Westminstenders: How many Dead Cats Do You Get In A Thunderstorm?

[RedToothBrush]

It never rains. It only pours.

What I wouldn't give for a bit of old fashioned drizzle right now.

4 years on and we are facing a torment of calamities. Brexit, serious political instability in the USA ahead of an election that Trump will refuse to lose even if he does, trade deals with the rest of the world put on 6 week deadlines, anger within the commonwealth, a sick weak dependent PM on the back foot and ill briefed, rampant growing corruption in the Tory party, woke nut jobs out of touch with reality, councils on the brink of bankruptcy and the whole covid-19 crisis.

@ListeningQuietly

No I was antibody negative

long term health affects are thing that worries me.

We'll have to see if it triggers susceptibility to other diseases, for a start. And peoples health and critical care cover is going to be fucked every which way but sideways too. I can predict a parade of stories of insurers refusing to payout because a condition was "caused" by C-19. And we already know they don't cover chronic conditions anyway.

For people who like their life with lashings of bitter irony, I can see a few people who thought they'd opted out of state healthcare suddenly finding out they have no choice.

Oh sorry squid my bad.
But then again
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53169618

New Shadow Education Secretary ?
Jess Phillips?
Yvette Cooper?

@ListeningQuietly

New Shadow Education Secretary ? Jess Phillips? Yvette Cooper?

Well as a resident of Birmingham, Jess would be a bonus, although I gather she is a tad marmite ?

I know she's done quite a bit around domestic violence.

DGR
I was just scrolling through the list of MPs
and being VERY judgey

• young (so kids under 16)
• ideally female (so understand multitasking and because RLB )
• non London (because London schools are so different from everywhere else)
• sent kids to state school
• blunt enough to shred Williamson (hence why I thought of Jess)

blunt enough to shred Williamson (hence why I thought of Jess)

I didn't like to say, but ...

She's obviously liked well enough by her constituents, and is a rare breed of an MP who has links to their constituency. She also seemed more pragmatic than dogmatic when I caught her on RHLSTP - being a remainer that accepted the result of the vote immediately, rather than trying to "re educate" her constituents.

I am not sorry to see Long - Bailey gone, but it was the anti-Israeli government school of antisemitism. We Are Not Allowed to Criticise the Israeli Government.

@Peregrina

I am not sorry to see Long - Bailey gone, but it was the anti-Israeli government school of antisemitism. We Are Not Allowed to Criticise the Israeli Government.

Yeah, I did a bit of digging and put it on "mute" ....

"RLB sacked by Sir Kier! Crikey she didn’t last long did she?"

I'm not surprised at all. I think her days were numbered right from the start and she stupidly handed him a gift opportunity to get rid of her.
Nor am I shedding any tears. She hardly troubled Gavin Williamson.

I think I'd prefer to see Yvette Cooper as Education Secretary - Jess is a bit of a loose cannon at times.

I actually like Jess but know any people can't stand her on TV (Leavers mainly, she's very straight talking but rolls her eyes and pulls faces which triggers them).

I also nearly left the country - was accepted to QU to do a MA but dad said he wouldn't be doing flights...so we stayed. Was an exciting 6/8months of planning and then realising we won't be going anywhere until he dies at least. Not meant callously obviously!

Interesting studies about how much of the brain works and what is remembered when using computerised devices though. IIRC the "touch" of a book triggers areas of the brain that enable better memory and less re-reading of chunks of text. At uni we were told to print off as much as possible and highlight selectively instead. Not very PC!

And yes re long term issues with COVID. I have said all along this is why I cannot believe ANY epidemiologist would have been behind the "herd immunity" debacle. I've said about my friend and this is also my long term worry as I mentioned in the last thread. People only pay attention the mortality rates.

Here's a funny thing.
One of the best SoS for Education was Estelle Morris
who was MP for Birmingham Yardley

news.sky.com/story/major-incident-declared-in-bournemouth-as-thousands-of-people-flock-to-beaches-12014686?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
Major incident declared in Bournemouth as thousands of people flock to beaches
The council says it is "absolutely appalled" at the scenes, after a local MP said the crowds were the worst he has seen.

Tobias Ellwood MP @Tobias_Ellwood
‘MAJOR INCIDENT’ declared in BOURNEMOUTH - pls stay away.

