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Coronavirus in the UK - news, lockdown and discussion

The door & frame wasn't obscured by her body.

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If they had faded out everything to the left, rather than crop it, it would have interfered with the smaller text, above the main headline, and been a total failure from a design point of view.

There's plenty of reasons for attacking the Mail, but this is just silly.
genuinely don't understand how anyone can say they cropped the image, the left had side of the book is still in the shot, the girl standing behind it isnt.
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genuinely don't understand how anyone can say they cropped the image, the left had side of the book is still in the shot, the girl standing behind it isnt.
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That’s not the back of the book on the front page. It’s cropped before then, you can just see the spine is different (the colour should go into it, for one thing)
 
That’s a great illustration of the danger of a “heroes” popular discourse. You don’t need to feel guilty about putting a hero in harm’s way because that’s what a hero does. So actually you can feel good and righteous for helping the hero actualise themself. Turn a class of people into heroes and you don’t need to pay them, protect them, worry about their emotional needs or do any of the other pesky things that get in the way of their destiny of sacrifice.

It’s utter bullshit. We’ve seen it play out with soldiers, with medical staff, with care staff and now it’s the teachers’ turn. If you don’t like it, you need to resist the rhetoric at every stage. Don’t fall into any of the traps, including the Poppy Day idealisation of the soldier identity, the clapping for the NHS, the use of words like “angels” and “heroes” etc etc. Use the opportunity instead to express anger that the very reason these things are seen as necessary is because we haven’t fulfilled our social duty of care to those we are creating heroes of.

kabbes is :cool:

Umberto Eco said:
11. In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero. In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. It is not by chance that a motto of the Falangists was Viva la Muerte (in English it should be translated as "Long Live Death!"). In non-fascist societies, the lay public is told that death is unpleasant but must be faced with dignity; believers are told that it is the painful way to reach a supernatural happiness. By contrast, the Ur-Fascist hero craves heroic death, advertised as the best reward for a heroic life. The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.
 
To help matters Blunkett has waded in with attack on Teachers Unions.


Former education secretary says he is 'surprised' at the attitude of teaching unions and accuses them of 'working against the interests of children'

Agree with comment by person at end of article:

It is amazing the way right-wingers, and remember, Blunkett is a Blairite of the most establishment sell-out order, talk about the protection of the less well-off.
This is the man who pioneered academies, was extremely oppositional to unions and described civil liberties as 'airy-fairy

Its good reminder how awful New Labour were. This is pure New Labour speak.

So in general its back to politics as normal now lockdown is going to be raised. It the war on the motorist and Unions that are the real problems.
 
Increasing the congestion charge at a time when poorly paid essential workers are relying on their cars to get to work?

This is a despicable move by Khan.

I would expect the figures to go down. If he hadn't been trying to buy his re-election by freezing fares TfL wouldn't be in such dire financial straits.

I have the misfortune to have to drive within the congestion charge zone from time to time for work. Its hideous, no one in their right mind would do it if they had a choice. In a whole day of driving around I'll be able to count on one hand the number of other private cars. No one does it, that's why Johnson's comment regarding driving to work was just laughed at down here. Besides the cc zone is actually very small.

I comfortably predict that the vast majority of Londoners just won't care because it doesn't apply to them. Pretty shitty for minicabs and uber etc but then again everything is shit for them at the moment.

As for Khan's popularity (and I'm no fan at all) he is virtually at the stage where he wouldn't need to bother campaigning because there is no opposition.

ETA: I've just read up page it was the government's idea anyway. Anyway, apologies for the unnecessary derail.
 
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Funny how all these old white men who don’t live in London have a negative opinion on a brown-skinned mayor trying to something to discourage car use in the city to protect its citizens

Time and a place springs to mind. Ordinarily I’d be all in favour of jacking up the CC but not at the moment. It’s bonkers. And yes ‘low paid’ workers drive. I live with two of them who would normally only use their cars for weeked jaunts but given the buses and tubes are fucked are forced to drive to work. I’m going out on a limb here but there’s a slight chance the Mayor has a driver.
 
Something that should come as no surprise to anyone, 'defense' contractors as classified as key workers:



The above tweet was a response to this one in which the narrative to the vid states that 'Some arms factory staff qualify as UK "key workers" during Covid-19':

 
Time and a place springs to mind. Ordinarily I’d be all in favour of jacking up the CC but not at the moment. It’s bonkers. And yes ‘low paid’ workers drive. I live with two of them who would normally only use their cars for weeked jaunts but given the buses and tubes are fucked are forced to drive to work. I’m going out on a limb here but there’s a slight chance the Mayor has a driver.
Low paid workers who can spare £2K a year or more to run a car, ok
 
Has anyone pointed out the Irony of a Johnson government enforcing these cc changes when one of his first actions as Mayor was to reduce the size and effectiveness of the zone?

Arrggh, sorry continued derail.
 
I doubt many poorly paid essential workers are relying on their cars to get to work. They are relying on the public transport system.

But in any case, there will be an exemption from the congestion charge for NHS workers etc.

They are doing exactly the right thing in the circumstances. Giving the go-ahead for a free-for-all for drivers would be a disaster.

Yes, heard the NHS announcement on the news.
 
This is how it should work for London for now, i think.

Live within walking/cycling distance of work: you can possibly go back to a non-essential job relatively safely. As much cycling/walking capacity as possible created.
Dont live within walking/cycling distance of work: stay at home if you have a non-essential job. If you're an essential worker - public transport kept at as empty as possible, so you can still use it relatively safely. And, congestion charge ramped up to keep the streets as free as possible for those drivers who get exemptions due to the nature of their work.

Everything the mayor's office has done is consistent with this.

Central government less so.
 
the congestion charge is one tax that Amazon can't dodge. so can be glad that their delivery vans are being charged that again at least. even with disagree about charging other drivers.

I'm a bit surprised that the NHS exemption's only been extended to care home staff. if schools are forced to go back as soon as 01/06 why not teachers too? I wonder if the funding agreement signed with the treasury allows much wiggle room to extend that.
 
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