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GazChap: Dec 4, 2004; I'm hungry. Feed me.

What is the point in sending kids back to school for under a month, when that last month tends to be a "wind down" anyway and exams are cancelled?

I assume it's just to free up parents again so that they can go back to work and continue making number go up, but it just doesn't make any sense at all outside of that.

//edit: 31 is the number of days since I last met my move goal on my watch.

GazChap fucked around with this message at 10:36 on May 7, 2020

# ? May 7, 2020 10:34

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# ? May 20, 2024 22:10

namesake: Jun 19, 2006; "When I was a girl, around 12 or 13, I had a fantasy that I'd grow up to marry Captain Scarlet, but he'd be busy fighting the Mysterons so I'd cuckold him with the sexiest people I could think of - Nigel Mansell, Pat Sharp and Mr. Blobby."

GazChap posted:

What is the point in sending kids back to school for under a month, when that last month tends to be a "wind down" anyway and exams are cancelled?

I assume it's just to free up parents again so that they can go back to work and continue making number go up, but it just doesn't make any sense at all outside of that.

It's because of that yes. They didn't want to close the schools in the first place because of the number of people who then couldn't go to work.

# ? May 7, 2020 10:35

Cerv: Sep 14, 2004; This is a silly post with little news value.

whole interview for those interested

quote:

Keir Starmer: �The government has been slow in nearly all of the major decisions�
The opposition leader on Covid-19, dealing with Corbyn�s legacy and holding Downing St to account

6 hours ago

The recent history of British politics has been littered with famous �isms: Thatcherism, Blairism, Corbynism. But ask if there is a political philosophy that might be dubbed �Starmerism� and the new leader of the Labour party visibly recoils. �I really, really don�t like those labels,� he says in his flat methodical tones.

Instead, Keir Starmer�s tenure looks set to be defined by something no one saw coming. �The coronavirus now has effectively shaped everything. The sorts of questions that we thought we were addressing three months ago are now completely different because of the virus,� he says.

For Starmer, elected as Labour leader just five weeks ago, the pandemic has highlighted the need for a radical government. �The nature of the task has moved on considerably,� he says.

�The position of health workers and care workers has been seen by the public in the last few weeks in a way which it just wasn�t, probably for decades . . . There needs to be a re-evaluation of what matters and I think the country is interested in hearing that argument.�

The election of the former human rights lawyer could be a watershed moment in British political history. It marks the end of the five-year �Corbyn era� during which the Labour party was run by a small cabal of leftwingers inspired by Marx and Trotsky.

Instead, Starmer is expected to take Labour in a more moderate �social democrat� direction while still wrapping himself in socialist rhetoric. �The levels of inequality . . . are now so deeply ingrained that only transformative change is going to do something about it,� he says.

Yet the man who wants to be Britain�s next prime minister faced fundamental questions about the future of his party even before the upheaval of Covid-19. The gruelling leadership contest began in December, shortly after Labour�s worst election defeat in nearly a century: its fourth in a row.

Starmer�s first task is to end the ugly civil war that has raged for years between radical leftwing party members and their more moderate MPs. Then he needs to claw back national support for the party, which saw its presence in the House of Commons reduced to just 202 MPs in the last election.

Labour has previously gained power by tacking towards Britain�s �political centre ground� but this concept is no longer easy to define. Old allegiances have been scrambled by the aftermath of the financial crash, a decade of austerity, the rise of social media and the Brexit culture war. And now the Covid-19 pandemic is shaking up politics � and the nature of government � in an entirely new way.

Historians will look back at this time and scrutinise how politicians shaped their nation�s path through the worst global crisis since the second world war. For opposition leaders, there is both opportunity and risk. With more than 32,000 deaths officially linked to coronavirus in the UK alone, Starmer is trying to strike a pragmatic balance between holding the government to account and not sounding like an armchair critic.

�I don�t want the Labour party to simply be criticising for the sake of criticising, we genuinely need to be constructive about this,� he says. �People will judge whether we are getting the balance right or wrong, but simply pretending that this would have been easy for any other government I don�t think is realistic.�

Britain�s leader of the opposition usually operates from a grand network of offices looking out across the river Thames from a Victorian Romanesque building called Norman Shaw South.

Since lockdown, though, Starmer has been mostly running the largest political party in Europe from an eyrie in his home in Kentish Town, north London. �I�ve been relegated to the loft by our children, who have taken every other room.�

Since his victory, not much has been as Starmer might have imagined. He had hoped to address a crowd of thousands from the stage of the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in Westminster before basking in the attention of the media. Instead, he pre-recorded his victory speech alone against some drab window blinds.

