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

A wave of De Valera.

Nice

John Humphrys, in his final pants-pissing days as the main Today presenter had many senior moments like calling Chris Patten "the former governor of China" and then once suggesting the best solution to the NI border issue would be the Republic of Irelend re-joining the United Kingdom or as he put it "throw in their lot with this country".

Irentry?

Eirentry?

ROI-t EU lot, lets be avin you?

To be fair to der starmer there is literally nothing to be done for labour in Scotland wrt the constitutional question. too yoon for the nats, not yoon enough for the brit nats, and seemingly the majority resides in those two camps

I think there is a similar transposition of electoral doom for him in England as well but I just call him a cunt

but at least he's got one MP in Scotland, the one looks like pickled egg and who almost jumped ship to CuK and is widely despised everywhere apart from seemingly within the vile labour party membership. At least that is something positive to build on!

John Humphrys, in his final pants-pissing days as the main Today presenter had many senior moments like calling Chris Patten "the former governor of China" and then once suggesting the best solution to the NI border issue would be the Republic of Irelend re-joining the United Kingdom or as he put it "throw in their lot with this country".

― calzino, Sunday, 20 December 2020 02:00 (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

iirc this got days of coverage on irish social media as people's jaws just collective dropped. i think it was the moment ireland realised how bad things had gotten re brexit and all that shite.

Nandy thinks schools can be turned into mass testing centres and reopen safely in a couple of weeks, just like that, and the National Education Union's Kevin Courtney begs to differ and says they should be closed until the 18th ... hmm I wonder which one is talking out of their arsehole?

my son's secondary has said the he's 'working from home' the first week back to give the school time to prepare and train staff to administer tests to 1500+ students and staff the following week. the irritation and contempt in the email to parents about this was palpable. i have to say i find it amazing that education professionals are being press-ganged into being front-line COVID health workers.

wait a minute... are teachers expected to do the testing in schools

Was reading the other day about how the operation moonspaff “pilot” in Liverpool was a total fakeout ito (among other things) army helping to administer tests

I think a mass testing regime, that many schools might not even have the space/resources/ability to put into place properly in a couple of weeks, is only going be slight damage limitation against a variant with a much greater R rate. Jesus, just listen to unions for once ffs, it's in the name of the party.

according to the school:

Yesterday (Thursday) we were advised that school should not start again until 11th January to enable us to manage infection control before this testing process can be implemented and staff trained to administer, process and record outcomes.

Oh well seeing as Christmas is cancelled and seeing as weren't doing anything anyway you might as well do this covid-medic short course just for the love of your job!

Police will be asked to stop families from driving out of tier 4 areas, the health secretary has said, while extra officers will be deployed at railway stations.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, warned that extra police would be at London railway stations to stop people leaving the city for “unnecessary” journeys following images of chaotic scenes on Saturday night.

really bad combination of ill coordinated messaging that was always going cause a panicked exodus/potential superspreading event that also aids the spread of the new new variant and then followed up with heavy-handed policing when the horse has already bolted. Dangling this idea of a normal Christmas for months and then this, it might even finish him off.

can’t wait for boris’ approval rating to briefly dip two points over this latest fuckup

― you are like a scampicane, there's calm in your fries (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, 19 December 2020 17:18 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

surely there are limits to the old rule of thumb: Tories can get away with anything!

we’re gonna find out i guess

if cancelling christmas doesn’t drive voters into kieth’s flaccid embrace then nothing will

You forget, Boris is Britain Trump. (xp)

What Calzino said. Trump has a particular relationship with some of his (evangelical) base, and they got some benefits from that pact.

Economy also in trouble -- and we'll see a lot of that next year.

EXCLUSIVE in today’s Sunday Telegraph

Home workers who 'built up savings' must go on spending spree when pandemic ends, Rishi Sunak says https://t.co/E0zu8GRzMF

— Christopher Hope📝 (@christopherhope) December 20, 2020

which would be the worst timeline: Boz gets away with it all, or Boz is sacrificed & tories get away with it all, or nu-nu-labour does well thanks to anti tory sentiment & zombie centrism gets yet another undeserved shot in the arm

mind you the kids will become a factor & they know how bullshit all of these options are. I just hope they remember not to go lib dem or something

Hancock apparently suggesting that we could be in Tier 4 for ‘a couple of months’, though I’d guess they’re going to want to keep schools open.

