I read the other day that Professor Neil Ferguson, who has gotten much of the blame for...everything, quit after he didn't properly lock his lockdown down. (source).
Now, I won't say he acted properly. But to say he "undermined lockdown"? That's pure propaganda. I don't want to entertain conspiracy theories but this smacks of being made the fall guy. The government knew he wasn't popular and, in my honest opinion, I think they're looking to blame anyone but themselves. In the firing line will be scientists.
What happened: his missus visited him while in lockdown. Now, if he's the only person in Britain to have behaved that way I'll be very surprised! Yes it was 'ill advised' but I hardly think it's any worse than any of the things we've heard politicians doing (like shaking hands with covid patents).
The article is clearly partisan. It even quotes Scotland Yard as if to suggest the possibility he broke the law. They are painting the guy as a real villain here! Fallen professor is the man responsible for all your dead grandparents! Come the fuck on. This is classic political chicanery.
Why him? Well he's held up as responsible for lockdown, essentially. That if we didn't up to a quarter of a million could die. The devil is in the detail obviously and I haven't read his modelling. It doesn't alter the point. What I'm saying is that lockdown is clearly unpopular amongst the capitalist class, so let's use this to scapegoat the guy. Let's smear him. Dirty deeds done dirt cheap.
So with him out the picture the government can find scientific advice from people more amenable to the needs of capital. Which may be, if I haven't completely lost the plot (I'm not so sure), why we're now teetering on the edge of unlocking the lockdown.
What a mess we are in. It's as if we've been led right up the creek and then left without a paddle. "See ya!" says Field Marshal Johnstwat before opening the door to let the wild dogs in and then fucking off to Chequers for a gay old time. This is madness; you cannot institute a lockdown and then, when things get a bit tough for capital, decide that it's ok. It won't be because people are going to equate easing with the end of the virus. That clearly hasn't happened and isn't going to anytime soon, menwhile hundreds are still dying and the infection is still present.
Are people even going to want to consume and spend? If not then what is the point?
I've come through these past many weeks and now I'm oddly used to it. Changing things again without any certainty - and without any confidence (at least not from me) - is crazy.
Welcome to crazy!
And what a giant confused mess that all is!
Meanwhile in the Class War...
Thursday, 7 May 2020
Wednesday, 6 May 2020
Virus In Europe Days 3: An English Tar!
Have you noticed how America always has to have an enemy? An external its ruling class tirelessly work to align the working class behind. A distraction, oviously - and lordy does Trumplestillshit need one now. How about....China! After all they deliberately infected us all (including themselves) with a man made (not man made) virus-disease.
Which isn't to say the super-secretive communist/capitalist (delete as applicable) regime handled it well, in terms of the human race. Still, as far as I know, they weren't selling off PPE to the highest bidder overseas. Because fuck humanity.
They're still holding their boots against the throats of Iran. No doubt sanctions have not helped their efforts to avoid a plague.
Are we any better? Boris Johnsoff thinks that if the virus was a mugger/physical assailant (delete as terrifying) we could ball our collective fists and assert ourselves like a British Tar
"His nose should pant and his lip should curl
His cheeks should flame and his brow should furl
His bosom should heave and his heart should glow
And his fist be ever ready for a knock down blow"
And when he shake hands in a pandemic, his health will go...
There has to be an enemy. We even need to anthropomorphise a plague. This, it seems to me, doesn't inspire the correct approach. It is a problem of biology, not nationalism and flag waving. Wipe down your surfaces with a union jack.
Fuck flags. All they ever do is symbolise division. They are the fashion of separation and segregation. Why would you advertise that? Some people claim they want to "reclaim" the flag? Why? Let the fucking thing die, or burn. Others say that it should be a benign or positive thing - then why does it so easily align with and become a tool of fascism? Coincidence? It has never made any sense to me for people to hang their national flag out the window/on their car/over their beer belly etc. It's bizarre to me to wave around the flag of the country you are quite comfortably living in. That's just pure provocation to me. It's clearly a statement of intent: are you British enough mate? You don't look it!
