Analysis

Testing failures mean Scotland may be sleepwalking into a new crisis

“People will remember the mad-dash scramble to “fudge” the UK figures to meet the target of 100,000 tests per day by the end of April. Less well advertised is that while the UK’s testing figures are still less than spectacular, they have overtaken Scotland’s and have remained consistently higher since late April and for the entire month of May.”

online teaching
Broadcast

Scotland’s schools are readying to reopen, but what is the new normal for education?

We spoke to James McEnaney following Sturgeon’s announcement that schools are set to open from the 11th of August, to understand how the lockdown has impacted students and what the reopening of schools will look like in this time of crisis.

Home Feed

“The Scottish independence movement emerged precisely as a response to war, economic crisis, environmental decline, national, local and global inequalities. It identifies the British state as a road block to sound governance and a serious orientation on the social, economic and geopolitical problems we face.”

Analysis

Why independence won’t go away

“Questions remain about the capacity of the state to deal adequately with massive social programmes including wholescale testing and tracing and, perhaps one day, vaccination. Why has it taken this long to reach the point of a testing system?”

Analysis

Test and trace: There’s still a long way to go

“I didn’t get into politics to make bureaucrats more powerful or hand more control to politicians. I’m here to get power back to people, to communities, to tenants and passengers and patients and students and frontline staff. We need the state to make it happen, but then we need them to take their hands off.”

Opinion

Robin McAlpine: Progress needs the state, but the state must progress

All Dominic Cummings needed was ‘plausible deniability’. In the world of sharply polarised political opinion, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s closest adviser, and a key strategic figure in the UK Government, didn’t need to be exonerated. He just needed […]

Analysis

What the importance of one adviser tells us about Johnson

“We need to start moving more towards a Circular Economy which will mean designing our products to last longer, use fewer resources and be easier to repair. This attitude stands directly in the face of many of the mass market shops on our High Street which thrive on selling us fast, single use items that we have to buy again and again.”

Analysis

What will the High Street look like after lockdown?

It was interesting to see Troy Deeney, the Watford English Premier League football captain, explain why he wouldn’t be going back into work.  He said: “My problem was in the meeting, I asked very simple questions. “For black, Asian and mixed ethnicities [BAME], they’re four times more likely to get the illness, they’re twice as likely […]

Analysis

Race, Scotland and Covid-19

“If this strategy is not implemented adequately then it will have much the same effect as not implementing it at all. This will force Scotland to re-impose the strict lockdown that we’ve endured until now and will come at the cost of even more lives than we’ve lost so far.”

Analysis

Lighting the Tunnel