�I had to deliver my acceptance speech in my own living room,� he tells the FT over the phone, the way in which he is now conducting most of his meetings. �It�s the least of the problems for people across the country but it�s not quite what I�d anticipated.�

He is working long hours, interspersed by irregular jogs. �The problem with virtual working is that you can work every hour because you don�t have to move between meetings.� Since Parliament partially reopened, Starmer has been travelling by car into Westminster �as little as possible�, once or twice a week, with only a couple of advisers in the office at any time.

Most Labour MPs are still working from home. At 9.30am every Tuesday, Starmer holds his weekly shadow cabinet meeting on Zoom: Covid-19 dominates the agenda.

Charlie Falconer, a Labour veteran who served under both Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn, has returned as the new shadow attorney-general. He says that, under Corbyn, meetings would be chaotic with people wandering in and out and showboating about pet topics.

�It�s interesting seeing Keir in action, he�s a natural leader � all the meetings, which had previously been a shambles, are now being run properly,� he says. �The new leader is bewildered by low standards.�

All shadow ministers have been told to arrive promptly, talk clearly and not be repetitive. �The Corbyn cabinet was full of people intervening on topics which had gently caress all to do with the topic they were talking about, and high levels of abuse or obsequiousness,� says Falconer. �That doesn�t happen any more.�

Starmer has vowed to be a constructive critic during the biggest health and economic crisis of our lifetimes. As he sees it, Labour�s role is to challenge and point out mistakes on issues such as testing and the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

�I think the government has been slow in pretty well all of the major decisions. It was slow into lockdown . . . they were slow with testing and are still slow with testing, slow with complete PPE and I fear they are going to be slow on an exit strategy,� he says.

At his first prime minister�s questions, held in an eerily empty chamber on April 22, he impressed observers from both sides of the political divide with his forensic questions about virus testing. Andrew Neil, a veteran BBC broadcaster, said the UK now had a �functioning, probing, measured, informed� official opposition again: �The government will need to raise its game.�

All discourse in the modern Labour party takes place in the long shadow of Blair, who won three elections in 1997, 2001 and 2005 but is hated by many activists for his embrace of the private sector and for taking the UK into the disastrous Iraq war in 2003. When the party members picked the long-serving backbench MP and fringe protester Jeremy Corbyn to become leader in 2015, it was a visceral act of protest against those �New Labour years�.

Starmer�s politics are more opaque. The 57-year-old was absent from the political arena until he was first elected in 2015, having risen through the legal profession to the heights of director of public prosecutions � the figure in charge of all criminal prosecutions in England and Wales.

Tory MPs take their new opponent seriously, although many believe he will struggle in a charisma contest against Boris Johnson. Pollster YouGov recently found Starmer was trailing behind the incumbent as �best prime minister� by 46 per cent to 22 per cent. More than four in 10 people had no view on him at all.

Yet being a blank canvas has worked to his advantage in other ways. He won the leadership race by promising to be the �unity candidate�, surrounding himself with advisers from both ends of Labour�s left-right spectrum.

�The truth is that Keir is new on the scene, he�s not that politically experienced, he has not got lots of friends in Westminster,� says one member of the shadow cabinet. �It�s like when Obama turned up, no one really knew him and he was hard to define. Obama is not really on the left and neither is Keir.�

Corbyn, who never craved the leadership, often seemed happiest addressing a protest rally of adoring supporters. From day one, Starmer has seemed much more earnest about getting Labour into Downing Street.

Robert Halfon, a prominent �Blue Collar Conservative� MP, says he relishes the challenge from the �very impressive� Starmer. �If you wake up in the morning knowing your opponent wants to slit your throat, you�re going to get up early every day,� he says.

Nigel Farage, former Ukip leader and godfather of Brexit, says the Europhile Starmer can make real progress if he can �lose his Remainia� and start talking as a patriotic centre-left leader. �The question mark is a lack of personality,� he says.

Starmer rejects the choice between �hard left� and �centre left� � aka Corbyn and Blair � and sounds irritated by the question. �People are constantly trying to get me to self-identify with some figure from the past and I constantly refuse to do so,� he says. �I�ve always refused. It�s not just a casual refusal.�

Yet a mass clear-out of Corbyn acolytes from the shadow cabinet within hours of victory was a less than subtle signal of intent. Asked why voters turned away from Labour in droves in the last election, he says: �The leadership of the Labour party was [the] number one [reason], fair or unfair.�

Keir Rodney Starmer was born on September 2 1962 in leafy Oxted, Surrey, into a staunchly Labour-supporting family: he was named after Keir Hardie, a founding father of the party. He was one of four children of Jo, a nurse, and Rod, who ran a tool factory.

