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

i would like to hear theresa may's take

Just glanced up at the telly in time to see calz's favourite Barry Sheerman ranting away from inside a glorified broom cupboard.

I reckon a cleaner found him lying about in the House of Commons and thought, "What'll I do with this thing, oh, I'll just stick it in here for now".

poor Barry will be having to live off his MP's salary during this lockdown, some very challenging times for a director of a lobbying company!

fuckin' get his ass barry

In the Commons Labour’s Barry Sheerman, appearing via Zoom, tells Hancock that the “management and leadership of this present crisis has been shambolic”. He says the UK has lagged behind Germany and that a death toll of around 800 people (the daily figure at certain points) is equivalent to two jumbo jets crashing.

I believe it is a shambles of leadership and management. I believe we are letting down NHS staff, and they have been let down.
He also claims that NHS whistleblowers have been leant on not to tell the truth about conditions in the NHS. He goes on:

Many of us do not believe [Hancock] is telling the truth to the people of this country.
Hancock says Sheerman had misjudged his tone, and missed what the government was doing. The prime goals were to flatten the curve, and to ensure the NHS was not overwhelmed. Both of those challenges had so far been met, he says.

And he says Sheerman is wrong to say whistleblowers have been silenced.

Scary number of the day

The updating mechanism that worked best was to use the daily reports of hospital deaths of those who tested positive for Covid-19 and scale them to the community with knowlege of the proportion of people who typically die in hospital (this has ranged between 46% and 48%)

— Chris Giles (@ChrisGiles_) April 22, 2020

So if you're sick enough to be admitted you're close to 50/50 dead.
Presumably if you've any underlying conditions it's a lot worse.

(that should have been on one of the covid threads I suppose)

Depends who they're admitting in the first place, I would imagine the majority have underlying conditions? There doesn't appear to be much data on the number of people who are dying at home.

Back to politics... the first adjectives used in BBC news to describe Keir Starmer's first PMQ: courteous and polite

Her Majesty's Opposition are indeed back.

"Depends who they're admitting in the first place, I would imagine the majority have underlying conditions?"

Yes, so I'm assuming those who are admitted but don't have those conditions are the people bringing the number under 50.

melt twitter is delighted with PMQs

Ridiculous really given they'd all made their minds up days in advance, and that he was only facing Dominic Raab.

Probably going to be harder to get away with the polite and courteous thing when there are hundreds of pricks in the chamber bellowing away.

The thing is, wasn't Jezza mostly courteous and polite? Even in the face of the braying gammon collective?

melt twitter is delighted with PMQs

Has Big Dunty started writing fanfic yet?

With Corbyn courteous and polite was feeble and ineffective, with Starmer it's the second coming.

Fairly certain he came on himself by the end of this thread

Already, after just a few minutes, there's been more scrutiny - in the practical sense of the word - of the govt position than we've seen from the leader of the opposition for five years. Starmer is actually listening to the answers and then asking questions of them.

— Ian Dunt (@IanDunt) April 22, 2020

Stephen Kinnock *standing up in his own living room* to ask a question in parliament is Full Kit Wanker behaviour.

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) April 22, 2020

Lol what a dickhead

WE..lp

Welcome to the MPs who were appointed to the Women and Equalities Committee last night.

We will be announcing our future work over the next few weeks. pic.twitter.com/TEgXhxNbL6

— Women & Equalities Committee (@Commonswomequ) March 3, 2020

41,000 people dead and not a single one of them is Dunt

I'm sure the 8 million non-white people in the country will be delighted that Gibbo4Darlo was the diversity pick there xp.

Re Starmer's powerful, forensic, penetrating performance:

“yeah could you tweet something like “powerful and forensic performance by kier starmer in today’s PMQs”. like obviously not that word for word, put your own spin on it “ pic.twitter.com/pFQwaI6YCf

— jonathan nunn (@demarionunn) April 22, 2020

you would think one of them would have an ounce of shame no wait maybe you wouldn't

Sir Meltalot corrected Raab on some figures, zounds! he's like a human abacus!

Kim Johnson is black, she is just light skinned. I think a couple of members may be lgbt as well but yeah, looks terrible.

Not a dry seat in the lobby when Starmer’s at the dispatch box.

good to see ed davey looking statesmanlike in these challenging times

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/068c9af7c0dd2425685d66f93fefb6c88937acb8/144_142_3141_1885/master/3141.jpg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=51b9824f1507f0c4c049e1264c529059

at least he's wearing trousers i guess

Can someone just take a minute to Photoshop the word 'SHOOT' onto that whiteboard please?

Which MP is most likely to have set up an 'office' somehow even worse than that? I'm gonna say Mark Francois.

It's a good job Simon Danczuk isn't in Parliament right now.

Bringing this guy back for selection to own the left

https://youtu.be/078q4F1TDnY

I'm quite impressed with that setup tbh. He's got a Jabra, he's got a decent camera in eyeline, he's got his notes doc in eyeline, he's doing massively better than half my colleagues

wait why is some cunt wittering about "our nuclear deterrent" on the radio?

Wondering whether Whitty was authorised to say that social distancing will be required for the rest of 2020? It's probably true but also feels off-message - not to mention it requires the government to write an even more gigantic cheque.

Break: I am told that a very tense meeting of the executive of the Conservative backbench committee 1922 has just concluded. Every Tory MP at the meeting and every MP who dialled in expressed deep concern at the impact of the lockdown on business

— Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) April 22, 2020

go cry about it you top-hatted fucks

fuck business iirc

clap for wealth creators

English identity, civic nationalism and a compulsory civic service – @DavidLammy's St. George's Day long read: https://t.co/dz60vm3e43

— LabourList (@LabourList) April 23, 2020

I feel sorry for the Lamster when you see some of the racist replies here, but with all due respect you can shove your compulsory civic service up yer arse pal!

tbf to Lammy, and you're right racists should die, but can he not draw connections between those responses and his dream of a cuddly nationalism?

One of the most overrated politicians ever.

he most certainly doesn't make the connections, he's been quite consistently spouting such old school conservatism (discipline, nationalism, corporal punishment ..etc) for years now.

First, credibility and trust. Issues of credibility and trust started before Jeremy Corbyn, I think there were issues for *Ed Miliband and were actually issues for **Gordon Brown. Second, making sure the policy platform that Labour is presenting is chiming with the electorate.

*Jewish
**Scottish

This is really not the time to be reheating half-arsed thinkpieces from three years ago.

This kind of endless thinking aloud that Labour politicians feel impelled to do is wearying at the best of times let alone in a pandemic when no one gives a shit.

Regional controls on immigration are also a terrible idea. It doesn't look like a great deal has been learned since the Miliband era wrt how to deal with this stuff.

The timing is presumably because he has a book to hawk.

I found that whilst I obviously had a degree of familiarity with many of my London MP colleagues, actually I got on very, very well MPs representing places outside London – Slough, Reading, Dartford, and Peterborough

LOL, what a dipstick.