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

Rude

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53365062

I think this might be the first time Boris has ever been in a shop like this. Maybe he's popping in for some Haribo or to top up the credit on his phone?

Sorry I shouldn’t have called your pal swivel eyed you’re right xp

I offer full support to all DomCum bots that clown Sir Kier and don't care if I lose all 64 of my followers!

just turned on the radio. Claire Fox diminishing BLM and the threat of the Rona. Wes Streeting talking about civility and nuance. Just turned off the radio.

Claire Fox gonna Claire Fox, that's why broadcasters love her.

lol i was in the kitchen just then too, i heard the words Claire Fox and leapt across the room to change the station just in time

The only way to respond to the likes of Fox is to say "I broadly agree" and then say something completely different

Up to a point, lord copper...

I think some synapses would blow if you said to Claire Fox you agreed with her ... then she'd try and sign you up for the cult.

Always agree with a contrarian. And then twist their words

https://www.christian.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/RogerGodsiff01.png

"swivel eyed tories are good now"

civility and nuance pls. this (through no fault of his own) aesthetically challenged fellow here was a Labour MP for the last decade, being an ugly swivel eyed tory cunt is an affliction that doesn't see party lines!

https://www.christian.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/RogerGodsiff01.png

Freedom

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-politics-53361906?

what has happened to all the disaster capitalists who apparently were doing high stakes short bets on the UK economy crashing post brexit? now it has crashed anyway do they still get paid out but with a Rule 4 deduction or something.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/10/vast-brexit-customs-clearance-centre-to-be-built-in-kent

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-accuses-brits-loving-22336640

Operation 'get everyone out there spending money' has gone from 'hype' to 'guilt trip' to 'shame' remarkably quickly.

"Some people have loved it – I mean, let's be honest, some people have actually loved it."

people have just been "loving" members of their family dying of C-19 and then receiving their ashes in the post like you would from a veterinary clinic when your poor dog is put down. people "loving" going into depression because they fear for the future where all they can see is UC and more mass layoffs happening every day. Read the room as they say, you thoughtless prick.

there might be a point where Boris stretches this - got a huge working majority, can say what I fucking like - to the point where there is a backlash.

To be honest I've had a better time in lockdown than, I suspect, most people but I'd struggle to say I've loved it or that life wouldn't be infinitely preferable without it.

For a lot of the country it's removed some sources of everyday stress, but it's also replaced them with some gigantic ones.

What he's doing is seeding the idea that anyone not getting straight back to working and spending is being silly or even selfish. It's very conscious, coming after Wednesday's statement.

Most of us have acknowledged some of the positive experiences of lockdown but I wouldn't raise that in the same post as what Johnson is doing here which without exaggeration is a new depth of wickedness in his evil career. Shaming people into death and/or exploitation ffs.

Wonder whether this is going to rub against companies that now would actually like their employees to stay home as it might save on office costs?

http://www.unknown5.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Carthaginian-Fire-Pits.jpg

One of the biggest sources of my potential return to depression at the moment - I'm OK now but I'm monitoring the warning signs - has been this unseemly rush to ignore any good lessons the lockdown might have offered for society and to return to the most broken of systems as quickly as possible, except with extra background death.

It's likely to enrage parents who have been juggling working from home with full time childcare and home schooling, for one thing. That's a big group.

Austerity let's be honest some people have loved it.

From the same people who brought you “people love benefits they’re having kids just so they can get more benefits they’re making more money than you, get ‘em”

Most of the papers are, via their editorial and columnists, already well into trying to bully and shame the public for not going out and spending more.

work makes you free dead

I suppose part of the issue is that conventional politics and economics are based around the notion that its more valuable to a functioning society for people to be working than not working, and in normal times that's probably true.

It's very difficult for a lot of people to get their heads round the idea that, suddenly, the single biggest contribution a lot of people could be making to society is to stay at home, hence the harrumphing about people 'getting paid by the government to sit at home'.

At some point, as the virus recedes, that will stop being the case - this is all a massive gamble on us having got to that point already.

i think the "value" of people "working" could stand to undergo a lot of analysis - sorry for stupid quotation marks but both of those concepts need heavy reexamination. luckily this opportunity to collectively examine this stuff has gone now and we can resume normal service.

Areas where there is genuine value, where, there's just shit that needs to be done, will come back pretty quickly assuming they ever went away. The conditions or pay won't necessarily be any better, in fact they might be worse, and that's one of the big missed opportunities.