As a football-mad youngster, he went to the state grammar in Reigate where he played the flute, piano, recorder and violin � winning an exhibition to the Guildhall School of Music. (He still loves Beethoven piano sonatas and has previously named the Israeli pianist-conductor Daniel Barenboim as his favourite musician). One friend praises him as �a man of hidden shallows�, who likes a pint, plays regular five-a-side football and worships Arsenal.

Starmer was one of a handful of �East Surrey Young Socialists� as a teenager before studying law at Leeds University and then as a postgraduate at Oxford university. His politics at the time were �Bennite�: another friend recalls him spending a whole weekend as an 18-year-old at a seminar hosted by Tony Benn, the former aristocrat-turned-socialist firebrand.

After university, he joined Doughty Street, the left-leaning barristers� chambers. He was involved in a fringe newsletter called �Socialist Alternatives�, which vowed to challenge the �capitalist order�.

Starmer has emphasised his work in various leftwing cases including the McLibel case, supporting striking miners and fighting against the death penalty in Commonwealth countries. In 2005, he was part of a team that helped overturn capital punishment in Uganda, saving the lives of 417 prisoners on death row.

�He could have earned massive amounts of money but took on cases that were completely unglamorous; pro bono was half his career,� says Tom Kibasi, a former director of the left-leaning IPPR think-tank. �In the �80s he used to drive down to the docks at a weekend and help families of striking dock workers with their benefit claims.�

Alex Bailin QC, a leading barrister, says Starmer was not a campaigning lawyer per se. �He was a real �black letter� lawyer rather than one who was utterly political,� he says, using the legal phrase for a literal, forensic approach.

Starmer�s move to become director of public prosecutions (DPP) in 2008, working for the government�s Crown Prosecution Service, surprised some of his peers because he had mostly been a defence barrister. In 2014, he was knighted for �services to law�.

Once there, he banned staff from calling him director and would often eat in the canteen, according to Alison Levitt QC, former principal legal adviser to the DPP. She says that when austerity hit the CPS � with thousands of job losses � Starmer gave up his chauffeur-driven car. �He�s authentic, what you see is what you get,� she says. �He�s a very modest man. Not grand or materialistic at all.�

By now his thoughts were already turning to politics, according to Robert Latham, a barrister who has known him for 20 years and who gave �100,000 to his leadership campaign. The pair would play intense games of squash every Friday at the local Cannons gym, he recalls.

�We discussed what the future options were for him. I suspect his options were the High Court bench, the Commons or the Lords . . . he took the view that he had much greater potential to influence events from the Commons.�

Encouraged by friends � including Ed Miliband, the then Labour party leader � Starmer sailed through the selection process to become MP for the super-safe London seat of Holborn & St Pancras.

Given a junior role under Corbyn, he largely kept his head down. But when MPs turned on the leader in June 2016 � just hours after the Brexit referendum result � he was forced to pick sides. He joined more than 60 other shadow ministers who quit, suggesting the leader�s position had become untenable.

Corbyn subsequently saw off that leadership challenge and begged Starmer to return. When Starmer demanded either shadow home secretary or shadow Brexit secretary, he was given the latter.

From that berth, he gradually shifted Labour towards backing a second referendum. That made him a hero for many grassroots members, who tend to be Europhile. But it enraged many of Corbyn�s allies, who wanted to maintain a more convolutedly neutral position. Some worry that Starmer�s role in the Brexit saga will make it harder to win back Leave areas � which made up the vast majority of the 59 seats lost in the December election.

Steve Howell, Labour�s former deputy director of strategy, says Starmer at times �sidelined� the leader�s office in his pursuit of a more pro-EU position. �It was clever of him to put himself at the helm of the Remainer camp, it was good for his leadership ambitions, but it was disastrous electorally,� he says. �It lost us the 2019 election.�

One leftwing MP, who was sacked last month from the shadow cabinet, says Corbyn should never have outsourced Brexit policy to Starmer. �I think Jeremy may have been a bit awestruck by Keir�s formidable intellect, Jeremy . . . allowed Keir to roam all over the territory.�

Starmer says now that there were several reasons why Labour was soundly beaten: �The Brexit position came up but it came up differently in different parts of the country,� he argues. �Look, there�s no pretending that there was an easy position that Labour could have adopted that would have pleased everybody across our party and across all of our voters.�

Some Eurosceptic Tory MPs also believe that Starmer�s role in Brexit is his Achilles heel. �He is a London metropolitan elite Remainer and was the architect of Labour�s defeat in the Midlands and northern seats where people wanted to leave the EU. Him and Jeremy Corbyn are the two reasons they lost in December 2019,� says Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire. �From a Conservative point of view, what�s not to like about him?�

When he was 45, Starmer married Victoria Alexander, who used to be a solicitor but now works in occupational health for the NHS. She comes from a Jewish background and their son and daughter have grown up with some of the religious traditions. Starmer goes to �Shabbat� gatherings held by the extended family.

