ForenSix Opposition - Politics in the Soon To Be Former UK in Autumn 2020

https://i.redd.it/pgqfqb4ttuc31.jpg

"step aside lads and we'll get a shot of you you standing next to the tank, Rishi"

how this mf’er manage to be both tiny AND gangly

it seems quite appropriate that when he was a hedge-fund manager he worked for one that was funded by billionaire's young kids' pocket money!

just because this rich mf'er has some freakish ability to photosynthesise (well he looks like he's never eaten a proper meal), he thinks vast swathes of the UK can get by without food as well.

He reminds me of the kid in the Umbrella Academy (so much so I imagine thats a very unoriginal thought)

Coronavirus triggers borrowing spree by private equity managers https://t.co/E4GgiiMRcp

— Financial Times (@FT) October 3, 2020

"bespoke loans"

"we only pretend to break your legs when you default"

PM's new spokesperson everybody

Here’s Allegra Stratton completely misrepresenting a young woman who was in work as unemployed, while she was a reporter for Newsnight. Good practice for lying on behalf of the Prime Minister pic.twitter.com/ZsifUM56IQ

— Mic Wright 🏳️‍🌈🌋🏴‍☠️ (@brokenbottleboy) October 8, 2020

According to leaked slides, MPs were also shown early research by Public Health England showing that 41% of under-30s with Covid contracted it in a pub, bar, restaurant or cafe. A quarter of infections across all ages originated from those settings, the MPs were told.

Eat Out To Help out went well then. I agree with Gyac they're going to try and blame this on Sunak and just hope people don't remember those photos of Johnson and Gove standing around gormlessly with their Wetherspoons pints.

where's that quote from?

never mind, found it on the grauniad front page

i for one am shocked that encouraging people to take off their masks indoors in social settings, often involving booze, could have led to a spike in infections

The Treasury has calculated that the number of infections and expected deaths is worth it to prevent further damage to the economy. What's alarming and unsurprising is that no one - except presumably within SAGE and the Department of Health - really pushed back.

I just tried the government retraining website and almost all of the recommendation were doing my actual job. Accurate but fucking depressing.

Daily infections
Germany: 4,058
UK: 17,540

— Matthew Tempest (@MattTempest) October 8, 2020

Apparently less cases in Italy than in UK universities

For weeks they've been saying that only 5% were contracted in hospitality, so there's something suss somewhere here

yeah this is a huge leap against previous claims but as per there's not much transparency as to who's saying what and where the data is coming from. a functioning media might be doing some digging there.

Yeah that 5% number appeared to be nonsense ages ago, assuming pubs count as 'eating out' here:

Interesting to see this new graph in the PHE COVID surveillance report this week. It's good to see some semblance of backwards contact tracing is happening. pic.twitter.com/D9FJjdLKFN

— Russ Garrett (@russss) September 25, 2020

There's this as well, which is debunking the even more spurious 3% number:

https://fullfact.org/health/its-wrong-to-say-that-only-3-of-covid-19-cases-are-caused-by-restaurants-and-pubs/

Then you remember that Eat Out To Help Out didn't cover takeaway or deliveries at all, so you can only assume that the intention wasn't to get money into restaurants at all, it was a political move to create the impression that things were getting back to normal.

Turns out if you include staff in pubs and restaurants the number is closer to 40% of infections among the under-30s.

yeah from figures elsewhere it looks like 30% across all age groups if you include staff and customers

It was always a degenerate idea 💡 giving freebies mainly to middle income earners while foodbank use is going through the roof, with only a very short term boost for the hospitality sector and it was always going to become the main Rona spreading vector next to schools. Its almost like an apprenticeship at Goldman Sachs is not enough to polish an economically illiterate turd.

old hypocritical droning knight of the realm who lives in an 18 bedroom gothic mansion with two butlers and has more air miles under his belt than Fred Finn says we could all be happier if we lived more frugal and simple lives and save the planet. Fuck off y'old cunt!

I predict before they put him into a home for doughty old piss stinking "british institutions" he'll go full eco-fascist and start stanning for a eugenics program, if he hasn't already.

This sounds like the Government's ear for the will of the people strikes again

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-britons-feel-christmas-gatherings-should-be-sacrificed-in-fight-against-covid-19-12099604

Though I take the point (though I can't remember who here made it) that there appears to be an increasing but silent "but not me, right?" that people are hearing when answering the question.

talking of YouGov polls/sky news their co-founder Zahawi has been on saying perhaps this is not the best time for MP's to award themselves a £3500 payrise and is donating his to his constituency. Kieth is going to donate his to the Labour Party anti-union fund.

