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

One export that we can rely on:

New Zealand ends Covid-free run with two cases from UK https://t.co/jxiFnmnf3P

— The Guardian (@guardian) June 16, 2020

Tory backbenchers are coming out against the government in support of the school meals thing now by the way. If that rebellion grows, and if the policy is playing well in former Red Wall seats, then the government might fold. Labour strategy appears to be trying to split Westminster Tories off from the government on specific issues and it does seem to be effective in terms of forcing individual policy changes.

On the Mirza appointment:

i think maybe bc i have to deal with them more i’ve seen more contempt for longer, including what doesn’t hit press. eg a home office official asking me post-windrush whether it was simply my organisation’s view that the human rights act applies to migrants.

— gracie mae bradley (@graciemaybe) June 16, 2020

Re: declining trust in the UK print and broadcast media after GE2019, these are from a long piece I'm currently writing. pic.twitter.com/o6PldYUtLN

— Juliet. (@zinovievletter) June 16, 2020

Good news:

Not so. The government is not opposing this Lab motion. We will be unveiling significant extra support for kids today. Well done @MarcusRashford . We support you in speaking up for vulnerable children https://t.co/eQN2fTWA0m

— Gary Streeter MP (@garystreeterSWD) June 16, 2020

BREAKING: @BorisJohnson has U-turned on summer free school meals for England.
🚨An extra £120m to be spent on extending vouchers through summer holidays.
🚨Huge victory for @MarcusRashford + other campaigners

— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) June 16, 2020

Erect a statue of Marcus Rashford in every town in Britain as far as I'm concerned.

lol get fucked boris

that Juliet Jacques piece is depressing af but should be read by every daft bastard who thinks the left can win thru the media

£120 million is such a tiny amount that the real story is that the cunt had to have his arm twisted in the first place

otm

This is good although yes it makes Rashford more of a target for abuse - might've been even better if e.g. a group of players across different clubs could've got together on it to help mitigate that and ultimately it's still fucked up that a famous individual might be able to prompt police change in ways organised collectives can't. NHS workers from overseas are apparently still paying extra for healthcare.

The problem for the government was that as a policy it was just too popular, same as scrapping the NHS surcharge for foreign care workers (even if that hasn't actually happened yet). Tory backbenchers appear to be very susceptible to this kind of pressure right now and can be flaked off from the government especially as something snowballs and particulary when there are highly regarded celebrities involved. Boris has u-turned or conceded something virtually every week since returning from the rona ward.

as i say, the economic cost of this u-turn is effectively nil and it's easily spun as Boris listening to his people and choosing to do the right thing. there's no victory in this except hopefully slightly less malnutrition.

bought Carrie her own laptop even xp

Slightly less malnutrition is the bit that really matters.

The campaign should continue really, the government is evidently reluctant to concede even a fraction of the argument that it might be its responsibility to prevent its own citizens from starving.

it's easily spun as Boris listening to his people and choosing to do the right thing

Even Laura K doesn't seem to think so.

Question many Tories asking is why on earth Govt tried to fight this anyway - one says it was ‘mental’, another that it’s a ‘shambles’ and they’ll now get no credit for it

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) June 16, 2020

hey it's all good, anything is better than nothing.

i expect Laura will be back on her meds by teatime.

a savvy opposition should be extending this argument to "people in the UK are starving and what are you gonna do?", you're right about that

I'm not sure the list of people who care about Boris' u-turns is ever going to include Boris, though.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53061281

What the fuck is going on this lunchtime? This isn't even the top story.

yeah I just heard about that on R4 and was thinking this must be quite a big deal really.

Lads.

We did it! Thank you to everyone who campaigned for #HolidaysWithoutHunger 🙌 https://t.co/pXgTzSKJXC

— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) June 16, 2020

canny political instincts there

It woz starmzy that won it!

oh my

Not to take anything away from Rashford but it is kind of odd that so many people who until recently strongly identified as Rebecca Long-Bailey supporters appear to be totally unaware of what she's been doing.

— Dan Davies (@dsquareddigest) June 16, 2020

RL-B has been pushing for schools to remain closed and for extension of food vouchers through the summer almost entirely unsupported by the leadership. Starmer didn’t even retweet her schools tweets and that ghoul Rachel Reeves was despatched to the studios to talk about reopening schools! So absolutely not having that at all.