If Tier 3 didn’t dent the spread in Kent they’re going to have to extend t4 if this gets out of London. Not difficult to see it lasting into February. Scottish schools closed until Jan 18, I think.

Nothing is going to dent the spread in Kent if nothing changes with schools, manual jobs and prisons tbh. This started during the last national lockdown.

How much worse could it have been even if the UK had an anti-vax anti-lockdown headcase running the show, like Bolsonaro. Probably a bit worse, but maybe not that much. A memorable quote from a Brazilian health care worker could just as easily apply to the UK. Although at the time that regime had sacked their equivalent of Hancock and didn't bother replacing them, but the health worker said working in such chaos was like doing maintenence to an aeroplane while it was flying.

not sure how the school testing works in terms of "what if kids refuse a test, surely they have a right to refuse?" and especially for special schools where i'm told they'll be getting the test too, which is sure to be calmly and quietly accepted by autistic kids and others with learning disabilities.

It only took me about ten years to get Alex used to anual flu vaccinations, but not everyone is as *easy* as him!

my daughter was explaining how they've been told it's "going to work", pretty sure it's not going to work, she was looking forward to getting bitten tho

Sheppey East is at 2668 cases per 100k this week. It also has three prisons iirc. I’ve heard next to nothing about the prison situation in the press.

jfc

lol, we’re up 95% in a week to 1,100 too.

when we were uk number one we were something like 780-odd

I wonder whether France will ban freight as well as passengers. I wouldn’t be massively keen on trucks coming in from Kent at the moment.

Ok, France has already suspended freight for 48 hours. Going to need that chips and toast Mail article sooner than expected.

Might be a good time to consider deferring the end of the transition period yet again…

Incredible how Brexit and covid are converging like this.

Sheppey East is at 2668 cases per 100k this week. It also has three prisons iirc. I’ve heard next to nothing about the prison situation in the press.

― Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Sunday, 20 December 2020 bookmarkflaglink

there's been a very big increase in infections in east london/kent/essex, which the government has blamed on a new virus strain rather than a lot of "essential workers" living there, their own incompetence, etc

— joolsd (@joolsd) December 20, 2020

Also if the government listened to the teaching unions and maybe had a different plan for schools but hey they've been defeated so I guess er, enjoy?

Might be a good time to consider deferring the end of the transition period yet again…

Has any of this "new strain" been verified with any credibility whatsover?

I don’t doubt there is a new strain but there hasn’t been any firm evidence presented about the increased transmission potential, as far as I know.

The proportion of essential workers in Kent is a factor but hasn’t changed from the first wave. The big difference is schools. Sheppey’s rate has been climbing since they reopened.

I don't particularly doubt the strain's existence. Questions are what was done about it when it's existence was discovered in late September or why wasn't the November lockdown extended when scientists were tracking the high transmission to this strain? XP yeah 11-16 is the demographic that's getting it this time.

would chris whitty cape for the government?

that boat sailed on june 23rd iirc. a massive blunder given the circumstances.

There are ways of bypassing that, supposedly, none of them straightforward:

https://www.euronews.com/2020/12/09/can-the-post-brexit-transition-period-be-extended-and-if-not-why-not

URGENT: UK-France border closes 23:00 GMT tonight. Last shuttle UK-FR is 21:34 GMT, please check in on time. Access to UK site prohibited from 22:00 GMT.

Amend most bookings using MyEurotunnel: https://t.co/J4wvRBWE64

Request a cancellation/refund: https://t.co/yYTXGiCH4s pic.twitter.com/7qzqEgfQ2A

— Eurotunnel Le Shuttle (@LeShuttle) December 20, 2020

EU source tells me they just don't know how serious this new strain is, but for the moment they have to take the British prime minister at his word that it is dangerous enough to ban all travel from the UK.

— Dave Keating (@DaveKeating) December 20, 2020

Hopefully there has been some pre-Brexit stockpiling going on as last time it snowed heavily shops were bare in three days.

What was the co-orperation between UK and euro scientists to try and understand this strain? Now there is this potential for what could be overreaction.

we need a convenient excuse to cancel the christmas we should have cancelled two weeks ago, don't worry no-one abroad follows our press and definitely won't hear about this and will keep their borders open