UCL-UCU

Record number of daily cases (219,000);?massive staff shortages across the economy incl #NHS; majority of children under-protected with none/1 jab and Boris Johnson says “there’s a good chance of getting through #Omicron wave without further restrictions” #DowningStreetBriefing

The Labour leadership seem confused about political communication. They speak to the public in wooden-sounding analytic categories ('core values') rather than using those categories to craft effective speech. They brief journalists on their media strategy instead of executing it.

"This is a milder variant", the PM claims, a few minutes after CMO Chris Whitty said the hospitalisation data shows clearly that this is not a mild disease.

We urge you all to show up if you can!https://twitter.com/friendsofalaqsa/status/1478395003693154320 …

"At a time when public awareness of & support for Palestinian liberation is gaining significant momentum, the use of a blunt instrument like an accusation of antisemitism has become an effective tool to silence Palestinian solidarity" My take on Emma Watson for @tribunemagazinehttps://twitter.com/tribunemagazine/status/1478450484994269188 …

HE can ride it out; we’ll DIE out. No packed tubes or offices for him or any of those deciding our fates. And it’s win/win- so what if we lose poorer people and ‘leftie’ (unionised) teachers? If the NHS collapses- great! We must realise - they have ZERO motivation to save ushttps://twitter.com/rik_ashton/status/1478477842279243781 …

As stand alone sources, no. But artists and cultural figures play key roles in solidarity movements by using their platforms to amplify voices of the oppressed. And it's telling that apartheid apologists are scared as hell because of it.https://twitter.com/HenMazzig/status/1478349498149748737 …

I can’t quite believe that ministers are still saying “the school environment is safe”. There’s been no systematic investment in ventilation, smaller class sizes. Masks in secondary are now mandated precisely because the “school environment” is NOT safe! And what about primary?https://twitter.com/bbcbreakfast/status/1478272496965234699 …

“Hospitalisation of children with covid is currently at a record high for the while pandemic.”https://twitter.com/timesradio/status/1478308702453211139 …

UK 37 billion Test & Trace is without doubt the biggest, most audacious heist in history. Germany has spent less than a billion on a fantastic system with mobile testing units everywhere and schools testing all pupils 3 times a week. So sorry for the UK.

Boris Johnson just essentially admitted the NHS is going to be battered in the coming weeks but his view is we "just need to get through it". But not everyone will make it, some will die either from Covid or other mistakes and NHS staff will be broken, some permanently so.

So let's see. Omicron is just a cold and the pandemic is almost over, but the only fair comparison to how bad things are is a year ago, with a different variant and when hardly anyone was vaccinated? And even so we are not that far off 1st wave peak & hospitals declaring crises

Such a strange dichotomy that BJ tells us the NHS has to be on a “war footing”, while Plan B is still enough. Surely both can’t be true?

I am struggling to get my head around this. The NHS is on a war footing. The military is being called in. But pubs are open, mask-wearing is not being enforced and NHS staff are still not getting decent PPE. You literally cannot make sense of incoherence of this sort.