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

The Russian oligarch and major Tory donor Sky interviewed earlier certainly thinks the peak is passed - get the proles back to work (or the Tory Party is getting no more money from me).

JUst reading word taht what counts as a test having been carried out has changed from being a swab waiting to be analysed to a test being sent out to an individual now to a test being sent out to distribution centre. Nice way to massage numbers.

I thought the Guardian headline this morning about being past the peak might be a little premature just from who it was attributed to

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/may/01/uk-government-faces-legal-challenge-coronavirus-lockdown-businessman-simon-dolan?CMP

Absolutely fuck this guy.

Seems like an intelligent caring guy

sky news just wiping the floor w the bbc lately. the latter reduced to rephrasing govt statements then appending a “some claim that (x)” rejoinder. on sky rn i’m watching a 20-minute report on makeshift morgues and mass graves in new york, ride-alongs with hearse drivers, amazing stuff tbqh.

now they’ve moved on to louisiana and talking about the disparity in outcomes for black americans. whole thing’s an hour i think. called “coronavirus: america’s reckoning”

stunned that someone who wrote a book called How to Make Millions Without a Degree is a raging bellend

and right at the end of the article...lives in Monaco

DT Mike Gapes: RT The Independent Group for Change: Read the letter from Anna Soubry MP Chris Leslie Ann Coffey Mike Gapes Joan Ryan MP here ◽ https://t.co/lNjuHFjvtF https://t.co/mktUOtWSU5

— Tweets MPs Delete (@deletedbyMPs) May 1, 2020

DT Chris Leslie: RT The Independent Group: Today, seven MPs have left Labour and formed a new, Independent Group. They’re from different backgrounds but are united i… https://t.co/8p5LiTWZtz

— Tweets MPs Delete (@deletedbyMPs) May 1, 2020

whoever runs the Chuka, Gapesy, Chris Leslie etc twitter accounts are doing a bit of spring cleaning today and deleting all their year old + highly embarrassing tweets relating to the brief existence of CuK

They'll always have Nandos

and there is probably a thousand screenshots out there of all the most nauseating twitter content from the hilarious peak-hubris period of the CuK timeline that will live on to embarrass them for at least another decade.

ok good piece on paramedics in NI on the 10 i must admit.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EW11_dnWAAAI81W?format=jpg&name=large

I can't believe five dangerous radical infiltrators who work for the NHS actually despise Tories and the lefty BBC gave them a platform to criticise the UK govt when they are doing such a cracking job of dealing with this pandemic.

The Russian oligarch and major Tory donor Sky interviewed earlier certainly thinks the peak is passed - get the proles back to work (or the Tory Party is getting no more money from me).

― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Friday, 1 May 2020 bookmarkflaglink

He has his wish.

Guess they’ve published that exit plan. pic.twitter.com/jchzPB6aB1

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) May 1, 2020

Anyway I'm sure lockdown will be unpopular and people will go on as normal, spending like crazy on those sky subs to get to +20 GDP in q3.

big red line go down, virus less deadly now, i am very smart

Is there a bank holiday weekend in the UK too? I assume Mayday has been a traditional holiday there and may be why Ireland has one.
Anyway. Is this going to be the first one ever when people all stay home in droves.

Cos otherwise think things might not go as planned. & everything must go as tories planned mustn't it.
Can you have a revolution and keep social distancing.

See what can be achieved when you have a functioning opposition keeping the conversation about ending the lock-down and taking some pressure of the billionaire tory donors who want the same thing.

In the uk the May Day holiday has been moved to a Friday for reasons (nth anniversary of VE Day) although it’s been quite badly publicised, which would be quite annoying if anything were still going on

In any case the first bank holiday ever where ppl stayed home in droves was... the 4-day Easter weekend we just had a few weeks ago

I was talking about Mayday and being a bit sarcastic since I bet there are going to be a lot of hotspots this weekend if the weather stays as good as it looks outside. Rain has just been a couple of showers when it has happened.
So expecting a resurgence in a couple of weeks.

Bank holiday Friday doesn't sound great.

I've been a workshy layabout for so long now that bank holidays long since lost any significance to me. When I was self-employed they used to be a pain in the arse when I wasn't making enough money and didn't get paid for them. I forget that normal people like to do stuff on bank holidays!

there's a spring bank holiday at the end of the may as well (in england anyway). the 26th, in that "article", is the tuesday after BH Monday.

