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

I picked raspberries, tomatoes, stick beans during the summer holidays when I was at school/uni. it's hard work and the pay is shit. picking beans paid a bit better for some reason, it was done by weight but so were raspberries, whereas tomatoes was just an hourly rate, but I expect this depends on the farm.

Nice little disclaimer at the bottom of that Pick for Britain site: "Pick for Britain and AHDB have no responsibility and/or liability whatsoever for any third party’s obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015."

the worst farming job I did I think was planting potatoes, fuck that killed my back and I only did it for a few days

But of course:

1. No criminal investigation into Arcuri-Johnson relationship - but interesting findings in the official report nonetheless ....

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) May 21, 2020

Nice little disclaimer at the bottom of that Pick for Britain site

when i saw this Tweeted last night i thought it was some kind of joke that i wasn't quite parsing

So bizarre that there are actually people out there who think Laura K is biased against the government.

i saw that and had to doublecheck he wasn't taking the piss and now i want some people to die

in my Parisian neighborhood, largely African and South Asian, most people are wearing masks. That was true even during the lockdown, when I didn't know where they were getting them! Now they're readily available in pharmacies and, from what I've read, many stores sell them as you enter if you're not already equipped. (I'm still just reporting from what I see outside, as I haven't left yet since the lockdown began.)

I'm probably repeating myself but back in the early 90's there was a minimum wage for agricultural workers of £3.83 ph with some bennies but not much to write home about! It might sound shit but before the '98 minimum wage act there were employers still paying rates like £2.70 -3.20 ph for some absolute shit jobs like packing fucking Trill or cleaning card clothing machinery with oily rags.

Newspaper circulation predictably down:

Newspaper print circulations in April vs in March
Daily Mail: 944,981 (1.13m)
Express: 234,373 (289,393)
Mirror: 363,082 (442,610)
Star: 219,275 (276,453)
i paper: 134,553 (215,640)
Guardian: 106,003 (129,961)
FT: 88,756 (146,373)

(Telegraph, Sun, Times, too scared to publish.)

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) May 21, 2020

Slightly surprised that they’re not much lower.

14 million daily twitter users in the UK

hm that's monthly i think actually

battle for labour continues apace https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52742562

At this stage online figures are probably a better guide to a newspaper's influence and readership but the online ad market is in freefall and won't replace more lucrative print ads in any case. I wouldn't be surprised to see at least one paper fold.

The drop in the FT circulation is absolutely gigantic but that's probably down to commuter numbers and they have a subscription model that broadly works.

How has the Guardian only lost 23k? Whoever it is who is still buying the physical paper must be very attached to it.

do those circulation numbers take into account papers supplied free on UK flights? think british airways may have stopped doing the FT actually

Yep, they got the huff about a story related to their financial performance and stopped iirc.

It must be the kakuro and quick crossword in the G2 they are addicted to rather than top notch journalism

i forget where exactly you live tom but i think social practice mask-wise in my area may be somewhat skewed being so close to a large london hospital

Near the Swimmer, mark!

... not the nice houses though >:(

I just went into to town to post some of my wife's family photos and a family tree document to my brother-in-law, mainly just to get him to stop fucking pestering me about it, and pretty much nobody was wearing a mask. I took one with me but figured I'd see what other people were doing so I didn't end up wearing it. there weren't a whole lot of people in town though

The Times, stop giving politicians children column space challenge pic.twitter.com/XRgyas470K

— 'Client Journalism' Expert (@PopulismExpert) May 21, 2020

I'll pick the crops as long as rich brats like Euan Blair and Flora Gill are liquidated and used as fertiliser.

I took one with me but figured I'd see what other people were doing so I didn't end up wearing it.

I'd take a look at what people are doing in countries that don't have a raging, out-of-control pandemic sweeping through them! HK, Taiwan etc. Then do that, which is what I've been doing. Even if only 10% of Brits are like "Boris said we can do what we want now" that's still a lot of people!

Roche antibody test deal confirmed by the government.

there is a fucking ice cream van that is torturing me, it plays an industrially loud Popeye theme song and goes by the trading name of Mr Popeye. Do you likes a bit of the spinach with your rona infected mr whippy gloop? AAAHuuUUH GUhGuhGuhGuh!

xxp I'm probably a bit complacent because nobody has it where I live, and I don't care if I get it, but I don't want to infect other people so I should probably care a bit more

heard an ice cream van last night for the first time in forever, tbh if i'd got cash in the house i'd've gone for one, probly not a Whippy tho

guardian have upped their puzzle game in the saturday edition during lockdown. that said, it's half the thickness it used to be but still the same price (to the point where i'd be better off with the radiotimes probably)

"Gloves certainly seem to be a bad idea, at least for shopping"

put them on before you go inside the shop/supermarket, chuck them into the nearest bin when you leave, as long as you aren't touching your face with them I think they are good imo

The demand for puzzles must be through the roof right now tbf.

and as if by magic here's the ice cream van

Saw an ice-cream van the other day and all I could think of was that League of Gentleman episode where his nose starts bleeding all over the Mr Whippy.

In Scotland the ice cream van is often a front for drug deliveries

it's the same in lots of places but frankly as long as they've got ice cream idgaf

https://www.addtoevent.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/one_third/public/user/374299/supplier/images/d7a0c911-acce-4c20-9312-2b6aae7603c4.jpeg

Francis Rossi from yer Quo is related to this bunch, dodgy fuckers I believe

The PM has asked the Home Office and the Department for Health and Social Care to remove NHS and care workers from the NHS surcharge as soon as possible.

it's the same in lots of places but frankly as long as they've got heroin idgaf

profiles in courage xp

encouraging this mass fetishisation of an institution they are hellbent on privatising and destroying, as a distraction ploy from their own monumental incompetence is going to cause embarrassing u-turns. Until everyone get's bored with clapping.

they seem to be managing

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/04/uk-government-using-crisis-to-transfer-nhs-duties-to-private-sector

I'd sort of missed that it's a Bank Holiday on Monday (face it, a day is a day right now) and that's going to be an absolute clusterfuck if the weather stays this good.

In solemn memorium of the terrible events of May 2020, the Mayday bank holiday will be cancelled henceforth.

A good thread on how isolation has been out of the conversation, as a thing.

This is a really good thread, thanks for it, xyzzzz__

forecast is for a bit of a cooling off but still

i keep remembering and forgetting it's a bank holiday

bg otm re smack

I noticed at the start of the lockdown a lot of local heroin users were in disarray and hanging around fields to score on a regular basis. But that was obv just some nervous dealer teething problems that have been sorted now.

we could all learn a lot from those bold entrepreneurs

I keep hearing how construction is often lumped with outdoor work, the other day Varadkar said housebuilding is essentially outdoor work. That is so wrong, and to quote the guy with diabetes who works in the structural steel side of construction I was talking to yesterday: "how do you do social distancing sat in a van full of cunts for 2 hours every day".

seen a lot of non-essential building this week, also surprised at how essential estate agents apparently are

It's the oils.