Finally, they say they are going to ease some lockdown restrictions. His highness, Sir Boris of Shitshow, is going to allow more time outside. Well that's nice, but let's be honest there is fuck all social distancing happening - never mind that, in local shops, it's impossible. But people just walk jog and cycle close by anyway. Nobody seems to obey then and they all hang around in groups.
"Picnics, sunbathing (?) and unlimited rambles" will be allowed. Who was policing the "limited" rambling? I could walk around all day and no one would know. The only problem would be all the bloody cyclists and joggers who ignore social distancing anyway. The whole thing just seems like a confused mess. presumably because it is a confused mess. Watch what happens if the infection rate goes up, which is entirely possible since everyone will just pile on outside and...
This is weird though:
"Chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 committee, Graham Brady, has called for the lifting of “arbitrary rules and limitations on freedom as quickly as possible” and suggested the public had been “a little too willing to stay at home”."
The Tories, who want a compliant state, now don't like too much compliance? Wait until he gets the Brexit he wants at the end of the year! See how compliant people are then. But the guy's a grubby capitalist, he wants the slaves out working to make him money. That's all the likes of Brady care about. Certainly not your health.
Class war here.
Which isn't to say the super-secretive communist/capitalist (delete as applicable) regime handled it well, in terms of the human race. Still, as far as I know, they weren't selling off PPE to the highest bidder overseas. Because fuck humanity.
They're still holding their boots against the throats of Iran. No doubt sanctions have not helped their efforts to avoid a plague.
Are we any better? Boris Johnsoff thinks that if the virus was a mugger/physical assailant (delete as terrifying) we could ball our collective fists and assert ourselves like a British Tar
"His nose should pant and his lip should curl
His cheeks should flame and his brow should furl
His bosom should heave and his heart should glow
And his fist be ever ready for a knock down blow"
And when he shake hands in a pandemic, his health will go...
There has to be an enemy. We even need to anthropomorphise a plague. This, it seems to me, doesn't inspire the correct approach. It is a problem of biology, not nationalism and flag waving. Wipe down your surfaces with a union jack.
Fuck flags. All they ever do is symbolise division. They are the fashion of separation and segregation. Why would you advertise that? Some people claim they want to "reclaim" the flag? Why? Let the fucking thing die, or burn. Others say that it should be a benign or positive thing - then why does it so easily align with and become a tool of fascism? Coincidence? It has never made any sense to me for people to hang their national flag out the window/on their car/over their beer belly etc. It's bizarre to me to wave around the flag of the country you are quite comfortably living in. That's just pure provocation to me. It's clearly a statement of intent: are you British enough mate? You don't look it!
Finally, they say they are going to ease some lockdown restrictions. His highness, Sir Boris of Shitshow, is going to allow more time outside. Well that's nice, but let's be honest there is fuck all social distancing happening - never mind that, in local shops, it's impossible. But people just walk jog and cycle close by anyway. Nobody seems to obey then and they all hang around in groups.
"Picnics, sunbathing (?) and unlimited rambles" will be allowed. Who was policing the "limited" rambling? I could walk around all day and no one would know. The only problem would be all the bloody cyclists and joggers who ignore social distancing anyway. The whole thing just seems like a confused mess. presumably because it is a confused mess. Watch what happens if the infection rate goes up, which is entirely possible since everyone will just pile on outside and...
This is weird though:
"Chair of the Conservative backbench 1922 committee, Graham Brady, has called for the lifting of “arbitrary rules and limitations on freedom as quickly as possible” and suggested the public had been “a little too willing to stay at home”."
The Tories, who want a compliant state, now don't like too much compliance? Wait until he gets the Brexit he wants at the end of the year! See how compliant people are then. But the guy's a grubby capitalist, he wants the slaves out working to make him money. That's all the likes of Brady care about. Certainly not your health.
Class war here.
Tuesday, 5 May 2020
Virus In Europe Days 2: The Disease That Gets Under Your Skin
I think, if I'm honest, it's starting to get to me a bit. I'm wondering if I'm at the point where I, speaking for no one else, need a way out of this. I know that normality, going forward, will be something new, but I also feel that, irrespective of its necessity, lockdown needs to be a finite proposition. I have no idea whether that will be the case in the foreseeable, but I'm starting to pack my bags, thinking of heading to the reception desk (that's not a dark metaphor, btw). Room service is nice but I need the real thing.
