Westminstenders: Following the EU lead

[RedToothBrush]

Coronavirus poses a particularly Irish shaped question. How the UK responds to Irish plans for ending lockdown and whether Arlene continues to back an all Ireland plan will be fascinating to watch and see justified regardless of which way we go.

The UK for all its new found independence is looking very closely to the success / failure of EU strategies before making our own plan public. Mainly because we've yet to write one.

Johnson hasn't led much. He's delegated. Yet he gets all the praise for doing the sum total of fuck all and never being the bad guy. There always another fall guy to blame.

Economically we are stuffed and promises of a very quick bounce back don't look likely based on public confidence and willingness to return to places like pubs restaurants and shops.

Our ability to adapt to new conditions at short notice has been tested and businesses can not afford to do this again soon.

This is the background to which we go into talks. Both sides need an extension to serve their best interests. Johnson is determined to cut our nose of to spite our face for the sake of his legacy and to keep those paying the back handers and dodging tax happy.

Evening all. PMK.

Scary, Auld
That handsome cat is demanding treats with menaces

That bread oven is a thing of beauty.

I agree with @LouiseCollins28 about the public reaction: people are definitely going out more and being blasé. Having said that, in the absence of a more formal plan I am not surprised people are making their own assessments and deciding to risk it.

A minority are breaking lockdown "advice" but probably not the law

A large majority don't want to go back - so it won't happen until the govt can convince them it's "safe enough"

In other countries where governments respected their citizens more,

^sensible leaders e.g. Merkel / Macron / Varadkar calmly explained the facts as known then, explained what they wanted us to do
and with that information, we complied just as well as Brits complied out of fear^

Hence we weren't too scared when they said it was time to start coming out of lockdown

There is a huge trust issue on both sides in the UK.

I wonder is the philosophy behind citizen vs subject an explanation for the basic difference in approach?

I would have thought somebody like Prof Chris Whitty personified “calmly explained” btw, there’s a reason why the used him in the advertising.

Would his explanations have gone down as well if his accent was different?

Just musing on 'British problems'.

Missclimpson mmmm you could make a banging teurgoule in that oven.

This govt is untrustworthy on every level. From their actions and words we can’t trust their
Motives
Competence
Or, because of their leader and the taint he spreads, their integrity, both personal and professional.

We could BurneyFanny and the neighbours do. Unfortunately we are low-carbers so can't do the rice or the sugar. 😀 The doors and surround originally led to an oven big enough for the hamlet and taking 24 hours to get to temperature. It had more or less collapsed so we had a smaller one put in.

Ah un four banal, cool! Bloody love teurgoule. Might dig out the slow cooker and make some.

Burney Fanny Isn't the story that there was an English (pirate?) ship with spices from the East in Le Havre and the French seized it and learnt to add cinnamon to their rice pudding. 😱

I'm struggling with the virtue signalling aspect to all of this. Thursday clapping now goes on for 15mins with cars zooming up and down our road beeping while neighbours bang bongos/saucepans/set off alarms etc. I've not joining in for 2 weeks. I'm increasingly aware nurses and doctors just want PPE and clapping feels as though it has become mocking; I don't know if anyone saw the Gollum link recently, "If we vote Tory, all we need to do is CLAP!"?

I've just read this and think we need to address the guilt (?) or whatever it is that is causing families and children to starve at home but food moutains to be donated to hospitals www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/02/hospital-staff-urge-meal-donors-to-feed-the-needy-as-well. Donations to food banks are down.

Of course I am massively grateful to our NHS (squid's posts have hinted at this issue of donations when she gets a chance between shifts) and I do think we need to be aware of pay of carers as well after this, which is not a short term problem. So why are so many people focusing on short term acts? How can we change this in the eyes of the public so that is has a more meaningful long term impact?