Corbyn was denounced by Jewish leaders for his failure to stamp out anti-Semitism among some of the party membership while he was leader, with the chief rabbi taking the extraordinary step of urging people not to vote Labour in December.

To the relief of many Jewish organisations and MPs, Starmer took an unequivocal stance in his victory speech, saying that anti-Semitism had been a �stain� on the Labour party and vowing to �tear out this poison by its roots�.

He acted similarly decisively in his first reshuffle. Buoyed by the strength of his leadership victory � with 56 per cent of the vote � he culled a dozen Corbynistas from the shadow cabinet and appointed several Blairites to junior positions, albeit while also promoting a handful of leftwingers. For all his warm words about his �friend� Corbyn, the message was clear: this would be a new era.

So far he has made few political enemies, although there are limits to his genial nature. �I don�t think he�s very tolerant of people standing up to him, but he�s going to find it different now he�s leader rather than just a semi-insurgent member of the shadow cabinet,� says one Labour MP.

During the leadership contest Starmer indicated he would keep many of the radical policies from the 2017 and (to a lesser extent) the 2019 manifestos: the nationalisation of various utilities, heavy taxes on high earners and a reshaping of workplace rules to help the low-paid. �The free market model doesn�t work,� he declared at the time. He tells the FT: �I have never been a neo-liberalist.�

But MPs see his gradual approach to Brexit as a template for how he is likely to shift away subtly from Corbyn�s revolutionary economic agenda. By the next election in 2024, he is expected to keep the spirit of previous manifestos � such as the need for a Green New Deal and a fairer tax system � while trimming some of the more eye-watering Corbyn-era pledges, such as mass nationalisations and the seizure of �300bn of shares.

Starmer says that arguing about old manifestos is not the way forward. �During the campaign I said a lot of water will have gone under the bridge between 2019 and 2024,� he muses. �I never expected quite as much water to have gone under the bridge in the last three months.�

Ed Miliband, who Starmer has brought back as shadow business secretary, lost the 2015 election on a �soft left� manifesto. But many of Starmer�s allies believe that the British public is now ready for a socialist government � if not the tub-thumping radicalism of Corbyn.

�I think he will bin the 2019 manifesto, bit by bit, through a series of careful crab moves,� says one former shadow cabinet member. �What a crisis does is it allows you to achieve what you want and blame the crisis.�

But will the final Starmer blueprint be radical enough for the large numbers of Corbynistas who mostly backed rival Rebecca Long Bailey for the leadership? Some are already braced for a betrayal. John McDonnell, former shadow chancellor, gloomily told a recent video meeting with friends that Starmer�s coronation reflected �defeatism� on the part of members after so many losses.

Starmer�s team knows he is likely to be defined by his response to the Covid-19 pandemic. They have spent countless hours debating how hard to attack the government and on which failings. No one doubts the leader�s grasp of detail. His first prime minister�s questions saw him carefully filleting the government over its struggle to increase testing capacity.

Mark Adams, a childhood friend, describes Starmer as a perfectionist who �does everything to the nth degree. I once asked him why he gave up playing the flute and he said, �If I can�t practise every day, I can�t be top level, so I don�t want to do it,�� he recalls.

�As a lawyer, he would work on cases until 3am and get up at 7am and feel fine. He is someone who works like a dog but also has a forensic intellect, which makes him a really interesting adversary for a certain prime minister who is the opposite of that.�

Tulip Siddiq, a Labour MP who knows Starmer well, says she does not want to �pretend he�s the Messiah. But having someone with integrity is important . . . yes, he is a little bit dull but he will get Johnson on detail.�

Holding the government to account will test Starmer�s abilities as a strategic thinker. The sheer scale of state intervention in March � at the cost of tens of billions of pounds � has raised huge questions about the kind of society that will emerge in the aftermath of the calamity.

It may be harder for Labour to differentiate itself from a Tory government that is subsidising the wages of millions and has temporarily taken control of the rail and bus industries. Yet some believe that the historic scale of the crisis could play to Labour�s strengths as the party of the oppressed and left-behind.

Starmer himself says all the usual political questions have gone out of the window. �A lot of the early questions in the leadership campaign were obviously very much about �which bits of Jeremy Corbyn do you associate with�? To some extent the scale of the task now has changed pretty profoundly.�

One question is whether he will be prepared to get his hands dirty in the looming political blame game over Britain�s response to the pandemic and whether it was woefully underprepared.