I get through the day easily enough; a routine has found me and it ins't unpleasant. But there are needs I'm starting to find can't be met locally and the ease with which I used to be able to fulfil them is pressing on my sensibility. I need some new socks for one thing; these old things (wiggles toes) are starting to come apart! Mundane things I could easily buy in town that are now hopelessly out of reach.
It's the collision of two worlds: the overlay of biohazard onto the everyday. The world looks the same, but the invisible has changed. Something isn't quite right. I go through the same fields, to the same shops, much the same as they always were (more or less - social distancing is heavily advertised), but, simultaneously, it's all vitally different.
This is hard to reconcile. Two worlds that really don't belong. I think they try to coalesce at night. I do not sleep well. Dreams are intense and pounding. They feel so real that upon waking I am uncertain as to what is real. It is tiring in its own way. But as the day pours itself over me, and I wake earlier with the early dawn, the travails of the subconscious dissipate. However I suspect they are not forgotten, merely suppressed. That is why I believe, for myself, this cannot continue overlong, though I recognise that it may have to.
It's like the Tories are dunking our collective heads in the toilet. What a pleasant metaphor.
There is no fix for this. On the radio this morning they were talking about how people with schizophrenia were regressing; lockdown's pressures were increasing the voices some were hearing. A house has become a cage, even if it isn't a prison - and calling it such is trite. These pressures will not be easily unwound. What happens afterwards when people need to unwind? Will they be called back to work without a care? Will their benefits be stopped if they do not immediately follow the edicts of work advisers, many of whom will also be stressed?
How far down the rabbit hole can we go? How far can we twist the world? It's the disease that gets under your skin.
On the other hand, safely crack open the soapwashed champagne, we have the highest death toll in Europe. Still there's everything to play for if we want to beat the US' own murder rate. Hip hip, our giverment is shit. Hooray. :(
It's not funny is it.
Class war for today
I get through the day easily enough; a routine has found me and it ins't unpleasant. But there are needs I'm starting to find can't be met locally and the ease with which I used to be able to fulfil them is pressing on my sensibility. I need some new socks for one thing; these old things (wiggles toes) are starting to come apart! Mundane things I could easily buy in town that are now hopelessly out of reach.
It's the collision of two worlds: the overlay of biohazard onto the everyday. The world looks the same, but the invisible has changed. Something isn't quite right. I go through the same fields, to the same shops, much the same as they always were (more or less - social distancing is heavily advertised), but, simultaneously, it's all vitally different.
This is hard to reconcile. Two worlds that really don't belong. I think they try to coalesce at night. I do not sleep well. Dreams are intense and pounding. They feel so real that upon waking I am uncertain as to what is real. It is tiring in its own way. But as the day pours itself over me, and I wake earlier with the early dawn, the travails of the subconscious dissipate. However I suspect they are not forgotten, merely suppressed. That is why I believe, for myself, this cannot continue overlong, though I recognise that it may have to.
It's like the Tories are dunking our collective heads in the toilet. What a pleasant metaphor.
There is no fix for this. On the radio this morning they were talking about how people with schizophrenia were regressing; lockdown's pressures were increasing the voices some were hearing. A house has become a cage, even if it isn't a prison - and calling it such is trite. These pressures will not be easily unwound. What happens afterwards when people need to unwind? Will they be called back to work without a care? Will their benefits be stopped if they do not immediately follow the edicts of work advisers, many of whom will also be stressed?
How far down the rabbit hole can we go? How far can we twist the world? It's the disease that gets under your skin.
On the other hand, safely crack open the soapwashed champagne, we have the highest death toll in Europe. Still there's everything to play for if we want to beat the US' own murder rate. Hip hip, our giverment is shit. Hooray. :(
It's not funny is it.
Class war for today
Monday, 4 May 2020
Virus In Europe Days 1: Street Party?
Class War is back
Everywhere there are, inexplicably, posters exhorting us to participate in a "stay at home street party" on behalf of the 75th anniversary of VE day. This, I am to believe, is a celebration. I don't really understand that. I can't relate to it any any meaningful level.
