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

can't believe parents don't have more faith in the exemplary leadership of our great nation

Only one in four children returned to schools in England last week, wrecking Boris Johnson’s ambitions for a phased reopening of schools to allow parents back to work to boost the economy.

According to official statistics published by the government, just over half of primary schools in England reopened to more pupils last week.

Only a quarter of pupils who were eligible to return from 1 June, the first week that schools in England began admitting more children in reception, year 1 and year 6, actually turned up.

Figures published by the Department for Education show that just 52% of schools opened to these three year groups, reflecting continuing safety concerns among headteachers, parents and local authorities.

Ministers say numbers have gone up this week, but the government has been forced as a result to back down on its ambition to get all primary school children back in class for a month before the summer holidays.

xps, as ever, the only two news outlets particularly interested in the machinations of the British security services are Middle East Eye and South Africa's Daily Maverick.

There's been a lot of discussion about how the police and intelligence agencies have infiltrated / astroturfed protest groups in the US. It seems unimaginable they're not still doing it here too.

Re: Tribune - they have belatedly sorted out the more blatantly annoying layout issues, but 80-90% of the content is so determinedly earnest and stodgy, presumably requested by union funders, that I cannot in all honesty say it is worth reading :( Think they would have been better off just doing a UK focused version of Jacobin.

important counterpoint: they ran a very nice piece on my book

I haven't yet seen a hard copy of Tribune, but my impression of Tribune from their online presence has been good.

Yeah Esther Leslie on Poly Styrene is just the stodgy content I pay my union subs for.

if you're not Black, just try to imagine for one second what it must be like to be Black and live in a place like this. https://t.co/DxwPsTVEi3

— michael (@Sisyphusa) June 9, 2020

https://youtu.be/I3s13jbmrn0

Surely they're just anti-racism critics.

PG and Yorkshire Tea tell anti-racism critics 'don't buy our tea'https://t.co/hlf6NbOnp9

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 9, 2020

Although the tea brands built and maintained on indentured labour and sub-povery wages can also do one if they think tweeting 'um, actually Sandra, slavery is bad' in any way absolves them of their ongoing crimes.

It's a fucking WW1/WW2 memorial, do these people think the no doubt gigantic BLM protests of Hoddesdon are just indiscriminately targeting monuments or something?

(I'm aware that protecting the monument isn't really the point here)

can confirm that the football-adjacent racist gammon faction thought that war memorials were being targeted over the weekend

They'll be pissing on the bleedin Dambusters next if we don't stop 'em

Some fine zingers in that tweet's replies at least.

BREAKING: Statue of slave trader Robert Milligan in east London will be torn down 'as soon as possible' https://t.co/3RNpBXnkkN

— Nadine White (@Nadine_Writes) June 9, 2020

Ok so for those who say racism doesn’t exist... this was at a recent BLM protest in Hoddesdon,a town in the Broxbourne borough of the English county of Hertfordshire, watch the thread pic.twitter.com/a4shMfiQ7i

— Medina (@Miss_Meddy143) June 8, 2020

thankful tbh that the pubs are closed and i don't have to listen to the 'experts' at the bar.

antichrist advocates for widespread adoption of the mark of the beast

When Tony Blair was prime minister his government legislated to introduce an identity card scheme. The plan was hugely controversial, by the time the law got introduced it was to a large extent voluntary, and it was enthusiastically repealed by the coalition. But Blair has not lost interest in the concept and, at an event today, he said that coronavirus made the case for digital ID more compelling than ever.

As PA Media reports, Blair said that only if people can show easily whether they are clear of coronavirus will industries like international travel be able to restart. Speaking at the virtual CogX technology conference, Blair said that such a system would operate alongside track and trace programmes as the economy reopens.

I quite like Esther Leslie, and I wouldn't mind hearing her more on music, but ... I don't think I'll pay £7.50 for that article.

Fair play, it's free.
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/05/lets-submerge

Performative kneeling while burying the Labour report with its racism, is it

Hoddeston is one of those towns up the A10, just outside the M25, built on white flight from north and east London.

let's hope they fly further

Real Ben Bradley country

Performative kneeling while burying the Labour report with its racism, is it

Confused because Hoddesdon is not in the Midlands or the North, where all the racists, who are all working class, live.

Yeah usually Essex has a great reputation.

Rip Little Britain. Heaven need a tsunami of ‘computer says no’ jokes

I heard Starmer couldn't find a knee pad in his office for that kneeling photo and said oh I know what, I'll just grab a clutch of pages from the anti-black racism section from that superfluous leaked Labour report I'm never going to read.

There are gammony types on Twitter demanding the removal of statues of the Prophet Muhammad. pic.twitter.com/Nd410ZDUVv

— Jon (@ormondroyd) June 9, 2020

What's the culture war equivalent of death by friendly fire?

A tragicomedy.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/09/derbyshire-towns-bust-of-black-man-seized-by-defiant-locals

it's a fertility thing, also it's not black it's turkish

they decide its fate, not the Netherlands

it could be any colour

that said, we’re going to give it a lick of black paint

That head reminds me of one of those fortune-telling simulacra things you still get at some decaying seaside towns

simulacrum even

I do believe the Netherlands have some problems of their own with traditional figures which are racially offensive.

Matt Lucas shitcanned by i-player, netflix, britbox etc because of blackface content .. u loves to see it

Time for him to whip out his hilarious impression of Boris.

Happening now: We are hundreds of people gathered in front of the Cecil Rhodes statue in Oxford. People refuse to learn, teach and live under the shadow of slave traders, colonialists and racists.#RhodesMustFall pic.twitter.com/kSVEZlLg9D

— Dilar Dirik (@Dlrdrk1) June 9, 2020

Milligan statue removed although this one has more of a 'let's get this into a museum before it gets vandalised' whiff

All Labour councils to review their statues btw, a lot of them will be coming down before they're torn down.

they’d better be

The Milligan statue is about twenty years old, I can’t imagine which museum would be clamouring for it.

maybe the guy who made it wants it back

That Ashbourne sculpture story has definite League of Gentlemen vibes about it, the 'local consultation on its future' really really needs to be filmed and broadcast.

Hoddeston is one of those towns up the A10, just outside the M25, built on white flight from north and east London.

Yep. That stretch (Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Hoddesdon) had several BNP councillors not that long ago.

Yeah usually Essex has a great reputation.

Just over the border in Hertfordshire, though I'm not trying to claim Essex is better.

I know copper prices are down right now but you could pay a few weeks salaries curator salaries by melting these down, I’m sure any musuem would welcome the opportunity.

> Matt Lucas shitcanned by i-player, netflix, britbox etc because of blackface content .. u loves to see it

he was pretty apologetic about it a few months ago when it came up, said he wouldn't do it now. unlike the league of gentlemen who seemed fine with reviving papa lazarou for their recent comeback. (that said, LB did seem to go more for shock value than the others)

It's all very well apologising now but the wanker and his arsehole pal made 3 seasons of this shit, it wasn't some one off aberration.