Fair play. Great leadership. https://t.co/4zJgrSeF4j

— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) May 1, 2020

If by 'exceeding' he means 'counting tests we haven't even sent out yet' then fair play indeed.

tom thinks falsely inflating figures by posting 40000 tests out is great leadership? even The Mail are calling bullshit on that manoeuvre.

Intending to post

another cunt who wandered into the Labour party by mistake except he was like this at age 20

London’s Nightingale Hospital is effectively being wound down after taking no new patients.
Was it just a PR stunt?
Facilities must not be taken down. They must be use to clear huge waiting list for treatments. We must not return to huge NHS queues. https://t.co/CaMPlYYAzl

— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) May 2, 2020

more great leadership for Tom W to admire here.

we must keep this facility, which we never had the nhs manpower to properly staff to begin with, open at all costs

another testament to great leadership ..here's to Priti Patel and current UK immigration policies which are serving this country so well

The crisis has really shown up what good leadership actually looks like. The countries that are well governed appear to have got a grip on the crisis and saved thousands of lives in the process.

The UK has had the absolute opposite of good leadership and its leaders are being fawned over even as thousands of people continue to die. The only conclusion to draw is that the British, or at least English, concept of leadership is both fucked and entirely delusional.

Also I was going to say yesterday that Starmer can afford to basically ignore the Zoom controversy because no one seriously believes he's in the pocket of the Big Muslim Conspiracy but seeing today's papers apparently not.

Pretty much everything about the UK and how it sees itself is delusional.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXA5maYXgAQGAd5?format=jpg&name=medium

from the pointless letters account, lets not dwell on thousands of people dying - here is the news 63.97 million people have not died today!

The only conclusion to draw is that the British, or at least English, concept of leadership is both fucked and entirely delusional.

― Matt DC, Saturday, 2 May 2020 bookmarkflaglink

A lot of countries are backing their leaders whatever it is they are doing, and seem to be doing so for a notion of unity at a difficult time. Think a few countries in Europe have fucked up but no heads are rolling yet.

People aren't going to spend much, unemployment will be high, there could be a housing crash with a mismanaged easing of the lockdown. Plenty of time for people to turn on their leaders.

At the moment deaths are rising in Sweden and some are blaming immigrants rather than the govt bad strategy.

The notion of whether our leaders will continue to popular isn't really what I was talking about (I don't think they will) it's what's hailed as "leadership" that feels particularly stupid here.

"No one saw it coming" is the best bit in that letter.

The good cops & bad cops of Haringey trying out their latest social distancing measures

We have the pleasure of 20 new recruits across the BCU who just completed their final training on street duties.

Normally they have a parade ceremony at Hendon but made do with some crackers & cheese☺️😩

We wish them every success on their new journey & stay safe. #NewRecruits pic.twitter.com/deCG4QKDUC

— MPS Haringey |#StayHomeSaveLives (@MPSHaringey) May 2, 2020

In other news, the latest Johnson sprog has been named...Wilfred?!

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7bzIQJebe-g/WT7GVwOpq3I/AAAAAAAAUtA/d7zyQBRydqIJavN9fX_kuP_SzKG6cJCbwCLcB/s400/01.png

This is Belgium.

Meanwhile in Belgium... their deputy prime minister getting to grips with the situation. pic.twitter.com/NPnelc6shd

— Laura Round (@LauraRound) May 1, 2020

Was this on here before.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-testing-figures-uk-target-criticism-hancock-a9495621.html?fbclid=IwAR0WI7Lt-0qo07uu-33wPfipHst57nHFY3BZlstV6uLuglu1awzf-waCpVw

‘we want to support the aviation industry any way we can’ says jenrick at today’s press conference

can’t wait for government to nationalise the airlines for the benefit of the nation

made the mistake of listening to 15 minutes of PM. the steady drip of stories about how capitalism can be saved asap started making me feel ill.

I don't think it would save capitalism but would like to propose an experiment to launch Wilfred into space and see if he makes a better satellite than his useless fucking dad has a PM so far.

The aviation issue is interesting. BA seems to be opposed to taking any government money (though parent company IAG has received some from Spain) and is using it as an excuse to sack staff and decrease pay / conditions. It sounds like Virgin is in serious trouble and the government has made it fairly clear it won’t help - not unreasonably, given that they’ve barely paid any tax or made a profit at any point over the last few years.

My occasional whippet Wilf objects to those idiots and their spawn, who have ruined a perfectly good dog’s name.

so sorry about that suzy. These lowlife ruin everything they touch.

not that you could ruin a beautiful whippet just by name association!

The pic of Embarrassed Wilf is over on the birdie hellsite, as is the custom.