Philip Hammond believes that what is good for the City of London is good for Britain. He represents the Conservative Party as sociological determinism says it should be, a Europhile and the voice of unfettered financial capitalism
Analysis
If you lose your job during the pandemic, that’s not your fault, right? Sadly, and absurdly, that isn’t the majority view in Britain today.
Source Direct: Winners and Losers, Strivers and Skivers
It’s long past panto season, but Scottish politics didn’t get that memo. With each day the inquiry into the Government mishandling of the Salmond affair gets more slapstick, more ribald and more grotesque.
Source Direct: He’s Behind You!
“Chillingly, body-bags for those lost to Britian’s world-beating excess mortality rate were being flogged to this Conservative dinner party set at 14 times the market rate.”
Analysis: Epic grift at the heart of the UK pandemic response has Hancock squirming
When it suits, we defer to those dismal Laws of Science. When it doesn’t, we are contemptuous of these same “scientists” as naked ideologues. But economic science is a flawed discipline.
Source Direct: Dismal Science
There were further resignations from Boris Johnson’s “Union unit” last week. As with the ongoing SNP soap opera, personality clashes masked a deeper crisis of purpose. Nobody seems capable of telling a story of what Britain is about.
Source Direct: You Won’t Get Me I’m Part of the Union
From court battles over evidence to rogue magpies, every week brings new twists. It now appears that Salmond’s evidence will be submitted to the inquiry. Probably.
Source Direct: Another Magpie in the Conservatory
“Little to nothing hinted at in Starmer’s speech – or more concretely asserted by Conservative leaders – could even be countenanced by a new state without its own central bank or control over monetary policy. These are ideas for the wrong century, and the gulf is widening.”
Analysis: The coming UK Budget could be a blow to the austerity-mongers – and the left
So far, a mere ten countries account for an astonishing 75 percent of global vaccinations. 130 countries have received not yet received a single dose. “Vaccine equality,” the UN observes, “is the biggest moral test before the global community”.
Source Direct: Covid’s Global Scars
“The Catalans have been both talking and acting, with mixed and confusing results. But even their confusions are more fruitful than baseless certainties, and unexamined problems.”