I can not stand the virtue signalling. I find its either a way of avoiding reality and a form of denialism or a way of justifying breaking lockdown rules and satisfying guilt about it. "Of course I support the NHS, I clap every Thursday". "Look at my lovely rainbow and all the kids rainbows, please don't talk about how you are worried about losing your home that's just negative and depressing, we need positivity and if we do that we will all be just fine"

Tbh it's got to the point now where it has damaged how I see a few people. It very much makes me realise I'm on a completely different wavelength. I'm of the mindset that it not my job to prop up someone else's fantasy (done too much of that in the past and it's unhealthy). A good dose of reality and pragmatic thought isnt being negative.

I feel really alienated by it all. I don't want to watch the 5 minute video one parent has made about the parent key works and the kids clapping on the doorstep. It's homemade propaganda shite.

So Boris has talked about how he nearly died - it was in the London standard last night. I said to DH that they must have done a poll and things weren't looking good. And here we are today and Red has posted one.....

So he's played the baby card and the nearly died card.... he may get an upward bump - but how many more cards has he got up his sleeve to hide his incompetence?

In the UK, the most trusted accent of all is Educated-but-not-posh Scots. The least trusted is any form of Brummie.

Perhaps he’ll dive into a river to save someone or put out a fire with his bare hands and volumes of spittle.
(Stealth ancestry boast: my paternal grandfather was awarded a Royal Humane Society medal for saving someone from drowning in the Thames at Limehouse in 1896. I have the very handsome framed certificate on my wall.)

I am quite bitter about the clapping - I asked someone if they thought it made everyone feel guilty for voting in the Tory government for years , who have screwed the nhs to the bone. They were stunned . But maybe it made them think. But on my local Facebook page - others are asking the same questions of people - maybe it will make people think.
It won't make people like Giles and Mary on gogglebox think - but maybe others.
I think people on an individual level are sorry Boris getting sick, but I think his shine has dulled.

I definitely think the discussion around the clapping needs to change; people need to ask what they are achieving and who for. Donations to hospitals seem to be an extension of this.

I would love to find a lovely Scottish man to settle with - I love the Scottish accent. Yes, I assume they are educated to a better level than most UK accents . I've got a posh southern accent and was told at uni by a lecturer that it didn't matter that I had got the top marks for our Sexual Health module because no one wants to talk to a posh middle aged white woman about their STI. I took that on board and decided not to take my "preachy" intonation into a career in GUM clinic I think sometimes the question about accents has to be asked in context. At the moment, for example, I'd trust anyone who doesn't sound as though he is doing a poor dubbing effort for a remaster of The Dambusters at every speech.

Polling from YouGov from last week shows support for Boris as being best PM at 46%, Keir at 22% and don't know at 28%.

Generally I've been avoiding the daily briefings for the past week same questions, same nonanswers but admittedly I've missed the criteria that needs to be reached for lockdown to be eased. Has anyone got a quick handy link to them they could post?

I'd be surprised if YouGov said anything else! It's always good to tell the people what they think and what they ought to think

The clapping has taken on a very competitive edge round here.

We now have bagpipers (who knew so many people could play the bagpipes in York?) who are being badgered on Facebook to go to x y z Street and play. A bit of a row developed as one street had already had their turn at having a bagpiper so why was the bagpiper doing that street again? (Clue: that was the street she lived on and she was getting a bit peeved with being demanded to trek to various other streets every Thursday.)

The sanctifying of NHS workers is rather reminiscent of the glorification of soldiers in various wars. Turn people unwillingly into heroes and all of a sudden its a lot harder for them to say 'Actually, I don't want to do this...' and heroism becomes expected of them. It also dehumanises them. If they die, they die for 'the cause' and it becomes difficult to ask questions about whether their death was avoidable because we expect 'heroes' to die.

The clapping is North Korean. First one to stop gets dragged out to the middle of the cul-de-sac to be tarred and feathered when the lockdown ends.

No honour or honesty with this lot.
Some interesting comments though.

SteveBakerMP
Few things never cease to amaze me.
One of them is that Dominic Cummings' opponents never learn that he uses controversy over numbers to keep the numbers in the news.
So that the numbers are widely heard by the public.

mobile.twitter.com/SteveBakerHW/status/1256312806896365568

Then it’s Tommy this, and Tommy that, an’ Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll