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

I make three main arguments.

First, that the cost of the economic bailout Rishi Sunack has proposed is too high. Spending that kind of money to extend the lives of a few hundred thousand mostly elderly people with underlying health problems by one or two years is a mistake.

— Toby Young (@toadmeister) March 31, 2020

I am quite impressed how no one had bought this up till now.

It popped up (like a Corden anxiety spike) on a Rona thread earlier

I already regret it tbh

LOL the cunt can't even spell Rishi Sunak's name.

god forbbid Toby Young dies in agony

so who did we all vote for in the labour leadership contest, then

starmer, obv

obv you have to vote for the man for goodness sake!

Toby Young is always stanning for eugenics and Darwinism, such an ugly bald shortarse like him ought be careful for what he wishes for.

this should fix everything

Boris Johnson’s revamped communications strategy to combat coronavirus will be run like a “political campaign” after he drafted in a new team of advisers spearheaded by his Australian former elections chief, senior sources have said.

Following criticism over mixed messages and selective briefings in recent weeks, the prime minister and his key adviser Dominic Cummings recruited Isaac Levido, 36, who ran the Tory general election campaign in December.

Having already a “grid” of communications centred on the daily press conference, the government is now looking to bring in more experienced campaigners to sharpen the message – with the aim of boosting both public health and the prime minister’s standing.

Downing Street is pushing the simple three-part message of “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” to the fore, in the same way that “Get Brexit Done” worked during the election and “Take Back Control” worked for Vote Leave.

One advantage of not going on public transport is that I don't have to hear that fuck-dumb "See it. Say it. Sorted!" bollocks any longer. Not looking forward to some new idiotic slogan blaring out at me in the supermarket (the only place anyone goes these days). Don't how they think “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” is going to work anyway, far too many syllables.

Back to Toby Young:

But if the Government does end the lockdown, and it turns out that by the time I require critical care the NHS cannot accommodate me, I won’t regret writing this

Imagine this cunt gratefully choking to death for the sake of the economy, he'll change his tune right enough mark my words.

> "See it. Say it. Sorted!"

the worst thing about this is the way that the sentence before ends "we'll sort it" so the whole thing sounds like "Sort It, See It, Say It, Sorted."

xp

very brave and noble of Toby, but the odds are probably very much in his favour that he won't need critical care,
at least not unless somebody pushes him in front of a bus or smashes him in the head with a steel lump hammer!

At this difficult time I'm willing to sacrifice Toby Young for the greater good.

Also at other, less difficult times.

pic.twitter.com/o0zG77X7DW

— Andrew R (@ExcelPope) March 31, 2020

It’s back!

WORLD CUP OF STUPID CENTRIST HACKS - ROUND OF 16 - MATCH 1

— World Cup of Stupid Centrist Hacks (@centristhacks) March 31, 2020

feel like Lauea K is overrated tbh

Voted Cohen because he has the audacity to pretend he's on the left, plus he hijacks some actual problems of anti-semitism in the left and makes them All About Him. Kuenssberg is terrible but also not fooling anyone, imo.

xpost

there's a lot of debate about stupid vs montstrous in that whole competitiom tbf

Voted Cohen because he’s a sad old lech. Although it did make my day/GE 2019?when he tried to fact-check me in a snotty way on a mutual’s FB thread:

Suzy: ugh I hate Andrew Neil, he gives money to Holocaust denying scum...
NC: He wasn’t the editor during the Hitler Diaries, you silly girl
Suzy: Idiot, these were Goebbels’ diaries and he paid David Irving six figs to translate them... how is that not enabling an antisemite?
NC: Waaaaaaah! I’m not owned!

so who did we all vote for in the labour leadership contest, then

― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Tuesday, 31 March 2020 bookmarkflaglink

RLB till I die.

yeah but who after you've died?!

pushing the little button i felt a weird little glimmer of hope. when will i ever fucking learn.

