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

I was talking to my son's teacher, he's my new best friend because I found out he not only hates tories but also isn't impressed with Starmer either or with his much vaunted forensic abilities.

like this morning I heard Ayesha Hazarika very much overstressing the utter brilliance of that forensic PMQ gotcha where Starmer asks why did the Rona deaths/infection rate comparison charts with other countries disappear from their daily bulletins. Wow you should hear him talking to Ocado customer services, he manages to get his name and address correct and speaks in such a concise manner that call centre staff have been known to applaud him.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/17/as-public-confidence-in-the-government-tumbles-the-coronavirus-truce-is-over

Don't usually like linking to Andrew Rawnsley but MPs do actually talk to him and this stuff was interesting:

Even generally loyal Conservatives have become deeply disturbed by the unenviably high toll of fatalities. “Do you know how many people have died in Hong Kong? Four! Just four!” exclaims one senior Tory. “People are waking up to the fact that Britain has done really woefully.”

It is now taken as given that there will be the mother of all public inquiries when this is finally over. Key players at the centre of events are writing private records of who did what when and who failed to do what when. One senior official tells me: “We are all keeping notes.”...

Cabinet ministers are letting it be known that they are furious about the lack of prior consultation by Downing Street before it makes key announcements. Tory MPs joined the ridicule of the prime minister’s confused and confusing broadcast. When it was over, one former cabinet minister turned to his wife and said: “What has he just said? What did that mean?” Two-thirds of the public agree that the government’s new rules are not clear. Another former cabinet minister says: “Boris has had his worst week of the crisis. He lost control of the messaging.” I’m told that a WhatsApp group used by about 250 Conservative MPs seethes with “sulphurous feelings” towards the cabinet.

Barring a sudden onset of competence, this is going to end in a gigantic clusterfuck of finger-pointing, blame-shifting and backstabbing among senior Tories.

you love to see it, even while accepting it won't make any difference

I have a feeling that the broadcast last weekend is going to go down in history as a disaster on almost every level - politically, medically, scientifically, economically, morally. Hard to see any level on which it succeeded unless the aim was to sow confusion from the outset.

He's a cock but that Matt Lucas video that did the rounds this week has probably done the government more damage than anything Starmer has managed up until now.

oh god that Matt Lucas is a war criminal on so many levels I couldn't watch it

Given the revolt against Johnson’s “plan” from the regions as well as the nations, it feels a little like his authority has shrunk back to the size of London.

The video isn't even any good but the point is that it resonated. People have given up months of their lives because of a belief it would be worth it in the end, any sense that it's being squandered, that the UK might end up prolonging this crisis, is going to stoke rage and distrust.

I mean just look at the way the UK races up the bar chart here.

That Jenny Harries is an absolute disgrace with the things she’s saying. I have friends messaging me from Portugal and at home going what the fuck is going on there???? Just fucking insane every single day.

i didn't know there was a Matt Lucas video i'm socially distancing from the nation's favourite faces

at least he hasn't performed a hostile takeover of the entire kid's book industry like his erstwhile partner in warcrime

I'm actually envious of anyone who hasn't received it at least three or four times on various WhatsApp groups.

at least he hasn't performed a hostile takeover of the entire kid's book industry like his erstwhile partner in warcrime

ah right, i've yet to enter the world of WhatsApp and i dunno my Facebook circle is mostly on...other issues

I don't even have a television Facebook circle, they call me the desolate one. i'm to very offline desolation what starmer is to forensicness!

i know! imagine my surprise when i discovered you on that other social media site

I'm just doing my bit to make twitter even worse!

i enjoy Twitter, it's the newsfeed we deserve

I lol hard at some bad stuff on twitter. The other day i lost a follower (and I don't have many so it's quite easy to notice!) for liking a sicko Ian Huntley/NHS clapping joke, that probably wasn't that funny but it cracked me up at the time.

maybe it's just my imagination but after a walk to the shops i'd say socially distancing is dying on its arse, it was almost as if people had got the idea it didn't matter any more

Labour's Sir Keir Starmer calls for 'four-nation' approach on coronavirus and lockdown https://t.co/wI4Tg0lObI

— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) May 17, 2020

well yeah which begs the question why the fuck would Scotland + miscellaneous others want to get their c-19 guidance from a govt that has fucked it up worse than anywhere else in the world and whose messaging has been chaotic, inconsistent and dangerous? Kier might have used up all his forensicness on that utterly brilliant question he asked last week.

maybe it's just my imagination but after a walk to the shops i'd say socially distancing is dying on its arse, it was almost as if people had got the idea it didn't matter any more

Just been to the shops myself and it's not just your imagination.