�Good leaders are able to use crises to their advantage,� says one party official. �When you think about the financial crash, David Cameron and George Osborne used it to frame a narrative about Labour�s �overspending�, which we [have] struggled to shake off ever since.�

Ellie Mae O�Hagan, a leftwing Labour columnist, says some leftwingers voted for Starmer because they felt �chastened� by the 2019 defeat and were willing to accept a soft-left leadership if it brought a Labour government closer.

�They voted for him, but I think they had doubts that he would compromise too easily and be too concerned with appeasing the establishment,� she says. �They are still giving him the benefit of the doubt, but I do think they are worried he is not mounting enough of a challenge to the government over coronavirus.�

Allies suggest Starmer will play a straight bat while gradually piecing together the equivalent of a �legal case� against the government. Many vociferous Corbynista members � some of whom voted for Starmer � already want him to take a more aggressive tone. During prime minister�s questions on April 29, he said the government�s ramping up of critical care capacity was an �amazing piece of work�, prompting a torrent of criticism on Twitter.

But one senior MP says that opposition at a time of such fundamental crisis � when the public is still behind the government � requires deft footwork. �At the end of the day, we want the government to succeed in defeating coronavirus,� she says pointedly.

This is a tricky time to be an opposition leader anywhere. Premiers around the world, including Boris Johnson, have seen their popularity spike as voters rally around incumbents. Yet Starmer believes he has the stamina to rebuild the party over the next five years and persuade the public that it is fit for government. �There�s a lot of work that we have to do to restore trust across the country.�

Right now he was meant to be touring the UK listening to voters: instead he is holding a series of Zoom-based (�Call Keir�) town hall meetings with the public.

Kibasi describes him as the most �centred� Labour leader for a long time, lacking the egotism of most politicians. �Arguments about political cunning are not going to cut through with him,� he says. �He is more likely to do what he considers the right thing, in the public interest, which is what he�s done all his life. He will do what is right rather than opportune.�

Falconer says Starmer has been looking and sounding �less buttoned-up� since winning the leadership. �A great political leader needs political definition, which is still yet to come,� he says. �You also need to be absolutely in command of the Labour party, that is fundamental, and that is the bit that he is very well-equipped to do.�

One reason members backed Starmer is because of his gravitas: they could imagine him sitting behind a desk in Downing Street alongside a red box full of policy papers. Turning that dream into reality still requires the party to win at least 124 seats at the next general election.

Blair remains the only Labour leader to have won an election since 1976 and Starmer is conscious of the �mountain� ahead of him. �I don�t think it�s impossible but I do think it�s a challenge,� he admits.

Jim Pickard is the FT�s chief political correspondent. Additional reporting by Jane Croft

# ? May 7, 2020 10:35

Total Meatlove: Jan 28, 2007; Rangers died, shoujo Hitler cried ;_;

Gonna be interesting for any business with Scottish or Welsh offices to have two tiers of staff going back into offices

# ? May 7, 2020 10:37

Cerv: Sep 14, 2004; This is a silly post with little news value.

GazChap posted:

What is the point in sending kids back to school for under a month, when that last month tends to be a "wind down" anyway and exams are cancelled?

I assume it's just to free up parents again so that they can go back to work and continue making number go up, but it just doesn't make any sense at all outside of that.

in normal years last month can be a wind down. but in the current circumstances that probably won�t happen. could have a bit of a catch up instead.

# ? May 7, 2020 10:37

Soylent Yellow: Nov 5, 2010; yospos

This is definitely going to cause some tensions in the regional areas. A lot of areas away from the big cities haven't hit the peak of this outbreak yet, before considering a second wave. A wave of holidaymakers and tourists taking a partial relaxation as a green light to flood back to their second homes and airbnbs is likely to push it into overdrive. The Welsh Government in particular won't be too happy, and there are plenty of people around who are already on the verge of reaching for the petrol and matches.

# ? May 7, 2020 10:37

GazChap: Dec 4, 2004; I'm hungry. Feed me.

namesake posted:

It's because of that yes. They didn't want to close the schools in the first place because of the number of people who then couldn't go to work.

Seems a bit short-lived, as they'll only be coming home again for 6 weeks a month later, and I imagine childcare is going to be very difficult to come by for a good long while yet.

Cerv posted:

in normal years last month can be a wind down. but in the current circumstances that probably won�t happen. could have a bit of a catch up instead.

True, although it'll be interesting to see how compliant the kids are with that approach

# ? May 7, 2020 10:38

Sad Panda: Sep 22, 2004; I'm a Sad Panda.

If you're wanting to keep up with Keir's paywalled interviews, https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome works well for the FT.

# ? May 7, 2020 10:38

crispix: Mar 28, 2015; Grand-Maman m'a raconté
_{(Les éditions des amitiés franco-québécoises)}

Hello, dear

namesake posted:

You literally did just blame one of them.

It's ultimately the fault of the government for being ambivalent about a deadly virus, i get it. i'll just leave it at that because i don't think i'm expressing myself very well

# ? May 7, 2020 10:41

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

frankenbeans posted:

I was more expecting it to lean more into rich people stuff, like nannies and house cleaners.

I live in a small flat in a fairly large converted mental hospital with some nice private gardens and people were sunbathing and having picnics two weekends back. Some bellend even fired up a portable barbeque out there. I guess the warning tape all over the communal BBQ pit wasn't enough of a hint. We're all doomed.

Did any of that actually involve interacting with people and risking spreading the virus or are you just turning into a curtain-twitching conservative because people are breaking "the rules!"

# ? May 7, 2020 10:45

namesake: Jun 19, 2006; "When I was a girl, around 12 or 13, I had a fantasy that I'd grow up to marry Captain Scarlet, but he'd be busy fighting the Mysterons so I'd cuckold him with the sexiest people I could think of - Nigel Mansell, Pat Sharp and Mr. Blobby."

GazChap posted:

Seems a bit short-lived, as they'll only be coming home again for 6 weeks a month later, and I imagine childcare is going to be very difficult to come by for a good long while yet.

They'll be back home in a month when infections and deaths have shot up again, it's myopic short termism from the government.

Also:

quote:

Instead, Starmer is expected to take Labour in a more moderate �social democrat� direction while still wrapping himself in socialist rhetoric

LMAO that literally was Corbynism so good luck moving to the right and still claiming that's where you're going.

# ? May 7, 2020 10:48

Dabir: Nov 10, 2012

no no, haven't you heard? Corbynism was a tiny hard-left cabal (nice scary word that!) inspired by *gasp* Marx and *fainting* Trotsky!

# ? May 7, 2020 10:51

Fumble: Sep 4, 2006; Can't post for 20 days!

Jippa posted:

Was Del Boy in charge of this?

https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1258279345333960704

So were they worse than actual bin bags?

# ? May 7, 2020 10:52

Jose: Jul 24, 2007; Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster and writer

Lmao

https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1258323725855993857?s=19

# ? May 7, 2020 10:56

Sad Panda: Sep 22, 2004; I'm a Sad Panda.

GazChap posted:

What is the point in sending kids back to school for under a month, when that last month tends to be a "wind down" anyway and exams are cancelled?

I assume it's just to free up parents again so that they can go back to work and continue making number go up, but it just doesn't make any sense at all outside of that.

//edit: 31 is the number of days since I last met my move goal on my watch.

Obviously there's the number.

From a teachers perspective..
Year 6 will be to help with the transition between primary and secondary.

Y10 and y12 cos they've got exams in a year. They'll have missed 7 weeks of school by the 1st of June. If it's closed until Sept that's 7-8 more weeks. You can't just chop 14 weeks of the content out of a GCSE or A-Level as they are all assessed at the end and teachers teach the content in their own order. I can't see how they can do anything but give them the full exam and adjust the grading curve appropriately.

But how you can possibly socially distance them in school is beyond me.

# ? May 7, 2020 10:58

Cerv: Sep 14, 2004; This is a silly post with little news value.

goddamnedtwisto posted:

I was a porter, poisoning him would have been complex. I *could* have run him over with the cleaning trolley I suppose.

Funny thing though, he was about the only person working (in a suit) there who I wouldn't have happily murdered. He was the only one of the senior editorial staff to regularly eat in the normal staff canteen rather than the executive dining room on the 11th floor, and he knew the names of every single one of the staff in that canteen and chatted happily with all of them, a stark contrast with most of the journos who were at best indifferent but mostly loving arseholes to anyone they considered "below" them. Anyone baffled how he got where he was in life (and how he's got the love life of a character from a French farce), that's the missing piece (obviously sitting on top of a massive pile of privilege) - the dude is charming as hell IRL (as are most career politicians near the top - ultimately that's the only actual skill you need).

That's the only reason I knew who he was before HIGNFY et. al. made him BORIS LEGERND - he was literally the only non-service staff member there to actually introduce himself to me in the couple of months I worked there., on like my second or third day. I know it's all an act, but gently caress me it's a really convincing one, and I can see why people fall for it.

and as this morning�s FT interview reminded us, while Starmer was Director of CPS he used to eat in the staff canteen with the the grunts.
it shouldn�t be a surprise that the successful politicians tend to follow these same patterns of behaviour. whether it�s putting on an act or genuine.

