There was a remarkable contrast this morning in two stories standing side by side on the BBC homepage. On the left, US President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows saying “we’re not going to control the pandemic”. On the right, one positive covid-19 case sparking the testing of all 4.7 million people in the […]

The pandemic and global politics: accelerating the train crash





Don’t call it a second wave. Most experts are saying that Europe is still in the grips of wave one, as while cases had been significantly reduced over the past couple of months the virus had not been effectively eliminated, and thus the spike in recent weeks in many European countries is part of the […]

Weighing the ‘risk factor’


Sunday’s Spanish regional elections in the Basque Autonomous Community and Galicia did not produce a surprise in terms of the victors, but it did show that the trend of rising support for pro-independence parties in Europe has not been slowed by the pandemic.  In the BAC, EH Bildu, the left-wing pro-independence coalition, won nearly 28 […]

Europe’s nationalist left is on the rise


There will be no criticisms today (many of you will be relieved to read…). The situation is so urgent we just need to understand what is ahead of us and organise ourselves to deal with it as effectively as possible.  To explain what’s ahead, look at the case of Italy. The country had its first COVID-19 death […]

Save lives and reduce hardship – nothing else matters