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

Old hamface getting outflanked on the left by a brand is it

People cannot be illegal. And, it is enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention that crossing a border ‘illegally’ should not impact your asylum claim https://t.co/gcY0W0n5Dr

— Ben & Jerry's UK (@benandjerrysUK) August 11, 2020

I certainly hope no harm comes to Starmzy, he's a model human being

That Lynch statement is completely meaningless, appearing to say something for the sake of it while saying nothing at all.

Haha OK:

Labour's instincts on most issues - save ones where the direction of travel is already pretty clear, e.g. school meals over summer - is come out with some garbled managerial-speak at the expense of moral clarity.

It's a way of saying nothing while physically moving your lips. https://t.co/MnbIWHYeAN

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) August 11, 2020

This is a recipe for disaster:

NEW: We saw a retreat in Edinburgh, looks like we're seeing one in London too. Gavin Williamson is set to announce that students can keep their mock-exam grades if they're higher than the calculated grade they receive on Thursday.

— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) August 11, 2020

They’re clearly making it up as they go along.

sure aren't we all

just listened to some wittering about this on BBC radio. as you've already said this stuff is covered from a position of utter ignorance; even when you suspect a journo does understand the process they're duty bound to report it in fictional terms

when as the education system in England not been understood as a mash-up of snobbery and nostalgia?

BBC: Did you consult universities on this last-minute change to A-level results?

Schools Minister Nick Gibb: "No, not on this precise change"

— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) August 12, 2020

Ah well, it’s not like it’s admissions week or anything.

Gibb's being pressed on the use of mock exam grades being unfair as different schools do different mocks, marking is unstandardised and subjective, different standards of security apply, etc, etc, and the response is basically 'yep'.

It's interesting to see the volume of attention this is getting now vs the tiny blip of coverage you had when the decision to cancel exams was made and BAME MPs were highlighting the historically biased nature of predicted grades.

a 7-year-old would be embarrassed by this pic.twitter.com/BFQ14GlHVx

— black lives matter (@jrc1921) August 12, 2020

credit to the bbc, they keep finding new lows

The simultaneous shift towards treating children like politically-sophisticated mini-adults via shows like Blue Peter, while at the same time treating adults like overgrown children via news shows, is grimly fascinating.

The publication I probably RT and whose politics I have most respect for these days is like Teen Vogue.

xp I was just beginning to think about Newsround and its recently axed 5pm slot. Almost as if it was making the main news look bad...

(yes, whoever made that decision probably had a good point that kids don't come home from school and turn on the TV to watch whatever's on and labelled CBBC, even if it's the news, any more)

Also the news app on my phone only told me this morning "UK officially enters recession" but it's nice that the BBC are skipping straight to "what shape is our recovery"

that shape of our recovery in full

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.buzzfeed.com%2Fbuzzfeed-static%2Fstatic%2Fenhanced%2Fwebdr01%2F2013%2F8%2F8%2F5%2Fenhanced-buzz-10728-1375953018-3.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Banky's done it again

Only one hope for a pv-shaped recovery - give me my voucher Sunak you little cunt

yeah if he'd bought me a PS4 we'd be top of the world by now

Not about to go about scampocalypse prepping with my own saving ffs

In Churchill’s shadow: these two gentlemen Gavin and Keri have been regularly keeping watch over the Churchill statue, in scorching heat. pic.twitter.com/RRdrQiw2n9

— Peter Whittle AM (@prwhittle) August 11, 2020

I certainly hope a freak accident doesn't cause the statue to tumble over and crush the fragile skulls and ribcages of those two gentleman who I'm sure are not racist or cunts

The simultaneous shift towards treating children like politically-sophisticated mini-adults via shows like Blue Peter, while at the same time treating adults like overgrown children via news shows, is grimly fascinating.

tbf children in the UK seem more politically sophisticated than adults in the UK

Two quickies for why the UK recession is deeper than other European countries.

1. Tory support schemes not generous enough. Poor sick pay and social security, plus the significant gaps in Sunak's package compound the shrinkage.

2. UK most service-oriented economy in Europe.

— Phil BC (@philbc3) August 12, 2020

the Super Rishi myth starting to fall to pieces in the cold hard reality of the the deepest recession in Europe. Perhaps the inadequacy of his support schemes should have got more scrutiny at the time of announcement rather than the collective UK media jerking the little twerp off.

I noticed the other day that everything that is likely to be popular has his face plastered over it (Free stuff! From Rishi! Personally!) and everything that is likely to be unpopular is from The Taxpayer.

> the deepest recession in Europe

world-beating

pls don't make me think about the shrinkage of rishi sunak's package

Stimulate me daddy

worst recession, highest death toll, probably nothing a bit more clapping can't fix though

I'm at the pandemic
I'm at the recession
I'm at the combination pandemic and recession

I'm at the recession (what?)
I'm at the pandemic
I'm at the combination recession and pandemic https://t.co/FrKSWhc2EP

— K-Os Eats Fascists 🏴 (@rollerska8er) August 12, 2020

Things that are responsible for the recession: Black Lives Matter, teaching unions, BAME families, people who won't go out, people who go out, Corbyn, the PRC, fast fashion

Things that aren't responsible for the recession: the government, employers

How will this all affect housing is the question..

xxp Incredible work

Also responsible: 60,000 people who probably would have died anyway so why did we even bother

Not to worry Brexit will sort everything

If there's one party I trust to create millions of quality jobs it's oh bollocks

Not sure I want to live in a world where I'm fretting about creating quality jobs

Seems an opportune time to observe we only have one pack of scampos left and future supply is uncertain

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/08/why-britain-failed-coronavirus-pandemic/615166/

We know a lot of this already (it's not written for a UK audience) but what's surprising even now is quite how many people in direct proximity to the government think they are falling badly, and also how many people think the current structure of the British state is basically set up for failure on moments like this.

on moments like this

Sunak definitely needs to work on curbing his twinkly grin when delivering the news that, yes indeed, lol we're all going to die.

I quite like it, gives you a grisly faceapp quality to the news

He is really struggling to suppress it during this interview I'm watching.

Is it more of a "I'm here to make your death as comfortable as possible" twinkly grin or more of an "oh, have we had a little accident again?" twinkly grin?

Britain’s leaders asked their people to do three things, captured in one pithy slogan: “Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.”

that's one thing ffs

consumer-facing service sector is now 80% of economy per FT, which goes on to quote

“We expect pent-up consumer demand to drive a strong recovery in the third quarter, although this momentum will gradually fade as the outlook for the labour market deteriorates"

(xxp) It's like Priti Patel's smirk, he can't help himself.

this momentum will gradually fade as survivors resort to eating one another

Cannibalism provides strong downward pressure on supermarket sales.

Putting the Dom in holodomor

But upward pressure on flatware and prion treatments, so it’s not all bad news for industry