# ? May 7, 2020 10:58

gh0stpinballa: Mar 5, 2019

crispix posted:

Some of the public definitely are asking for it and it won't take much to convince a whole lot more in spite of reality that it's nothing to worry about, again

im of the opinion that much of the anti lockdown sentiment is astroturfed. would be interesting to see what ads and posts the loudest of em have been looking at on facebook. once the boomer sees stuff on that shitshow these things take on a momentum of their own.

# ? May 7, 2020 11:03

bionic vapour boy: Feb 13, 2012; Impervious to fun.

Dabir posted:

hard-left cabal (nice scary word that!)

It's interesting how the left keeps getting called antisemites by people using a word derived from Kabbalah to mean a secretly conspiring clique, isnt it

# ? May 7, 2020 11:06

XMNN: Apr 26, 2008; I am incredibly stupid

like at least trump is completely open that people will die to reopen the economy and he doesn't give a poo poo, we have to put up with them just pretending that it's all over everythings fine go back to work citizen

# ? May 7, 2020 11:07

feedmegin: Jul 30, 2008

Cerv posted:

Asked why voters turned away from Labour in droves in the last election, he says: �The leadership of the Labour party was [the] number one [reason], fair or unfair.�

at least acknowledges that voters turning away from Labour weren�t being fair in their assessment of Corbyn.

Actually, it doesn't. fair or unfair is what he said.

Also, um, Brexit? Or would it be awkward for the guy who was 100% FBPE 'back Remain now Jezza' to admit that?

# ? May 7, 2020 11:08

Borrovan: Aug 15, 2013; IT IS ME.
🧑‍💼
I AM THERESA MAY

Cerv posted:

and as this morning’s FT interview reminded us, while Starmer was Director of CPS he used to eat in the staff canteen with the the grunts.
it shouldn’t be a surprise that the successful politicians tend to follow these same patterns of behaviour. whether it’s putting on an act or genuine.

A barrister I work with was saying about meeting Starmer at some dinner. He was a huge fan of his, loved his books & admired his work, but apparently he just came across as rude, arrogant and self important. My colleague commented to one of the other barristers afterwards that he must have been having an off day, but other barrister said no, he's always like that, he's just a oval office.

# ? May 7, 2020 11:09

gh0stpinballa: Mar 5, 2019

i mean tbh i am sympathetic to lifting the lockdown cos being stuck inside all day loving sucks but this ain't the way to lift it sis

# ? May 7, 2020 11:11

Cerv: Sep 14, 2004; This is a silly post with little news value.

feedmegin posted:

Actually, it doesn't. fair or unfair is what he said.

that post was supposed to be tongue in cheek

# ? May 7, 2020 11:13

crispix: Mar 28, 2015; Grand-Maman m'a raconté
_{(Les éditions des amitiés franco-québécoises)}

Hello, dear

gh0stpinballa posted:

im of the opinion that much of the anti lockdown sentiment is astroturfed. would be interesting to see what ads and posts the loudest of em have been looking at on facebook. once the boomer sees stuff on that shitshow these things take on a momentum of their own.

Maybe because of where I am but there are a lot of people even in my own family who still seem to be living in a state of cognitive dissonance and any announcement of an easing of the lockdown will be tantamount in their heads to the whole thing being over. It's going to be a poo poo show

# ? May 7, 2020 11:13

Jose: Jul 24, 2007; Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster and writer

Borrovan posted:

A barrister I work with was saying about meeting Starmer at some dinner. He was a huge fan of his, loved his books & admired his work, but apparently he just came across as rude, arrogant and self important. My colleague commented to one of the other barristers afterwards that he must have been having an off day, but other barrister said no, he's always like that, he's just a oval office.

My mam was at some event he was at back when he was dpp and said he had a load of hanger ons to hear his every word except he was extremely uncharismatic and clearly loving the attention. Think she still voted for him though

# ? May 7, 2020 11:14

frankenbeans: Feb 16, 2003; Good Times

Nothingtoseehere posted:

Did any of that actually involve interacting with people and risking spreading the virus or are you just turning into a curtain-twitching conservative because people are breaking "the rules!"

On a scale of 1 to 'Thursday evening on Westminister bridge', it would barely move the needle providing they were careful.