Of course on the simplistic level that most, unfortunately (yes, I am that arrogant), will indulge, I do understand. We beat the Germans! Like in the football twenty years later. We beat the Germans! We bombed their chip shops! Great. I hate fascism too - might be a tad trite to point out that not all Germans were Nazis! Yet here we are at a time when fascism has never been more of a threat and authoritarianism is ascendant. Our own leaders dress up in Reich party gear and crowds of misguided working class issue forth Nazi salutes, prostrating before Youtube reactionaries while voting for their own demise in a deceitful referendum.
Celebrate? Commiserate more like. I want nothing to do with some state led, and thus sanitised event mired in a selective remembrance. I feel much the same every November.
Our first clue: this is top down. It's a state led affair. Not some grassroots affair. I cannot see the working class wanting to organise something so vapid when there's more pressing affairs. So of course it's also a distraction. Focus on the flag, make everything great again. Put your faith in the channel of power that exists in this rotten state. Meanwhile our betters are abrogating their responsibilities to the rest of us. I will not be distracted.
It's state sanctioned imperialism. It exists, from the state, in the context of a country beggaring itself in the name of a shibboleth called Brexit. Isn't this just insulting? We spent four years being hectored by the lunatic fringe of the Tory party embarrassing themselves with ugly displays of nationalism and exceptionalism, belittling the likes of Germany. So now let's celebrate the 'ultimate victory' over them even though that was 75 years ago and the Germans of today are as repulsed by the Nazi regime as we are. Don't believe this is to celebrate freedom. It's to assert nationalism and patriotism. It's jingoism (of course there will always be well intended exceptions).
I hate all this stuff. It's not that I don't care about beating fascists, it's just that's not what this is celebrating. It isn't a sombre reflection on the end of a dark period. It's an excuse to wave a fucking flag. The most provocative thing any community can do. Grow the fuck up England! Anyway the modern military is just a political tool. Remember the story about squaddies using Jeremy Corbyn's face on a poster as target practice? What stupidity; it just shows what they are really about. The hired guns of the state kept servile by propaganda. Corbyn is dedicated to peace, but that's not profitable so literally shoot bullets at his face! Get them while they are young - like the tobacco industry.
In this context I won't be celebrating. None of this should be celebrated. Yes, spare a thought for those lost in state initiated violence as well as those who died serving with noble intentions. Reflect always on the ultimate futility of wars, but never believe the lies when they come from the state. The Ministry of Defence is a chamber of horrors and a lifestyle for the fat-cat generals and politicians.
And yes I mean futility: 75 years of peace (except when it wasn't) thrown down the drain by Brexit and its money making exploiters. A society ripped apart with growing seeds of neo fascism - the roots of which have always been there, eagerly fanned by authoritarians across the country. Now they have reasserted their dominance.
This isn't celebrating the end of war; it's celebrating victory. There's a difference
Tommy can you hear me?
Everywhere there are, inexplicably, posters exhorting us to participate in a "stay at home street party" on behalf of the 75th anniversary of VE day. This, I am to believe, is a celebration. I don't really understand that. I can't relate to it any any meaningful level.
Of course on the simplistic level that most, unfortunately (yes, I am that arrogant), will indulge, I do understand. We beat the Germans! Like in the football twenty years later. We beat the Germans! We bombed their chip shops! Great. I hate fascism too - might be a tad trite to point out that not all Germans were Nazis! Yet here we are at a time when fascism has never been more of a threat and authoritarianism is ascendant. Our own leaders dress up in Reich party gear and crowds of misguided working class issue forth Nazi salutes, prostrating before Youtube reactionaries while voting for their own demise in a deceitful referendum.
Celebrate? Commiserate more like. I want nothing to do with some state led, and thus sanitised event mired in a selective remembrance. I feel much the same every November.
Our first clue: this is top down. It's a state led affair. Not some grassroots affair. I cannot see the working class wanting to organise something so vapid when there's more pressing affairs. So of course it's also a distraction. Focus on the flag, make everything great again. Put your faith in the channel of power that exists in this rotten state. Meanwhile our betters are abrogating their responsibilities to the rest of us. I will not be distracted.
