“The substantive issues about the way older people were discharged from hospital last year are not about legal processes at all – they are about whether appropriate measures were taken to protect vulnerable older peoples’ lives in the face of the unfolding pandemic.”
Analysis
In the best Twitter tradition, Spear’s sentiments were unnuanced, unhelpful and uninformed. But, just for one second, let’s lighten up and admit what we all know: the UK is annoying.
Source Direct: Spear Fishing
From the SNP’s perspective, there are clear advantages. This buys Sturgeon (a politician broadly in the centrist tradition) oodles of left cover at low cost. Questions thus centre on the Greens.
Source Direct: Coalition? The Dog That Didn’t Bark – Then Did
The Cummings-Johnson showdown looks likely to play out like Holyrood’s own high noon. Revelations and accusations will titillate the political class; and some authentically scandalous insights into state power will be uncovered. But the wider public may look the other way.
Source Direct: Cumm Again?
Decades of Palestinian solidarity were subjected to a fierce cultural backlash, particularly in Britain, where it was bundled with centrist efforts to retake the Labour Party.
Source Direct: Israel’s George Floyd Moment?
Scotland’s billionaire wealth stood at £2.7 billion a decade ago; as late as 2019, it was £17.2 billion; and now, two years on, it stands at £22.4 billion. It’s worth taking a second to breathe, read those figures again and wonder what has become of this self-consciously progressive nation.
Source Direct: Covid’s Billionaire Bonanza
You could purge the upper classes of its Latin and even of its Etonian playing fields; but class is encoded in capitalism’s DNA. You can wage war against genetic destiny, but you’ll be fighting a losing battle. As Jeff Goldblum put it in Jurassic Park – nature finds a way.
Source Direct: Today’s Sir Humphreys
Politics aside, the facts are stark. All of these parties committed Holyrood to targets on child poverty. This included an interim target, now only three years away, of a reduction to 18 percent. But statistics now show that poverty was increasing, even before the pandemic, to roughly one in four.
Source Direct: Child Poverty – Whodunnit?
Sturgeon remains intent on governing as before, appeasing the Left with low-cost cultural liberalism, appeasing the right with low taxes and by perpetuating wealth and privilege intact.
Source Direct: Non-Coalition of Chaos
“By the time of the 2021 vote, the greatest share of the damage to Scottish Labour had already been done, and failing to reverse any of this needs to be seen as significant in itself.”