Nothing would give me greater pleasure right now than a holiday somewhere warm. I suspect that this is true of many. But this option has to remain off the table for some time to come. At present, border controls are being discussed in the same breath as school reopening at half term or Easter, or […]
Is democracy ‘essential’? Or is it one of those luxuries which can be indulged under normal circumstances but that should be dispensed with during a period of crisis? The view of the town hall bureaucrats would seem to be that local elections, scheduled for May 6, are be a tiresome distraction. A survey by the […]
Oxfam has published its annual analysis of world wealth inequality ‘The Inequality Virus’, this time with added Covid. Though its judgments and solutions are every bit as hackneyed as we’ve come to expect, this is also the most radical report we have seen from the charity, with its dramatic claims about the effect of the […]
Oxfam has published its annual analysis of world wealth inequality ‘The Inequality Virus’, this time with added Covid. Though its judgments and solutions are every bit as hackneyed as we’ve come to expect, this is also the most radical report we have seen from the charity, with its dramatic claims about the effect of the […]
“PM tries to regain grip as death toll rises to 35” – cried an alarming Times headline back in March last year. Looking back now, more than 90,000 deaths later, it’s hard not to resort to gallows humour. Sensationalism has never been far from the surface in the media’s coverage of the pandemic, even breaking […]
Mark Drakeford is not having a good war. After a relatively strong start to his pandemic response last year, Wales’ favourite cheese enthusiast has stumbled into pitfall after pitfall in recent months, from the ludicrous sight of “non-essential” aisles including female sanitary products being roped off in supermarkets, to the downright dangerous idea that vaccinations […]
What is a lockdown sceptic? It’s an innocuous label which hides a range of arguments and viewpoints. From those who question the efficacy of restrictions, to those who accept that lockdowns may slow the virus, but wonder if the costs are worth it, and civil libertarians who argue that a public health crisis, however serious, is […]
As we near 100,000 deaths in the UK so far, the Covid-19 epidemic is still accelerating rapidly. But though it looks very much as though the new variant of the virus is more transmissible, it’s still not clear exactly how it is being transmitted. The collective dogma, promoted by SAGE in the UK and the […]
Not since Fyre Festival have images of pitiful meals whipped up such a furore. But the pictures of food parcels for children eligible for free school meals plastered across social media and shared thousands of times on Tuesday certainly won’t have elicited the same schadenfreude as the “$12,000” cheese sandwich. The initial image, posted by […]
“The scary thing is, I have no idea how I caught it.” We’ve all heard variants on that sentiment in recent months from those infected with Covid-19. While there is always uncertainty, and even those taking sensible precautions can be unlucky, I worry that one unexplored explanation is a widespread lack of understanding about how […]
It has become very fashionable in certain quarters to lay into Rishi Sunak. The stop-start approach to some of the economic support measures put in place by the Treasury, and initiatives such as the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, have attracted ever more criticism as the second wave has spread across the country. But […]
Is an Easter Egg essential? Is five miles away local? Can I sit on a park bench? These are just a few in a long line of silly arguments and non-stories about whether someone has precisely followed the Government’s rather imprecise Covid regulations. Some have taken to calling this ‘Scotch Egging’ in honour of the […]
The scale of damage the coronavirus pandemic has inflicted on the economy is laid bare in the UK’s latest GDP figures, published just before Christmas . Although growth rebounded sharply over the summer, it is now moving at a snail’s pace, and the next instalment of data seems certain to show output contracting once again. […]
Israel’s successful vaccination drive may have attracted much international attention, but the country has failed in almost every other aspect of the crisis. While the population is being vaccinated at breakneck speed, new infections are spiking and the country has entered its third nationwide lockdown. How has Israel succeeded in getting so many people vaccinated […]
If you were looking for an immediate, tangible benefit of Brexit, the rollout of Covid vaccines is an obvious candidate. The UK’s programme may not have been perfect, but nor has it been as conspicuously cack-handed as the EU’s attempts so far. ‘Sovereignty’ might seem abstract at times, but what clearer an example of its […]
Imagine that to escape the torment of the pandemic, an adventurer decided to trek through the Amazon and discovered the Fountain of Youth. You would surely expect a bitter fight over who should be able to drink from it, until its properties could be studied and replicated. Back in the grim darkness of January 2021, […]
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