It's state sanctioned imperialism. It exists, from the state, in the context of a country beggaring itself in the name of a shibboleth called Brexit. Isn't this just insulting? We spent four years being hectored by the lunatic fringe of the Tory party embarrassing themselves with ugly displays of nationalism and exceptionalism, belittling the likes of Germany. So now let's celebrate the 'ultimate victory' over them even though that was 75 years ago and the Germans of today are as repulsed by the Nazi regime as we are. Don't believe this is to celebrate freedom. It's to assert nationalism and patriotism. It's jingoism (of course there will always be well intended exceptions).
I hate all this stuff. It's not that I don't care about beating fascists, it's just that's not what this is celebrating. It isn't a sombre reflection on the end of a dark period. It's an excuse to wave a fucking flag. The most provocative thing any community can do. Grow the fuck up England! Anyway the modern military is just a political tool. Remember the story about squaddies using Jeremy Corbyn's face on a poster as target practice? What stupidity; it just shows what they are really about. The hired guns of the state kept servile by propaganda. Corbyn is dedicated to peace, but that's not profitable so literally shoot bullets at his face! Get them while they are young - like the tobacco industry.
In this context I won't be celebrating. None of this should be celebrated. Yes, spare a thought for those lost in state initiated violence as well as those who died serving with noble intentions. Reflect always on the ultimate futility of wars, but never believe the lies when they come from the state. The Ministry of Defence is a chamber of horrors and a lifestyle for the fat-cat generals and politicians.
And yes I mean futility: 75 years of peace (except when it wasn't) thrown down the drain by Brexit and its money making exploiters. A society ripped apart with growing seeds of neo fascism - the roots of which have always been there, eagerly fanned by authoritarians across the country. Now they have reasserted their dominance.
This isn't celebrating the end of war; it's celebrating victory. There's a difference
Tommy can you hear me?
Sunday, 3 May 2020
Weekender 7: Seven Bloody Weeks?!?
What a grey smudge the sky is. Like smearing your thumb on a pencil drawing. April was nice, perhaps by accident (a smog related accident), but that was yestermonth, back when we were all stuck indoors, taunted by nature for our own ignorance (by ours, I mean theirs: the Tories). Remember those days? Oh we thought they'd never end...!
One day we'll look back and laugh. Because the alternative is tears.
One day.
For now though, the pattern weaves ever one. Cast across a one trick loom. Woven out of myopic desperation by people incapable of a different pattern. The conventional wisdom, for economic sluggishness has always recommended spending. But the government refuses to give people helicopter money. With every utterance and edict the Tory ruling elite demonstrates it's ideological inflexibility and inability to process reality. "People want to get back to work".
We are dying to live. We may end up living to die.
Schools out...wellnotsomuch. Apparently they are opening for Year Six kids (I've no idea what age that is) on the first of June. Seems pointless to me, you've probably learned all you need to know about life in this past period: that politicians are scum, that the ruling class exploits the poor (you), and people should practice mutual aid. Not really sure how this helps. It just puts stress on
teachers. Kids, depending on age, aren't known for their hygiene and while they are considered a less susceptible group they do live with people who might not be. I'm sure teachers aren't thrilled about being put on the viral frontline like this.
But as I've said, the capitalist class wants normality (by which I mean profit). As the days pass, and the hair cuts of politicians in public grow, they will become ever more restless. Well too fucking bad. These would also be the schools the Tories have underfunded for a decade, along with the NHS. Is that the normality they want? Is it what we want? I say no.
There's a growing sense that, given Dominic Cummings is at the helm, this is increasingly becoming an exercise in eugenics. The Hateful geek Mekon in charge of blurting out the unthinkable on behalf of the unconscionable. He's probably a fan of those old Nazi propaganda posters (yes I went there). They cared little for the 'useless' in society: the infirm the alien and the elderly. How convenient then that we have a virus in society capable of weeding them out. Let the strong survive. This is a theme that, knowingly or not, is threaded throughout the conspiracy thinking on htis subject. That it isn't serious: "only the old/sick die". Sorry chuckles, these people matter. Is this the world we want to inherit when we come out of this? More on this here.
I guess now would be a bad time for the Martians to invade, so there's that. But our current masters are just as inscrutable and evil.
