Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[buchan30]

7 minutes ago, tamthebam said:

Meanwhile laboratories are frantically striving to test possible vaccines against Covid-19

  Hide contents

This one looks promising...

...hmm, more research needed...

 

I’m getting old. Looking at that bottom picture and thinking that she shouldn’t have her finger in her mouth. That is exactly what we have been told not to do. 

[pandarilla]

He got shut off, you could see him saying WTF when it happened.

The BBC guy ranting while muted in the background was both perfect visual comedy and symbolic of Johnson's disdain for these questions.

These were indeed hilarious - and surely to f**k that's highlighted in the media in the next few days.

They can't be happy to be silenced like that.

‪Remember when we all thought Theresa May was the worst Prime Minister in history? That was a laugh eh. Halcyon days.‬

Controversial statement here but i think she would handle this much, much better.

Her massive issue was trying to get a brexit deal that was impossible - but she tried to play by the rules. Johnson just came in and bluffed right through (the new border in the Irish Sea is hilarious).

But i think may would've been calm and rational, and made better decisions than this lot. She was more of a safe pair of hands and that's what you want in a pandemic.

History teaches us that events make or break leaders. Corbyn and may were fucked by brexit and there's very little they couldn't done about it. It's all about timing.

I pray that the papers have more dirt on Cummings and his trip to the castle.

Absolutely this. If there's any detail that comes out that shows that happened then Johnson is in some real bother.

Literally no one will base their 2024 vote on Cummings driving to Durham. 
It's just a stupid media cycle frenzy that will be forgotten in a few weeks. 

I can't see this going away that easily.

Ordinary folk who have no interest in politics are affected by this lockdown - and this incident is incredibly damaging.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

8 minutes ago, tamthebam said:

Meanwhile laboratories are frantically striving to test possible vaccines against Covid-19

  Hide contents

This one looks promising...

...hmm, more research needed...

 

And so shines a good dead in a weary world.

[NotThePars]

14 minutes ago, Carl Cort's Hamstring said:

It's better for the Tory MPs to be attacking Cummings rather than Starmer. That way they can't player the 'bitter remoaner' card.

Then he should resign if he's restricted from criticising the government more than the government's own MPs and the civil service. 

[Ludo*1]

Gordon Brown was fucked because he made a gaffe calling a woman a racist. Boris Johnson would be fucked if an election was imminent.

It's all about timing. 5 year for the public to get over it. Nothing to see here.

[welshbairn]

Just now, Detournement said:

The only thing that really matters in terms of long term politics is the depth of the recession once furlough ends. That's it. 

Not a problem, they can just print more money do more quantitative easing. No problem there, especially with the interest rates so low. 

[Donathan]

That’s the lockdown officially over then. If the police pull me over I’m pulling the Cummings excuse.

[Turkmenbashi]

1 minute ago, buchan30 said:

I’m getting old. Looking at that bottom picture and thinking that she shouldn’t have her finger in her mouth. That is exactly what we have been told not to do. 

I am not even sure that is an age thing. Ive been watching stuff on Netflix and the first thing I notice is the lack of social distancing.

Cant say I immediately noticed anything wrong with that picture though

[Todd_is_God]

1 minute ago, pandarilla said:

Ordinary folk who have no interest in politics are affected by this lockdown - and this incident is incredibly damaging.

In the short term though, particularly in England, people will forget about it if they are sitting in a beer garden in 8 days time.

Up here we can make as much noise as we like but it will make absolutely no difference

[Detournement]

1 minute ago, welshbairn said:

Not a problem, they can just print more money do more quantitative easing. No problem there, especially with the interest rates so low. 

They need to get people spending which is trickier than just printing (and they will only print to directly bail out corporations and the super rich).

I also suspect a lot of companies are going to use this as an excuse to break their work forces. BA and Rolls Royce are definitely going to go down the road of mass redundancies then rehire on far worse wages and conditions. 

[Arch Stanton]

1 hour ago, Rob1885 said:

Starmer will nail him at PMQs.

No PMQs till a week on Wednesday.

[Guest]

There's no doubt this will rumble on for another couple of days but there's also no doubt that they'll get away with it.

BJ and his cabinet have adopted the "nothing to see here" mantra and just keep repeating it, in fact tonight's press conference was a perfect example of the contempt in which they hold for the population and even the press.

In many ways it's similar to Trump, in as much as the attitude of "we'll do as we like and we don't care whether it's right or wrong as we're untouchable".

Just another prime example of why we need to go our own way as soon as we possibly can.

[WhiteRoseKillie]

I wonder if one of the P&B Civil servants got hold of the login

Not guilty. Far too polite for me, anyhow.

[Ludo*1]

Tory MP.

Edited May 24, 2020 by Ludo*1

[welshbairn]

3 minutes ago, Detournement said:

They need to get people spending which is trickier than just printing (and they will only print to directly bail out corporations and the super rich).

I also suspect a lot of companies are going to use this as an excuse to break their work forces. BA and Rolls Royce are definitely going to go down the road of mass redundancies then rehire on far worse wages and conditions. 

You've changed your tune, I thought that money was an neoliberal construct that could be pumped out at will. In my tinfoil hat days I think they might be preparing the ground for a Universal Guaranteed Income and a step up in robotics and AI though.

[O'Kelly Isley III]

In the short term though, particularly in England, people will forget about it if they are sitting in a beer garden in 8 days time.
Up here we can make as much noise as we like but it will make absolutely no difference

If you were to stop posting glib inanities and read some British political history you would recognise today as one the seminal Westminster moments of the modern age.

Johnson had a massive call to make today and he revealed himself to be weak and of poor judgement, a toxic combination for a Prime Minister. The clock of public opinion is now ticking for him.

[Carl Cort's Hamstring]

I really don't think this will blow over. They've taken the worst possible approach at each stage:

 

 

[Granny Danger]

Political views don’t change radically overnight but events influence people’s long-term thinking.

How much impact a single event like this has is impossible to evaluate.  Instead it will shape people’s perception of the Tories as a whole and Johnson as an individual.

 

[Detournement]

1 minute ago, welshbairn said:

You've changed your tune, I thought that money was an neoliberal construct that could be pumped out at will. In my tinfoil hat days I think they might be preparing the ground for a Universal Guaranteed Income and a step up in robotics and AI though.

UBI is possible but it's not going to happen under Johnson or Starmer.

 

[Ludo*1]

Marvin Bartley with the Tweet of the day IMO