get the power, then you get the corpses

Thing is, even now, a complete lockdown and hoping the infection burns itself by midsummer with the minimum possible number of deaths and strain on the health service is still only going to work long-term if the UK closes its borders until the discovery of a vaccine. I'm not sure ANY country has a viable exit strategy yet, as we will probably find if and when this lets rip in China again.

Yeah magical thinking seems to be endemic

What difference is closing the borders going to make long term as long as community transmission still happens?

Corbyn’s last pmqs :( I’m going to miss him.

Community transmission would presumably be prevented to some extent by a major lockdown and the hope that the existing carriers develop immunity in the meantime. But my general point is that even the most draconian of measures don't extend much further than "lock everything down and hope for the best". Especially when there's not enough testing and what exists isn't that reliable.

Sure, but it’s other countries going to be locking their doors to the UK, rather than vice versa. Border closures don’t matter much when people aren’t doing lockdown properly.

Corbyn talking about care workers not being able to get food for their clients. Now calling out NHS staff having to ask DIY shops for PPE on twitter.

Watching Jez here too.

I'm not sure ANY country has a viable exit strategy yet, as we will probably find if and when this lets rip in China again

Yeah. I can still see why they wanted to take the herd immunity route first; it still seems like the only thing that is halfway sustainable to the end. (But also they went about it so ineptly and communicated it so awfully that I'm not sure it can saved.)

FPing Corbyn for pronouncing it “med-cins”. Johnson does too.

seems like a very fertile political moment for proponents of a UBI to get some actual, real-world traction

ironically this is probably easier with the Tories in. Doesn't bear imagining how the blue ticks would be reacting right now to a left-wing govt providing left-wing solutions to this

Med-cin is RP pronunciation.

Argh I just did an ‘ATM machine’ sorry everyone.

What a lovely day! The perfect day to drive up into the #PeakDistrict for a walk, bike ride, climb or horse ride, isn’t it?

No, actually it isn’t. pic.twitter.com/sNkgD2qSa3

— Derbyshire Police (@DerbysPolice) March 25, 2020

"Is this cool? Is THIS cool?"

Unbelievably, we’ve just had to deal with 20+ people having a BBQ!! Please listen to government advice else this will get worse and will last longer!! #RIPBBQ #COVID19 #StayHome #Foleshill #Coventry pic.twitter.com/INhXbCjd05

— Foleshill Police (@FoleshillWMP) March 24, 2020

lool pigs making an example of that burnt processed pork by using deadly force against a bbq!

Like Jesus destroying the market outside the temple.