This is the seventh weekend I've been doing this. Apropos of nothing. Just thought I'd mention it. I'm sure we'd all appreciate an end to this just so I can go back to being lazy on this blog again :D
Oh, and here's the cunt of the day (yes I went there too).
One day we'll look back and laugh. Because the alternative is tears.
One day.
For now though, the pattern weaves ever one. Cast across a one trick loom. Woven out of myopic desperation by people incapable of a different pattern. The conventional wisdom, for economic sluggishness has always recommended spending. But the government refuses to give people helicopter money. With every utterance and edict the Tory ruling elite demonstrates it's ideological inflexibility and inability to process reality. "People want to get back to work".
We are dying to live. We may end up living to die.
Schools out...wellnotsomuch. Apparently they are opening for Year Six kids (I've no idea what age that is) on the first of June. Seems pointless to me, you've probably learned all you need to know about life in this past period: that politicians are scum, that the ruling class exploits the poor (you), and people should practice mutual aid. Not really sure how this helps. It just puts stress on
teachers. Kids, depending on age, aren't known for their hygiene and while they are considered a less susceptible group they do live with people who might not be. I'm sure teachers aren't thrilled about being put on the viral frontline like this.
But as I've said, the capitalist class wants normality (by which I mean profit). As the days pass, and the hair cuts of politicians in public grow, they will become ever more restless. Well too fucking bad. These would also be the schools the Tories have underfunded for a decade, along with the NHS. Is that the normality they want? Is it what we want? I say no.
There's a growing sense that, given Dominic Cummings is at the helm, this is increasingly becoming an exercise in eugenics. The Hateful geek Mekon in charge of blurting out the unthinkable on behalf of the unconscionable. He's probably a fan of those old Nazi propaganda posters (yes I went there). They cared little for the 'useless' in society: the infirm the alien and the elderly. How convenient then that we have a virus in society capable of weeding them out. Let the strong survive. This is a theme that, knowingly or not, is threaded throughout the conspiracy thinking on htis subject. That it isn't serious: "only the old/sick die". Sorry chuckles, these people matter. Is this the world we want to inherit when we come out of this? More on this here.
I guess now would be a bad time for the Martians to invade, so there's that. But our current masters are just as inscrutable and evil.
This is the seventh weekend I've been doing this. Apropos of nothing. Just thought I'd mention it. I'm sure we'd all appreciate an end to this just so I can go back to being lazy on this blog again :D
Oh, and here's the cunt of the day (yes I went there too).
Saturday, 2 May 2020
Weekender 7: Governmorons
Tom Watson gets the day off to a good start:
Unsurprisingly, I believe it needs to die. It is not, does not, and will not work for us. Really, though that should be obvious. Just like the death stats and Covid induced misery. Unfortunately, thanks to our toxic partisan media, people are propagandised. Either through misdirection, outright deception, or through being convinced that X is not X.
It is X.
The governmorons have pledged a paltry sounding 76 million pound package for the most vulnerable. Meanwhile Liverpool council is about to go bankrupt. How does this happen you might well ask; especially now? Well it's quite simple; it's been happening for years. The Tories have long had it in for the good people of Liverpool (no doubt that old demon, Murdoch, will be rubbing his withered hands together - careful they might spark - over this). This goes back to the days of Militant. It is hard to imagine the scale of suffering that will accelerate in a city already hit by a virus.
You know what I call this. That's right; it's class warfare. That's ALL it is. Don't let them tell you different mon cher.
They say the peak has been passed. I'm not sure what that means as the stats aren't clear and nothing right now is certain. It doesn't really matter. Even if they end lockdown (they won't) people will be too insecure to venture far.
We find ourselves in a curious situation. You have the capitalists desperate for business to normalise, but the government can't end lockdown. Yet the Brexit contingent are among those calling for business to normalise. The same lunatics that want to drive us off an economic skyscraper, taking a base jump into an economic abyss. Brexit is not the wish of the capitalists any more than is lockdown. To say we're living in weird times doesn't begin to explain it. These are the contradictions that the capitalists and the ruling class can't deal with. Let's exploit these fractures; drive a huge wedge shaped fist inside and tear them wide open. Let the pus ooze out and the wound heal.