This is horrible.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/31/uk-care-home-staff-at-breaking-point-as-coronavirus-cases-rise

Boy, 13, with no underlying health conditions dies in London after testing positive for coronavirus, Kings College Hospital confirm. https://t.co/1CYJUiELHR

— Dawn Foster (@DawnHFoster) March 31, 2020

the real face of herd immunity

Owen Hatherley makes an interesting point on Juliet Jacques podcast that Starmer may need to to keep some of the Labour left around as they’re the only ones coming up with ideas and that a lot of the party’s greatest successes, in terms of concrete lasting institutions like the NHS and OU, were discrete projects given to left-wingers like Bevan and Lee by leaders to the right of them, which might be overly optimistic but we’ll see.

i'd err towards overly optimistic in this case, not trying be rude but just have zero faith in Starmer keeping any Labour left about who actually give a fuck about humanity rather his mysterious sponsors.

The Tory immigration system: "Go Back Home" - after you've risked your lives to save 'ours' https://t.co/da1WoOXqA6

— Maya Goodfellow (@MayaGoodfellow) March 31, 2020

literally not a joke and a joke at the same time.

why do Jacob Reese-Mogg and his nanny look like they're about to drop the finest synth-pop banger of 1982? pic.twitter.com/l3aHv1N1Vg

— elevator muzhik (@elevator_muzhik) March 31, 2020

Trump doing more opposition than the Lab party:

Trump is now also talking about the UK and herd immunity: “If you remember they were looking at that in the UK and all of a sudden they went hard the other way because they started seeing things that weren’t good. They put themselves in a little bit of a problem.”

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) March 31, 2020

I absolutely hate agreeing with Trump, not that the fucker has a leg up stand on.

even a fascist crank like Trump sees that Herd Immunity is just callous inaction dressed up as a strategy that won't work out well for anybody, not that he's done much better himself tbf!

i was gonna say "the cunt doesn't even know what day it is" but then i realised i don't know what day it is

at the time we were on the herd immunity track trump was allowing flights from the uk to the us but not the rest of the eu because he thought boris was doing a great job

Trump doing more opposition than the Lab party

I know this is tongue in cheek but otherwise its such a classic Dan Hodges move.

Estimates from @cmmid_lshtm suggest #UKlockdown could be driving #COVID19 reproduction number below one.

But John Edmunds says they're not to be read as ‘job done’. "They should be used as motivation to keep following UK government instructions."

More 👉 https://t.co/ntBNhte1ZS pic.twitter.com/QAETWzt0pg

— London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (@LSHTM) April 1, 2020

This seems good? I don't even know any more.

not entirely convinced by the self-reporting nature of that study tbh but yeah huge if true

Nothing is good any more just more Tories staying alive

BREAKING: Edinburgh's August festivals confirm they're postponed, for the first time in over 70 years #coronavirusuk

— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) April 1, 2020

best news I heard since Corden's anxiety attacks!

Bingo

Didn't know Corden had panic attacks, thank you based psychology

he said he's suffering from da rona induced anxiety spikes yesterday. I take much succour from any pain or suffering he has inflicted on himself for once!

The Prince of Wales has made his first appearance since coming out of self-isolation, following his coronavirus diagnosis, to record a video message in support of Age UK in response to the health crisis.

Charles, who is patron of Age UK, said in the footage posted on royal social media accounts: “Having recently gone through the process of contracting this coronavirus - luckily with relatively mild symptoms - I now find myself on the other side of the illness, but still in no less a state of social distance and general isolation.”

In the message, recorded on Tuesday morning by staff at Birkhall, the prince’s home in Scotland

anything's better than posh isolation...

Somebody released the wallabies from East Park in Hull last night and they're running around a council estate apparently 😅

it would feel pretty good to bellow RELEASE THE WALLABIES! into the night you have to admit

I wish I'd thought of it. On the other hand, I don't really remember most of yesterday evening.

563 addtional uk deaths in the last 24 hrs if i'm reading the numbers correctly

Among hospitalised patients - that won't cover the care homes, presumably?