With 1/2 million visitors in Dorset, roads are gridlocked, hindering emergency vehicles & beaches are full - with Dispersal Orders on both piers.
I’ve asked Police Minister to dispatch additional police if Dorset requests

Long-Bailey needed to go for her attitude problem agreeing with Maxine Peak who said if you didn't vote Labour under Corbyn you were a Tory. I mean, how is that reaching out to floating and swing voters and encouraging their support?

I just though 'are you on glue?'

We believe we probably had covid around here in Nov / Dec - there is a direct China connection which is why we are particularly convinced that it was here earlier than thought (lots of other small details too). One of our friends has just said his work place are going to do antibody tests in the next couple of weeks. If he doesn't get it DH has found somewhere locally doing the Abbott test and he's said he'd do it just to see if we have all had it. If either have antibodies it's almost certain we've all had it.

Yes Peregrina - it was critiquing the Isreali's government- not Judaism per se.
Isreali's have said that is not one of their techniques...... which tbf they are just more keen on shooting or bombing the Palestinians......
It was just careless/stupid of RLB , and I think sir Keir thinks they can't have a whiff of anti-semitism. Plus if he didn't act , it opened him up to criticism of not being decisive.
On a more personal note I couldn't stand her..... I really like Jess..... and she is quite invested in education- remember her depositing her son on the steps of number 10 as his school was only operating 4 days a week because of budget cuts?

@ListeningQuietly

I don't disagree with your general point, I know lots (!) of people who have had COVID some v mild some completely asymptomatic some severe some hospitalised some still not better some died...

I know people who have tested antibody positive with no or v minimal symptoms

However, there are also lots of people like me who have been in covid zones for months and no infection/ antibodies (the two things don't necessarily correlate) and I think immunity levels in population overall pretty low making herd immunity plan impossible without mass death (more mass death)

I would caution against using antibody test to prove anything at this point, I've not seen good proof of its false positive / negative rate

and we don't realy know what it means for immunity

squid4
Indeed.
Antibody tests just prove the presence of antibodies.
And as RTB says, there is a probability that COVID was swirling long before it reached those who needed medical care
if folks like you have managed not to catch it at all .....

The scenes from Bournemouth beach are shocking
but more because of faecal borne diseases the beach toilets are all still closed
than because of COVID which will not survive long in salt and sun and rough dry surfaces

RLB has, I think, failed to get across the point that schools are still closed because the government has not planned to open them safely.

And that this is, actually, a terrible thing.

I know I risk being boring on this but ... it's like this huge, invisible elephant. And it's a massive deal. And it really was R L-B's job to point this out.

And it really didn't happen.

It's like a massive, huge open goal and it's incredibly important.
Johnson's government has been busy handing out money, through failed 'projects', to weird, untendered groups , and we all get caught up in the detail, and meanwhile this huge, important sector remains mostly closed, with no plans for safe re-opening.

Anyway. I hope the next Education Shadow has more bite.

thecat
RLB has, I think, failed to get across the point that schools are still closed because the government has not planned to open them safely.
Indeed.
Wilkinson has been shit at his job
RLB did not hold him to account.

Rebecca Long-Bailey I can’t help thinking Kier Starmer was just waiting for the opportunity to get shot of her

Louise
Look back at the threads from when he appointed her .....
the rest of the world might be surprised
we are not

oh god I hate Jess Phillips She's a bit marmite I guess.

the contrast between rlb sharing a illjudged tweet and instantly sacked and jenrick taking huge bungs and still in post is pretty stark. So good politics from Starmer.

I'm not a labour party member any more I don't really care one way or other for RLB... will vote for anyone who can get tories out, but labour have made it pretty clear young/bame/public servants/left wing not very welcome. Gleeful talk of purging all the time.

Agree with cat that failure to reopen schools should have been put firmly at tories' feet.

I like my local labour mp, but got no campaigning left in me esp after all the deliberate self sabotage from labour right

starmer is doing ok I think, he needs to mop up tory voters far more than he needs to appeal to people like me, good luck to him, hope he doesn't have to go too racist to do it . he's a smart and competent man. Which we need.

I feel like some people are not aware of how incredibly angry most younger people are and I'm pretty worried about this (inevitably hot) summer.