And in solidarity with the Mayday squat protests
(source)
It's not enough to throw a risible sum of money at the homeless. It requires a cultural shift. Don't give them temporary homes. Give them - and everyone - actual homes. We should be expropriating these unoccupied houses, the millionares rows', and taking them back. Working class neighbourhoods still being gentrified and socially cleansed by Labour as well! Do not forgive and do not forget.
I don't even recall if he's still in the party so he could well be off the leash. Of course he was always a scumbag so what does this show. It demonstrates how the Westminster have more in common with each other than they do with their constituents. This is what our system creates.Fair play. Great leadership. https://t.co/4zJgrSeF4j— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) May 1, 2020
Unsurprisingly, I believe it needs to die. It is not, does not, and will not work for us. Really, though that should be obvious. Just like the death stats and Covid induced misery. Unfortunately, thanks to our toxic partisan media, people are propagandised. Either through misdirection, outright deception, or through being convinced that X is not X.
It is X.
The governmorons have pledged a paltry sounding 76 million pound package for the most vulnerable. Meanwhile Liverpool council is about to go bankrupt. How does this happen you might well ask; especially now? Well it's quite simple; it's been happening for years. The Tories have long had it in for the good people of Liverpool (no doubt that old demon, Murdoch, will be rubbing his withered hands together - careful they might spark - over this). This goes back to the days of Militant. It is hard to imagine the scale of suffering that will accelerate in a city already hit by a virus.
You know what I call this. That's right; it's class warfare. That's ALL it is. Don't let them tell you different mon cher.
They say the peak has been passed. I'm not sure what that means as the stats aren't clear and nothing right now is certain. It doesn't really matter. Even if they end lockdown (they won't) people will be too insecure to venture far.
We find ourselves in a curious situation. You have the capitalists desperate for business to normalise, but the government can't end lockdown. Yet the Brexit contingent are among those calling for business to normalise. The same lunatics that want to drive us off an economic skyscraper, taking a base jump into an economic abyss. Brexit is not the wish of the capitalists any more than is lockdown. To say we're living in weird times doesn't begin to explain it. These are the contradictions that the capitalists and the ruling class can't deal with. Let's exploit these fractures; drive a huge wedge shaped fist inside and tear them wide open. Let the pus ooze out and the wound heal.
And in solidarity with the Mayday squat protests
(source)
It's not enough to throw a risible sum of money at the homeless. It requires a cultural shift. Don't give them temporary homes. Give them - and everyone - actual homes. We should be expropriating these unoccupied houses, the millionares rows', and taking them back. Working class neighbourhoods still being gentrified and socially cleansed by Labour as well! Do not forgive and do not forget.
Friday, 1 May 2020
Lockdown by Lazarus 5: International Workers Day
It's cold outside. I don't like it when Winter pretends to be Spring, but it is nice how the rain brings out the lusciousness of the green. Making it richer, appearing more alive. Like the absence of msit on a clear day.
How do we escape this situation in lieu of a persistent virus and no visible vaccine? How does one lift a lockdown?
They haev no plan. To be fair - and I've no desire to give Tory filth a fair shake given what they are and what they've done - what plan could there be? This is the very definition of "up the creek without a paddle". Once you're in that kind of situation, you're in that kind of situation.
So much relies on social contact and in the age of social distancing, which, let's be honest, isn't beeing observed 100% because it can't be. My local shop, for example, is too small for it, and they have yet to introduce some kind of traffic system. Everyone relies on a combination of good will and good old fear.
Charity shops, for example, are going to struggle. I walk past one every time I visit the shop. Of course it's closed, and will be fore the foreseeable. How can they accept donations now? They don't clean what they receive, and you can't very well put books and furniture through the wash. They can't possibly rely on the behaviour of people making donations, especially when so many were previously content to just dump stuff outside, come rain or shine.
Pubs run the risk of attracting a tsunami of thirsty and socially hungry fleshbags the moment lockdown lifts. All the old sots that hang around Wetherspoons will fall back on old habits. Is this wise? Can these places survive if they have to give over half their space to emptiness and social distancing? How will that work for the toilets? Of course it won't. People will just overwhelm it and so places will close or be closed. Half the customers, half the staff. It could well be the only places with demand, other than supermarkets, will be the good old jobcentre, and being seen there is a logistical effort commensurate with a state visit from a foreign dignitary (or Trump) at the best of times.