Heard from a senior Labour figure that complaints have been made to Keir Starmer, Chief Whip Nick Brown and Gen Sec David Evans regarding the conduct of Kevan Jones MP towards Apsana Begum and Zarah Sultana at the second reading of the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill (1/)

— Ash Sarkar (@AyoCaesar) October 9, 2020

yuck I share a birthday with that racist twat. Yeah I'm sure in Starmer's hierarchy of racism islamophobia is lower down the pecking order than anti-black racism and nothing will come of this.

I've seen the footage of him talking over Aspana Begum's speech. It's difficult to hear what he's saying because she's mic'ed up and he isn't though but it's safe to say he isn't giving enthusiastic assent.

if he doesn't take any action here it will put out a strong message that racist abuse is quite acceptable within the party as long as it is goes along factional lines as well.

The government is employing 1,114 consultants from Deloitte to work on Test and Trace alone, @SkyNews reports. @PrivateEyeNews reveals rates typically charged by Deloitte
£1,450 per day per partner
£290 per Deloitte intern (Wonder how much of that the interns see)

— Aditya Chakrabortty (@chakrabortty) October 9, 2020

this reactionary bullying white man has no place as Shadow Minister for oh for fuck's sake

Ash Sarkar: "These complaints might be something of a litmus test for the Labour leadership" lol, really? You think Keith cares?

i don't know man, surely heckling your colleagues is a bad look for the new listening united electable PLP

maybe do a handwriting test on Kevan Jones just to be sure

I got active in politics because I want to help build a better, more equal world.

That's why letters calling me a "bitch" & telling me to "go back to my country of origin" only spur me on.

There's barriers to break down, prejudice to defeat, & a world to win. I'll keep going 👊🏽 pic.twitter.com/JGzKmd27YU

— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) October 9, 2020

I can't remember if bringing back an emboldened majority of racist/reactionary/conservative voices to the front bench was one of Keith's ten pledges, but if so it will be the only one he has either delivered on or not completely reneged on so far

I will say melts on my timeline who regularly tried to dunk on Corbyn, Abbott, Burgon, etc. seem very quiet on Sultana, Whittome and the other young left MPs. Whether that's because their existence doesn't fit into their worldview (where the Hard Left is always white and male) or whether they just don't follow closely enough to be aware of them I dunno.

As long as they are backbenchers they will never give a toss.

Diane Abbott, honorary white man

Yeah, Abbott being a black woman never matters to these types, tbh.

I bet if Sultana or Whittome had a prominent place in the shadow cabinet the melts would theoretically be dunking on them, but of course Starmer would probably sack them after a few weeks.

It is disgusting and pathetic for anyone to abuse Zarah Sultana - an inspiring, courageous woman. How revolting that fellow Labour MPs are like this.

I am genuinely puzzled re: Allegra Stratton going to be the mouthpiece of a Hard-Right and unusually foul and corrupt Con government. I would always have assumed that she was a liberal. The kind of person who disdains both JC and Donald Trump and probably thinks Jess Phillips MP should be PM. Most of those people would not actively and openly work for the current UK PM.

It's difficult to hear what he's saying because she's mic'ed up and he isn't

I think (caveat: my ears are as old as the rest of me) that at one one point she attempts to mention human rights and he says "the right to lie?"

I would always have assumed that she was a liberal

Did you see the video where she clearly hates a single working mother for claiming housing benefit and portrays her as unemployed and making a "lifestyle choice" to put a roof over her child's head?

Allegra Stratton going to be the mouthpiece of a Hard-Right and unusually foul and corrupt Con government. I would always have assumed that she was a liberal. The kind of person who disdains both JC and Donald Trump and probably thinks Jess Phillips MP should be PM. Most of those people would not actively and openly work for the current UK PM.

This post represents a pretty good argument against strawmanning as a basis for political discussion, but the PM doesn't need to engage more hard rightists, he needs a mouthpiece who can engage the kind of middle-aged, middle-class voters that the Tories, with their many recent calamities, are currently in danger of losing in their droves.

For real this is a diabolical appointment and that specific interview Onimo talks about is one of the main reasons why, but she is absolutely of a piece with this government.

Allegra Stratton is married to James Forsyth, political editor of The Spectator magazine.[18] They live in Canonbury, Islington, North London with their two children.[19][20]

Forsyth is married to journalist Allegra Stratton. They live in Canonbury, Islington with their two children.[10][11] He is close friends with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, they were contemporaries at Winchester College and are godparents to each other's children.[2]

all perfectly normal, nothing to see here, move along

I liked the Telegraph front page introducing her as "the new face of COVID-19" or something similar. She's going to burn through a lot of the goodwill she has with lobby hacks quickly.

latest YouGov poll (as well as SiR Keir's Labour not being any pts ahead) has the Greens overtaking the LibDems as the new third (or perhaps something else that rhymes} party in British politics. Ed Davey is bouncing.

Dead cat splat