First thoughts are positive. Looks ok

mostly good to ok, but Lammy is a tit

Looks skewed somewhat towards the Blairite but still a few lefties in there for a semblance of balance I suppose.

I wonder how they will cope with the loss of twin intellectual powerhouses Gardiner and Burgon from the Labour front lines?

Afaic all the serious jobs are people who served under Corbyn even if not all loyalists. Plus Lisa Nandy of course which I'm fine with.

It's an inevitable shift towards the center but encouraging none the less.

At the moment, Johnson is still at least nominally in charge. If a US president goes into hospital for an operation requiring a general anaesthetic he has to sign a form handing off to the vice-president pro tem. We don't have anything like that. Constitutionally, you've either been asked by the Queen to form a government or you haven't.

The last prime minister to die in office was Lord Palmerston in 1865. (He was in his eighties and had a 'fever'.) He was succeeded briefly by Lord Russell, as in those days the party, in this case the Liberals, could just nominate someone and Queen Victoria would ask him to take over. Russell soon gave way to Lord Derby, of the Conservatives, after a general election.

In the National (cross-party) Government during the Second World War, Clement Attlee the Labour leader was Deputy Prime Minister to Churchill and stood in if Churchill was away or indisposed, but that was an ad hoc and not a constitutional arrangement. In early 1943, after the Casablanca Conference with Roosevelt, Churchill was taken seriously ill with pneumonia and Attlee just held the fort and chaired Cabinet until he was better.

If Johnson were to fall into pneumonia -- and it's concerning that he hasn't recovered from Covid yet -- Dominic Raab as the named deputy would act in his place, and is already doing so to some extent. If Johnson were to succumb, Raab would continue in charge until the Conservatives could elect a new leader, who would then be asked by the Queen to take over.

Notable absence of Jess Phillips, who was an early leadership candidate and is known in the House for certain women's and justice issues, but perhaps she and Sir Keir don't get on for some reason. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan at Mental Health is interesting. She's a social-media star for obvious reasons and some people thought she should get Shadow Health, but it would look bad to take her away from her NHS clinical duties with such a burdensome political role at the moment. (She's treating Covid patients as we speak.) It seems as though she's maybe booked in for a bigger slot later if she does well.

Starmer left out those vocally anti-Corbyn. Hence no Phillips.

Still waiting to see what happens to Murphy and Formby. If they don't go, he's blown it. Perhaps he's waiting for the EHRC report as cover, but it really needs to be visible as a decision by the leader or his good faith is in question.

Johnson in intensive care.

I'm afraid Johnson's now been admitted to ICU at St Thomas's. That's not good.

That's really not good. Let's hope he pulls through.

routine tests, comfortable night, good spirits...

Ditto

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52192604

The government may have been underplaying his condition.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...on-to-hospital

Did Boris' dad give him COVID-19? SMH.

Whilst I hope he pulls through (both cos there's a chance his replacements will somehow be worse and because I don't wish death on people even when they've deliberately allowed the deaths of others), the guy who avoided joining the eu ventilator scheme because it would make brexit look bad should be absolutely last if there's a queue for intubation.

*take it on the chin
*herd immunity
*let it work it's way through the community

how could i forget ~ operation last gasp

Disturbing news. Pull through Boris!

Two more of my parents' friends (these sounds more like acquaintances) died. My dad's first cousin has it. Dad says he dreads the phone ringing, but they seem to be holding up well under the circumstances.

I have no idea what Dizzy's is, you'll need to explain. And give the other 9.

Lol, conspiritatrd nonsense. As indy supporting journalist Chris Deerin says, 'Murray understands nothing about the media, politics or law. He's an unserious fool followed by fools'

Unfortunately he's also a dangerous fool, here's the SNP's defence spokesman calling him and his followers out:



There were 2 statements on Saturday night and I quoted them earlier. The first was this:

When asked to explain the official view on travelling to a second home, a Scottish Government spokesman said: “We strongly advise against any travel to second homes.

“It runs the risk of adding pressure to services in more remote and quieter areas, from food supply to health care.”


The second statement came 2 and a half hours after the next question was asked:

The Scottish Sun on Sunday then asked why the Chief Medical Officer was ignoring official advice.

An SNP Government spokesman replied: “Since this start of this epidemic, the CMO has been working seven days a week preparing Scotland’s response.

“She took the opportunity this weekend to check on a family home in Fife as she knows she will not be back again until the crisis is over.

“She stayed overnight before returning to Edinburgh. In line with guidance she stayed within her own household group and observed social distancing with anyone she was in passing in the village."

lol

LOL at the European Union's latest attempted power grab.

https://euobserver.com/tickers/147981

Maybe the Brexit denialists should be on one of the (non-existent) EU ventilators if they need one.

I would like to have seen far better EU coordination over Covid and us to be part of it but I do despair at people who try to make some big point out of the EU ventilator scheme. Adding the words EU don't always make it anything useful and their ability to coordinate anything over covid has been woeful (same as pretty much everyone else of course).

The real lesson to be learned imo is that we really needed to be part of building an EU capable of taking on the world leading role abdicated by the USA in pandemic monitoring and prevention (and many other things)