I can't really see social distancing working in a place like my local WCA assessment centre. The waiting room is pokey and situated at the top of the building. Not much room for manoeuvre. How many appointments will a reduced workforce have? This all assumes people will get booked in as normal, which they will because that's how bureaucracy works. Common - or what you might call Covid - sense doesn't enter into it.
How do you socially distance while signing on or undertaking something like a Work Focused Interview? I'm due to have one at the end of Summer. I assume, in some form, it will go ahead (though what they expect me to report I do not know, my Asperger diagnostic appointment got cancelled of course). In situations like this, peopel want to hunker down because they want privacy. They want to have invisible walls around them and a strange intimacy with their interviewer so that no one else gets to hear the shame of their social position, or hear them get chewed out (or lose their temper) by the usual soulless minion of orthodoxy. That can't happen if everyone has to be 2m apart, including between staff and customer.
Today is International Workers Day. Now more than ever we need solidarity and direct action. I've said this before, I'll say it again. But for now, I needn't say more. If a pandemic killing tens of thousands isn't enough to stire the capitalist class into compassion, then you know the reality of class war. Currently they care only about their profits; that's why so many reactionaries are pushing for an end to lockdown.
Oh hell no, we ain't dying for your profit
How do we escape this situation in lieu of a persistent virus and no visible vaccine? How does one lift a lockdown?
They haev no plan. To be fair - and I've no desire to give Tory filth a fair shake given what they are and what they've done - what plan could there be? This is the very definition of "up the creek without a paddle". Once you're in that kind of situation, you're in that kind of situation.
So much relies on social contact and in the age of social distancing, which, let's be honest, isn't beeing observed 100% because it can't be. My local shop, for example, is too small for it, and they have yet to introduce some kind of traffic system. Everyone relies on a combination of good will and good old fear.
Charity shops, for example, are going to struggle. I walk past one every time I visit the shop. Of course it's closed, and will be fore the foreseeable. How can they accept donations now? They don't clean what they receive, and you can't very well put books and furniture through the wash. They can't possibly rely on the behaviour of people making donations, especially when so many were previously content to just dump stuff outside, come rain or shine.
Pubs run the risk of attracting a tsunami of thirsty and socially hungry fleshbags the moment lockdown lifts. All the old sots that hang around Wetherspoons will fall back on old habits. Is this wise? Can these places survive if they have to give over half their space to emptiness and social distancing? How will that work for the toilets? Of course it won't. People will just overwhelm it and so places will close or be closed. Half the customers, half the staff. It could well be the only places with demand, other than supermarkets, will be the good old jobcentre, and being seen there is a logistical effort commensurate with a state visit from a foreign dignitary (or Trump) at the best of times.
I can't really see social distancing working in a place like my local WCA assessment centre. The waiting room is pokey and situated at the top of the building. Not much room for manoeuvre. How many appointments will a reduced workforce have? This all assumes people will get booked in as normal, which they will because that's how bureaucracy works. Common - or what you might call Covid - sense doesn't enter into it.
How do you socially distance while signing on or undertaking something like a Work Focused Interview? I'm due to have one at the end of Summer. I assume, in some form, it will go ahead (though what they expect me to report I do not know, my Asperger diagnostic appointment got cancelled of course). In situations like this, peopel want to hunker down because they want privacy. They want to have invisible walls around them and a strange intimacy with their interviewer so that no one else gets to hear the shame of their social position, or hear them get chewed out (or lose their temper) by the usual soulless minion of orthodoxy. That can't happen if everyone has to be 2m apart, including between staff and customer.
Today is International Workers Day. Now more than ever we need solidarity and direct action. I've said this before, I'll say it again. But for now, I needn't say more. If a pandemic killing tens of thousands isn't enough to stire the capitalist class into compassion, then you know the reality of class war. Currently they care only about their profits; that's why so many reactionaries are pushing for an end to lockdown.
Oh hell no, we ain't dying for your profit
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