Let's not overlook JOLYON on all this

Very proud at the part @GoodLawProject has played, alongside @UKSustain, @MarcusRashford, @RLong_Bailey and some other fine campaigners, in forcing this switcheroo. The threat of litigation certainly sharpens minds. https://t.co/62WeBIXYDw

— Jo Maugham QC (@JolyonMaugham) June 16, 2020

everybody loves a bandwagon

nb of course Rashford wasn't the only person advocating for the extension BUT

Yeah what an insult it is to be undermined by that fucking arsehole Reeves talking over your brief. Props to RLB

it is striking that rashford has got more out of the govt than nearly any opposition politician, makes me think back to chinese criticisms of british-style western democracy, where you give a blank cheque to the ppl you hate the least, and the idea it's more important to be able to influence the ppl who are in power than be able to pick who they are

that dan davies tweet is ridiculous, conflating supporting a leadership bid with being a loyal fan

Be very interested to know who it was that originally approached Rashford about this, I'm guessing one of the charities or campaigning orgs that have been involved.

Whichever individual had the idea has probably been on the socially distanced lash for a couple of hours already.

Marcus Rashford looking up ‘leader of the opposition’ on Google Images pic.twitter.com/I2rhEKxTdD

— Rhys (@rhysrmann) June 16, 2020

People who pay attention knew RLB was on it but also know she has been undermined (or at least doing the job of opposition in a quiet way). She doesn't cut through.

Johnson is definitely trying to play the 'cruelty is the point' card with transgender rights and Mirza's appointment but it might be easier to knock that out at times.

Partly due to covid and the odd intervention.

After everything that has gone on the thing that gets Cameron out the shed is "save dfid".

Meanwhile there's this announcement of the merger of the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development:

Johnson justified the decision, saying: “Dfid outspends the Foreign Office more than four times over and yet no single decision-maker in either department is able to unite our efforts or take a comprehensive overview.

“We give as much aid to Zambia as we do to Ukraine, though the latter is vital for European security. We give 10 times as much aid to Tanzania as we do to the six countries of the western Balkans, who are acutely vulnerable to Russian meddling.

Hmm curious examples, you complete fucking bag of cunt

It is notable that it was RLB that was on BBC Breakfast this morning, after it had finally cut through, and not Reeves or Starmer. It probably is bandwagon jumping from the leadership's office but equally if they'd been fundamentally opposed they would have shut the whole thing down ages ago, even Starmer asked the question at PMQs a week ago.

Rashford takes the vast majority of the credit, alongside probably a lot of people who worked hard to get it to this point and will never be acknowledged publically.

is Starmer going to have a scrap Universal Credit policy or does he just fancy a few little reforms here and there, because even after a small victory like this there is still going to be a lot of hungry children about in the long term as the benefits system currently is. But apparently it doesn't matter what he says at this stage, but i strongly disagree! I can't remember if he committed to scrapping it during the leadership campaign, not that you'd take it as a solid commitment from such a duplicitous tory cunt!

They've been pushing the meals policy for weeks though, it's legitimate to ask why a lot of people are apparently unaware of this.

I think they're still committed to scrapping UC, though the campaigning is likely to be around chipping away at elements of it for now.

This DFiD thing really does smell of Cummings. Especially shoving it through at this pace, at this time, like there was nothing else for the govt to be focused on.

am suspicious of foreign aid as a political activity in the first place, but that said this is effectively taking funding away from some of the world's poorest regions just at a time when the impacts of climate change on those communities are becoming ever more palpable. climate change that we and our partners are largely responsible for. sickening tbh

Replying to a question from the Tory MP Steve Double, Johnson said:

"What is actually happening, of course, is that Dfid and the FCO are now joining together to become a new Whitehall super-department for international affairs which will be of huge benefit to our ability to project Britain’s sense of mission about overseas aid.

For too long, frankly, UK overseas aid has been treated as some giant cashpoint in the sky that arrives without any reference to UK interests or to the values that the UK wishes to express or the priorities diplomatic, political or commercial of the government of the UK."

no moral responsibilty here at all

also i'm pretty sure that's absolutely untrue

mmmmm britain's sense of mission

I'm agreeing with everything people are posting today, but just saying the deeply horrible phrase "smell of Cummings" needs to be thread-banned lads!