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.
Coronavirus
“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.”
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?”
Test and trace: There’s still a long way to go
“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.”
Testing failures mean Scotland may be sleepwalking into a new crisis
“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.”
Iain Bruce: For lessons in protest during the pandemic, look to Latin America
New figures for the first quarter of 2020 have revealed an astonishing collapse in the profitability of shale gas extracting (fracking) firms in the US.
Coronavirus fracking crisis: Scotland dodged a bullet
“Accepting Jeanne Freeman at her word, why didn’t she realise what anyone working at the coalface in the sector could have told her – that discharging any infected person from hospital to a care home could have disastrous consequences?”
Nick Kempe: Scottish Government response to care home crisis proves why older people need a voice
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 […]
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.”
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 […]