There will also be a lot of structural unemployment as society decides that they just don't need certain things to be done in the same way - a lot of that is going to be white collar work and the ramifications of that haven't really been thought through yet.

tbh i've have loved being furloughed with the caveat that i've also been really worried that the job i hate going to might not exist soon.

this paradigm shift some where predicting in March ain't happening, we might have start killing some of them instead

it has demonstrated to me that even tho i only make just above min wage i'd prob take 55% of my current salary to never work again, but then again i am single, own where i live and p much never go out, which applies to v few people

Another problem for economists is that literally no one fully understands the behaviour of the key variable here, the virus. Not just the extent to which it could spread or persist - and what effect that will have on the economy - but also what the long term health consequences of surviving covid will be for thousands of people, what that will mean for their capacity to work (or do anything else) and the pressure on the NHS in the future.

Probably one of the reasons why Sunak barely mentioned the virus on Wednesday.

I'm pretty sure thousands of previously healthy people now finding it difficult to walk short distances without getting shortness of breath will be a massive boost for the UK's already dire levels of productivity. Boris will be telling them to "man up" no doubt.

there might be a point where Boris stretches this - got a huge working majority, can say what I fucking like - to the point where there is a backlash.

I don't think saying what he fucking likes is about the majority, it's Boris doing the Trump thing of relying on his personal following and his proven ability to get away with stuff other politicians can't get away with.

I've been so calm and peaceful during lockdown, even despite the background noise of constant deaths, my partner's long-term depression getting worse and fears for my job security. I went back to work this week to prepare for re-opening on Monday (thanks for holding off, Sturgeon!) and within an hour I had lost any sense of calmness I'd developed over the past three months. I hate my job but I hadn't realised how much, and actually the prospect of getting paid off and a decent redundancy fills me with joy more than anxiety now. I've also never actually had this much money left over at the end of the month even though my income is reduced - not just because I've been staying in and not doing gigs/clubs/pubs, but even just the little pick-me-ups like a trip to Greggs when I feel too done in to make a lunch the night before. Now we can visit people and I don't feel so isolated, I'm with oscar bravo, I would happily live a minimal and simple life if it meant I never had to deal with the public and a hierarchy of management again.

I've been fine with the lockdown until the last month or so when I've probably been more bored than I've been at any time in my life.

The things I miss most about working are the people I work with and having something to keep me occupied during the daytime.

Wonder whether this is going to rub against companies that now would actually like their employees to stay home as it might save on office costs?

I mean, this is us, but we're not going to pay a blind bit of notice because everyone can work from home, like afaict the whole of the City.

NV otm - one of the depressing things about that "at least Corbyn isn't in charge" piece in the Guardian during the week is the idea of what changes John McDonnell might've been able to jimmy open at this point.

I don't think saying what he fucking likes is about the majority, it's Boris doing the Trump thing of relying on his personal following and his proven ability to get away with stuff other politicians can't get away with.

Yeah, he doesn't think the Boris Field is powered by the majority, as far as he's concerned the Boris Field emanates throughout the universe.

A few friends on Facebook have been talking about how the last month has been the worst - going into lockdown together gave some sense of 'unity', but now that different parts of society are not just pulling in different directions but accelerating, the shearing effects are really getting to them.

To an extent that's been the case all the way through though - going to the supermarket to get the weekly shop in a mask means ignoring that none of the staff have them.

(also there's the weird British-to-the-point-of-Miéville about people going "I'm in a queue, I'm six feet from the people behind and ahead of me, I'm fine, other people are going past all the time but they're not in the queue so they're not a concern" but that's not really relevant)

Enjoyed that cunt being in intensive care, ngl

The only enjoyment we'll be allowed for the next four years till Starmer loses, it's like a little treat.

If only the ventilator had malfunctioned or some pissed off NHS staff accidentally dropped it on his head, multiple times

If Kier got the Rona there would an emergency focus group ready to go into action

He would try to reason with the virus and understand its motivations and why it's been so successful.

... and die accordingly.

I’d love to get paid without having to work, all else being equal, but it’s not exactly like a normal holiday if you can’t go out and do things and you can’t separate the not-working from the ongoing crisis that is killing people. Even the people I know who say they’ve been enjoying the lockdown are upset that they haven’t been able to see family, for instance.

I really hated trying to work from home, I’ve never done it before and my job is like 95% practical lab-based activity anyway, plus my flat is tiny so there was no way to have a separate work & living area. I got on better with my 3 weeks on furlough, but I just didn’t have the concentration for the flat-bound pastimes I really enjoy. In that respect I guess I’m glad to be back at work? Although I’m knackered and stressed and about to be much more knackered and stressed once our busy season starts.

tl;dr foad boris