[Tubby Isaacs]

The answer in this case is "fuck off you, racist bastard". Because he didn't mention social deprivation or frontline working. He said they "weren't taking it seriously".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Peerage for Beefy it is.

Plus Evgeny Lebedev and Johnson's cleverer younger brother, Jo, who will hopefully make a nuisance of himself rather than take a job.

[Cyclist]

OK. This may not be popular, but it bears on the Woke argument.

We know that Black and Asian people have been more adversely affected than other groups.
We think we know the answer to that (social deprivation, front-line actors etc.) but we aren't sure.

If someone asks the question 'Is the virus perceived differently in some cultural groups?' the answer isn't 'fuck off you racist bastard' it's 'Don't know. We could check that.'

Then - 'yes, that was right, this is what we're doing about it' or 'that was wrong, don't say it again or you will then be being a racist bastard.'

With the more devout Muslims, does "insha'Allah" have something to do with it? A sort of fatalism along the lines of "No point taking precautions. If God wiils we will be fine."

As in whatever happens will be the will of God. A sort of devout piety you rarely see among Western Christians?


Please don't all shout at me at once, I'm only trying to make sense of something I don't grok in fullness.

[youngian]

The spokesperson for the South Asian medical association (or something similar) and a frontline doctor has been doing the rounds for weeks on tv explaining the various theories for making BAME infection rate higher. Nothing controversial about discussing the matter and is not the same as telling some Tory twat shit stirring where to get off. One of this doctor’s finding was that high infection rates weren’t uniform across South Asian communities and were disproportionately effecting working class Bangladeshis and Pakistanis. Surprise, surprise but a Tory doesn’t want to talk about class when you can blame the darkies.

[The Red Arrow]

Peerage for Beefy it is.

Plus Evgeny Lebedev and Johnson's cleverer younger brother, Jo, who will hopefully make a nuisance of himself rather than take a job.

[Abernathy]

Yon Lebedev's beard's painted on, isn't it ?

[The Red Arrow]

I know I can cuss like an old time sailor and should refrain sometimes, but fuck me...

[mr angry manchester]

Oh no, Rachel Johnson now has her own show.. Whatever next..

Boss tits mind

[Oblomov]

Is that so Jo will talk to him at the christmas dinner table again?

[Bones McCoy]

OK. This may not be popular, but it bears on the Woke argument.

We know that Black and Asian people have been more adversely affected than other groups.
We think we know the answer to that (social deprivation, front-line actors etc.) but we aren't sure.

If someone asks the question 'Is the virus perceived differently in some cultural groups?' the answer isn't 'fuck off you racist bastard' it's 'Don't know. We could check that.'

Then - 'yes, that was right, this is what we're doing about it' or 'that was wrong, don't say it again or you will then be being a racist bastard.'

With the more devout Muslims, does "insha'Allah" have something to do with it? A sort of fatalism along the lines of "No point taking precautions. If God wiils we will be fine."

As in whatever happens will be the will of God. A sort of devout piety you rarely see among Western Christians?


Please don't all shout at me at once, I'm only trying to make sense of something I don't grok in fullness.

OK I'll bite: Based on the Faiths I where I have some limited knowledge.

Islam: generally a pretty rational bunch, but most of my friends apear to be prepared to abandon reason for a bit of inshallah at the most stressful times.

Christians:
You really have to cross the Irish sea, or the Atlantic to find the kind of protestant fundamentalism that places irrational faith above science.
Catholics - for the older more devout ones, see Islam.

Buddhists: Generally the most sensible, but there's a fair bit of associated woo if you dig deep enough.


OK, anybody I've not offended?

[Bones McCoy]

Oh no, Rachel Johnson now has her own show.. Whatever next..

Boss tits mind

Truethat: But similar enough facially to Alexander to put you right off your stroke.

[davidjay]

Listening to the latest clown show I had a thought. Is there any record of him ever managing to say just one complete sentence without stuttering or tripping over his words?

I can't find the anecdote, but I remember a few years ago reading an account of someone who had to work with him when he was at The Spectator, who could not nail down the details they needed from him, and who told him on the phone that they weren't impressed and to cut the old etonian waffle crap and just sort it out and he immediately changed, angrily rattled off a direct set of instructions and hung up.

He is as capable of non-waffling speech as he is of combing his hair and using his first name. The fact he chooses not to do so with you, me or anyone outside closed doors shows you exactly where the act begins and ends, and what its purpose is.

I'm really not sure of that. Now he's got what he's always wanted (or rather, got what will entitle him to what he's always wanted) he should be able to switch off and give the impression that he's good at the job. Instead, he's carrying on with the shambling buffoon routine.

[Bones McCoy]

Yon Lebedev's beard's painted on, isn't it ?

Times are tight, Lenin's embalmers are moonlighting making KGB disguise kits.

[Boiler]

I hear Jo's been made a peer, as has Claire Fox?

[The Red Arrow]

Is this not essentially what Trump did?
Test the limits of authoritarianism to see how people react?
If I can do this...then I will be able to do that...
Also numbing us to outrages to come
Salami slices to eat the elephant
Little by little so we hardly notice as things get worse