# ? May 7, 2020 11:18

XMNN: Apr 26, 2008; I am incredibly stupid

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1258003499167682560?s=20

# ? May 7, 2020 11:19

gh0stpinballa: Mar 5, 2019

crispix posted:

Maybe because of where I am but there are a lot of people even in my own family who still seem to be living in a state of cognitive dissonance and any announcement of an easing of the lockdown will be tantamount in their heads to the whole thing being over. It's going to be a poo poo show

yeah same with my fam. this isn't an accident i dont think, they have told the papers to do this so people think the lockdown actually is over, then once everyone is running around outside at the weekend the gov will say, "oh drat looks like we can't get this toothpaste back in the tube, guess we better lift the lockdown if people have had enough"/"it's the publics fault theg got the wrong impression"

# ? May 7, 2020 11:20

XMNN: Apr 26, 2008; I am incredibly stupid

I shook kier starmers hand in the before times

he was personable enough I guess? extremely short tho

# ? May 7, 2020 11:22

HJB: Feb 16, 2011; I can't get enough of are Dan

Borrovan posted:

A barrister I work with was saying about meeting Starmer at some dinner. He was a huge fan of his, loved his books & admired his work, but apparently he just came across as rude, arrogant and self important. My colleague commented to one of the other barristers afterwards that he must have been having an off day, but other barrister said no, he's always like that, he's just a oval office.

I watched a Uni Q&A with him from 2012 the other day, he was very matter-of-fact and content to plod along in his own way, until someone (a woman, if that's significant) asked him an awkward, probing question, and suddenly he became very smug and smarmy, asking her something like "you've read x report, I assume?", and tried his hardest to shut her down. He does not like the idea of someone being smarter than him.

# ? May 7, 2020 11:22

Lobster God: Nov 5, 2008

https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1258315481955565568?s=19

This has to be peak WW2 fetishisation. It won't be

# ? May 7, 2020 11:23

XMNN: Apr 26, 2008; I am incredibly stupid

yea I'm sure the government is real concerned by the headlines they deliberately sought to create by leaking information to their pet journalists

they're probably all huddled up in downing Street sobbing "why didn't we do some clearer messaging directly to the public to manage expectations and emphasise that it's not over, rather than anonymously briefing our chums to tell them the lockdown is over?", heartbreaking

XMNN fucked around with this message at 11:30 on May 7, 2020

# ? May 7, 2020 11:28

big scary monsters: Sep 2, 2011; -~Ｓｋｕｌｌｗａｖｅ~-

Jose posted:

Lmao

https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1258323725855993857?s=19

lol great use of the hypertext capability of the world wide web site twitter.com in sharing an image with a QR code rather than, for instance, a hyperlink that people can click on. Just going to get my phone out and take a picture of my computer monitor so I can support this important campaign by the Journalists' Charity. Aren't journalists meant to be experts in communicating and understanding media?

big scary monsters fucked around with this message at 11:32 on May 7, 2020

# ? May 7, 2020 11:30

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

Even better I think most people use twitter on their phones now, so just going to get my second phone to take a phone picture of my phone screen.

https://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/

# ? May 7, 2020 11:35

Jose: Jul 24, 2007; Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster and writer

Lobster God posted:

https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1258315481955565568?s=19

This has to be peak WW2 fetishisation. It won't be

i'm sure everyone is going to be fine being forced back into work but also told they can't leave the house otherwise

# ? May 7, 2020 11:38

TACD: Oct 27, 2000

Lobster God posted:

https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1258315481955565568?s=19

This has to be peak WW2 fetishisation. It won't be

VL day == Victory over Lockdown day? Not even fetishising it as Victory over COVID day? So loving weird man

# ? May 7, 2020 11:44

Oh dear me: Aug 14, 2012; I have burned numerous saucepans, sometimes right through the metal

Jose posted:

i'm sure everyone is going to be fine being forced back into work but also told they can't leave the house otherwise

Like lots of people have been the whole time.

# ? May 7, 2020 11:44

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

TACD posted:

VL day == Victory over Lockdown day? Not even fetishising it as Victory over COVID day? So loving weird man

Verbotene Liebe Day.

# ? May 7, 2020 11:44

Total Meatlove: Jan 28, 2007; Rangers died, shoujo Hitler cried ;_;

Jose posted:

i'm sure everyone is going to be fine being forced back into work but also told they can't leave the house otherwise

Don�t need to spend on anything cultural or any local amenities if you�re just running �work > commute > home > commute > work�

# ? May 7, 2020 11:45

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 20, 2024 22:10

Jose: Jul 24, 2007; Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster and writer

british pornstars are ruthless

https://twitter.com/grimusaur/status/1257930532551372802?s=20

# ? May 7, 2020 11:48

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT May 2020 - Let them eat Nando's

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