How can Scotland hold a public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic, when no written advice was recorded in the opening months of the crisis?
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Health Secretary Jeane Freeman is set to take questions today from MSPs on the care homes crisis, the eye of the Covid-19 storm in Scotland. Yesterday’s weekly National Records of Scotland statistics revealed that there are now more deaths in care homes than the rest of Scotland combined, a tragic outcome three months into a […]
Care Homes crisis: 4 questions for the Health Secretary
“Far from our economic model being the realisation of Adam Smith’s dream, it is the embodiment of his worst fears. It’s not a ‘free market’ – it’s a cartel.”
Robin McAlpine: I’m a socialist – but I’m here to save capitalism
“The immediate need is that the Scottish Government learns from mistakes that have probably cost hundreds of lives. This is not an argument that the Scottish Government has done better or worse than other governments, but simply that they need to be open about what has gone wrong, consult and act.”
Nick Kempe: Isolation, human rights and keeping older people safe in care homes
“The extent of US influence engenders the most profound questions of democratic sovereignty, war and peace, and economic and social life. These questions are posed afresh by the post-Cold War decline of US hegemony and its always questionable moral authority. Is there a viable alternative to being a province of the empire?”
After the US: Is Scottish neutrality a viable future?
“Tax dodging billionaires seeking taxpayer bailouts and the collapse of global supply chains are just two of the very obvious failings of the free market during the pandemic. They highlight the fundamental weaknesses of a system that does not allocate resources efficiently, let alone fairly.”
Dave Watson: ‘Resilience Economics’ must be credible – and build a better society for all
Live in Edinburgh? Your city needs you. For the good of Scotland’s capital, you must “act like a tourist”. You see, the tourist industry doesn’t have any tourists to sell their stuff to, so residents need to take their place. Out of the goodness of your hearts, the people of Edinburgh need to rush back […]
‘Act like a tourist’, or build community wealth?
Following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, we need to look at the institutional racism still prevalent, and why we still need the Black Lives Matter movement.
Institutional Racism in 2020: Not Just a Problem in the US
A panic about contact tracing in Minnesota, United States, spread after Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said that they were “contact tracing” protestors there. “As we’ve begun making arrests, we have begun analysing the data of who we have arrested and begun actually doing what we think is almost pretty similar to our Covid [strategy]. […]
Why outsourcing and secrecy is the route to contact tracing and testing failure
“The position of the SSPCA speaks to a distinctly Scottish approach to wildlife crime that empowers the third sector in a manner largely unknown throughout the rest of the UK. The idea behind such distinction – that Scotland can and perhaps should do things differently – is potent.”
Sean Bell: New powers for the SSPCA reinforce the case for Scotland doing things differently
Take a step back and look at the United States, 2020. Over 100,000 dead from Covid-19, by far the most in the world. Responding to a global crisis by exiting the World Health Organisation, stirring conspiracy theories about how the virus originated and using its Navy to steal global supplies of ventilators in acts of international piracy. […]
A world after the US Empire?
“What would it look like if we decided that our economy was no longer to be rigged in favour of folk who have benefited from its collapse?”
After lockdown, we must ask: who is the economy for anyway?
US President Donald Trump has told Minneapolis protestors against the police killing of George Floyd that he will send in the National Guard and “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”. The threat to gun down US citizens comes after the city was seized by protest, with clashes between the police and protestors.