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

imo bj's rationale is "i died of covid in march 2020, rip me, nigerian_funeral.gif"

I think the party will want to keep him in place until the chalice looks less poisoned

how wld starmzy aim to beat sunak or even gove

forensically

Johnson has attained a level of personal adulation amongst a section of the public - xenophobe Brexiters mostly i guess - that seems unlikely to completely evaporate no matter how bad things get

I don't think Sunak or Gove will come out of the economic / social fallout unscathed, even if Johnson takes the brunt of the blame.

It's also worth remembering that Starmer's apparent lack of a firm set of policy positions comes in a context where he hasn't particularly needed to have one to draw level with Johnson.

He's actually following the Cameron playbook rather than the Blair one, the idea that you don't need to have an explicitly stated set of policy positions this far off an election, you just need to set the idea "this guy seems to know what he's doing" in the minds of enough voters. You can afford for people to project onto you a bit as long as they have a firm and positive enough idea what they're going to get from you a year or so before an election. Cameron barely had any policies for years beyond some vague green/hug a hoodie stuff.

FWIW I think Gove is personally repellent to a lot of voters in a way Sunak might not be (beyond the obvious). There's a lot of completely irrational and sometimes regressive psychological stuff that goes into people's voting choices that is distinct from policy positions, so things like mood music do matter more than we would perhaps like them to. In terms of political brand-builders Boris is probably the most successful since Blair and maybe more so than even him. A lot of people who could identify with themselves as Boris voters wouldn't necessarily feel the same way about Gove or Sunak - and the same is true of the reverse to some extent.

Although arguably the Cameron project was about concealing as much of what he intended to do as possible for as long as possible.

Has been stated already but Sunak's 'popularity' is set to nosedive along with the economy. Not that he's actually popular outside of the media.

I think he is popular among people who don't pay that much attention, because he appeared to be taking fast, direct and decisive action in a crisis that also happened to save a lot of people's livelihoods (at least temporarily). It's easy to be popular when you're basically spraying a firehose of cash around.

The truth is they originally weren't going to do furlough at all, it was pressure from business groups, unions and the general public that convinced them. Also probably a realisation of how big a disaster it would have been without it.

jesus can you imagine? either the death toll would be geometrically higher or the DWP would have collapsed by now

The conservative estimate was 20% unemployment and it would probably have been impossible for them to come back from that even if Ian Huntley had won the Labour leadership contest.

visions of Huntley getting a warm welcome from melt Twitter as a huge step up

#Breaking Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has said he has “formally confirmed” to the EU the UK will not extend the Brexit transition period, adding: “The moment for extension has now passed” pic.twitter.com/YY6FbgdLyv

— PA Media (@PA) June 12, 2020

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee e e e e e e e e e

splat

Time for our regular scheduled “thanks a bunch cuks and dems” I guess

lol we’re all gonna die

Still wonder what would have happened if they'd been intelligent or flexible or strategic enough to vote through Kenneth Clarke's customs union motion last year.

Do they actually think the country will be back to normality by next February? It's almost as if they're clueless fools, yoked to their pet project as it rolls over the Cliffs of Dover and twirls downward in stately billows of idiocy to the cruel waters of the English Channel.

it's almost as if any consequences for them and their backers will be positive

It's a good job nothing's going to happen in the next few months that might take the EU's attention off negotiations.

Boris on TV at the moment looking like an extra from a George Romero movie.

back to himself then

LOL director obv. got bored with his crap and cut to the adverts in the middle of one of his perorations.

This Brexit-or-death thing today is probably the answer to PF's question. They're laying turf for a constitutional crisis here – the deal as planned is going to do hard-to-guess but likely extreme things to N. Ireland politics, and the Scottish elections are coming up next year post-actual-Brexit too. It's going to make the poll tax look like accounting regulation changes.

Brexit AND death svp

NEW: Emily Sheffield has taken over as editor of the Evening Standard. George Osborne will move to the role of editor-in-chief after three years as editor.

— Press Gazette (@pressgazette) June 12, 2020

Emily Sheffield 'Samantha Cameron's sister' Emily Sheffield?

That's her. Oh also: Sage announcing R is up to 0.8-1 in England, up to 1.1 in SW.

Osborne has also been appointed official ES Milk Monitor.

I must say he learned on the job fast, imagine getting a promotion like that after only three years! Ooh he's so clever, that George fella.

that rise in the southwest must be because of BLM oh wait

Emily Sheffield started her career at the Standard and is at least qualified for the job.

1.1 in the SW isn't great but it's had the lowest infection rate of any region I believe so it isn't a disaster as long as they can get it down again quickly.

so we’re lifting restrictions as the R0 is rising.

brilliant!

churchill in a coffin, i know, i know, it's really serious

https://i.imgur.com/i6Zqb36.jpg

There was some Tory MP ranting that at the moment they're relaxing everything too slowly to really help the economy and too quickly to keep the epidemic under control. Brilliant stuff.

Tory MP otm

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/C771/production/_112875015_optimised-covid-uk.gdp_monthly-nc.png

The difference between 2008 and 2020 is making my head spin, given how enormous, wide-ranging and lasting the consequences of the financial crisis turned out to be.

i keep saying this but 2020 is going to look like a lost paradise compared to what i suspect is on the menu.

at least some of those ww2 cosplaying wankers that were born after the mid 50's can finally get to experience rationing or at least some of that legendary postwar style austerity for real! Personally, I'm not looking forward to the prospect of food and booze becoming too expensive through hyperinflation and shortages, it's going to suck shit.

Good stuff:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/12/oxford-black-professors-cecil-rhodes-british-empire

Disappointingly, the otherwise astute and justly celebrated Cambridge professor, Mary Beard, argued that RMF is “a dangerous attempt to erase the past” and suggested that minority students should be empowered to look at the statue “with a cheery and self-confident sense of un-batterability”.

oh deary me, another white reactionary arsehole at the BBC with a terribly upper middle class blinkered position on institutional racism.

try "a cheery and self-confident sense of un-batterability” when you are getting battered by coppers

I know Mary does some good history tv, but seriously "a cheery and self-confident sense of un-batterability” is just ... just gtfo!

Priyamvada Gopal says MB has offered her zero solidarity whatsoever.

Priyamvada Gopal says MB has offered her zero solidarity whatsoever.

Priyamvada Gopal was invited to a 5 live tonight and didn't even get a second of airtime and isn't amused.

So @BBC Radio 5 live book me to come on their programme, keep me waiting, just didn't call. Just sat here.

This is how you are treated if you are a woman of colour, however old, however senior, by the BBC.

— Priyamvada Gopal (@PriyamvadaGopal) June 12, 2020