I saw people having a big multi-generational picnic in the park yesterday. This is the crappiest excuse for a lockdown in Europe and it's down to the garbled contradictory messaging coming from the Westminster govt.

What percentage of people are wearing masks?

Portugal seems to be 100% in shops/buses, 60% on street but declining as its getting warmer, and 0% in parks

yeah, it was notably busier out yesterday (much more traffic on the roads too) and not even that nice a day so it wasn't that

I'd put it at 5% max ime

this is probably the worst possible moment to go out to the supermarket, isn't it?

like if the rate isn't going down and people are behaving like this we are in for some awful shit in a week or two

What percentage of people are wearing masks?

At the 'peak' of the lockdown, no more than 15%, now 5% seems more like it.

You've got remember that, at least, where I am, not even supermarket staff were wearing masks or gloves, for the most part.

this is probably the worst possible moment to go out to the supermarket, isn't it?

It's more and more obvious that the UK government likely doesn't know what they need to do, and certainly true that they don't give a shit. If a lot of dumbo morons have got the message that "Boris says it's OK to go out now", then that'll drive a second wave of infections. Basically, we're on our own. All any of us can do is stay inside and make our own lockdown protocols - which might not be easy if the financial support net, pitiful though it is, gets pulled out from under us.

tl:dr: lol we're all gonna die. Again.

yeah i wouldn't have gone today if i hadn't needed to

haven't got a mask at the moment tho so more fool me

well yeah which begs the question why the fuck would Scotland + miscellaneous others want to get their c-19 guidance from a govt that has fucked it up worse than anywhere else in the world and whose messaging has been chaotic, inconsistent and dangerous? Kier might have used up all his forensicness on that utterly brilliant question he asked last week.

He knows full well the other nations aren't going to take advice from Johnson, its about making it look like Boris has lost control of the situation, which has the advantage of being true.

he's barely got control of England at this point

I have a suspicion that Johnson is more worried about Sturgeon than Starmer right now because if the number of cases and daily deaths starts rising in England while continuing to go down in Scotland he's going to find it next to impossible to defend the government's approach.

I think people near me have behaved pretty badly wrt social distancing. Practically having to run away from people to maintain 2m buffer, stepping into the street to avoid people marching down the centre of the footpath, joggers appearing behind me breathing down my neck. I suspect the part of town I live in has a higher than average number of complacent, entitled young people but I've also witnessed plenty of noxious middle-aged men getting in people's faces to make a point. OF COURSE, there will always be pricks and so the ambiguity of messaging has meant that it is next to useless. Its obviously not just a case of people having "common sense" and this self determinist language that the right wing press is vox popping out of white van guys is, as it always is, extremely limited. If there are clear rules I can refer to them to get other people to stop breathing on me, but without I have to rely on not being surrounded by entitled sociopaths (I live in London :-/). It doesn't help that we are in a constant state of being focus grouped. It's amazing that it's possible for the conservative party to convince the public at large that Corbyn did 9/11 but not to conduct conversations from either side of the exit door of the mini supermarket.

Ancedotally London overall didn't seem too awful at lockdown, at least initially. Perhaps because it was worst hit and it had more sense of being an immediate threat.

NEW: great story from @alekswis & @BillyEhrenberg shows Britons sharply reduced activity during early phase of lockdown (and indeed pre-empted govt reccs), but in recent weeks activity levels have been rising

Data: @huqindustries / @CASAUCL

Story: https://t.co/VACfoGTzGh pic.twitter.com/e4pqeqwjxM

— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) May 13, 2020

classic edinburgh

well there it is in black and white red and blue

90 percent Johnson's fault, no doubt in my mind

Portugal seems to be 100% in shops/buses, 60% on street but declining as its getting warmer, and 0% in parks

This surely down to it being illegal to go into a shop without a mask? Which I'm iffy about - good idea in places where the councils provide masks, less cool where ppl are left to make/buy their own.

Here in Stokey I'd say it's one in ten.

fOuR nAtIoN 🤪

classic edinburgh

What was that about entitled wankers?

four nation barmy

seems familiar
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/17/labour-to-plan-green-economic-rescue-from-coronavirus-crisis

sounds great tbh

This surely down to it being illegal to go into a shop without a mask? Which I'm iffy about - good idea in places where the councils provide masks, less cool where ppl are left to make/buy their own.

Yeah thats definitely the reason, though the percentage was creeping up quite a bit before they made that the case. Felt like 60%+ before they made it mandatory

It is way too busy out there and I’m not seeing much alertness, everyone’s just given up afaics. That’s the good old blitz spirit!

the ol’ blitz spirit, where people turned on all their house lights and stood in the street waiting to take a v2 rocket on the chin so the economy wouldn’t collapse

There's more than one London - mine's looked a lot like what plax is describing, all along.