Scotland’s news today is dominated by further lockdown restrictions. The measures may appear marginal: limitations on click and collect deliveries; firmer rules for takeaways; curbs around alcohol. But they are designed to stamp home the message that there is no imminent return to normality.
Coronavirus
“Food – good food – is not a luxury, and there is nothing you can do, no one you can be, that justifies being deprived of it. The matter must be put beyond question.”
Sean Bell: Food is everything
Most will respect the gravity of the circumstances and follow the rules. But lockdowns, as everyone has always acknowledged, are an inherently chaotic last resort. For all the rhetoric of national unity, they come with significant costs.
Source Direct: Lockdown Return Highlights Deeper Failings
As Source Direct draws to a close for 2020, it is time to review one of the darkest, craziest twelve months on record.
Source Direct: 2020: It’s been a year
“The festive season should be a time of celebration and people coming together with friends, family and colleagues. Whether you’re buying for adults or children take a look at the ethical alternatives and help build back a better Scotland.”
Duncan Thorp: Shoppers can help build back better this festive season
“Those who look after others may be some of society’s heroes, but they are also sometimes taking on service roles which should be provided by the government.”
Peter Markham: Why Westminster is turning the UK into a group of ‘Justgiving’ nations
“The disconnect between how the Scottish Government has performed over the last five years and people’s perceptions of how it has performed can only be described as remarkable.”
Robin McAlpine: This was the year I realised I was living in Nosedive
“Advocates of independence will almost inevitably be judged as insufficiently deferential to ‘the Firm’ whether they actually exhibit any hint of republican sympathy or not – which raises long-overdue questions about the SNP’s current approach to that phantasmagorical institution.”
Sean Bell: An unwelcome royal visit should remind us there’s only one solution for monarchy
If we can now imagine a world with the virus under control, the question returns to managing the economic and social fallout. The coronavirus started as a public health issue, but its economic after-effects will continue to transform everyday lives with major political consequences.
Source Direct: Vaccine roll out begins, but what now?
“Contrary to received wisdom, in many ways Sturgeon needs independence more than the independence movement needs her.”