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. […]
“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?”
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.
The UK has joined the US, Australia and Canada in condemning the Chinese state for imposing a new security law in Hong Kong during the pandemic. The special administrative area in China was once a colony of the British Empire and the statement declared that the four powers have a “significant and long-standing stake” in […]
Four in five Scottish engineering firms have warned they will cut jobs due to the economic slowdown. The warning comes as part of industry lobbying into speading up the end of lockdown. Industry bosses want Scotland to end its lockdown in tandem with England. (Herald)
The Scottish Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has warned the costs of tackling the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences far outweigh central UK Government funding for Scotland. She has previously complained that a pledged £60 million in business assistance for Scottish business never materialised. (Herald)
Prime Minister Boris Johnsons’s special adviser Dominic Cummings may have broken lockdown rules in a “minor breach” according to Durham police. The Number 10 strategist has been at the heart of a controversy since last week after it was revealed he travelled from London to the North East town at the height of lockdown. (The […]
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.
“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.”
“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?”
“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.”
“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.”
“On Monday, thousands turned out in Quito and other cities, again with face masks and a careful distance between each protester. In fact, it was the police who did not respect social distancing, as they charged protesters in the historic centre of Quito, using tear gas and truncheons.”