Lockdown
“It would appear that Police Scotland are more frightened of belligerent football fans than nonviolent anti-racist protestors. That may be entirely rational – one does not need to be an expert in urban pacification to conclude that the latter can be kettled and bullied far more easily than the former. This does not make the double standard any less grating.”
Sean Bell: It is Police Scotland’s responsibility to answer to us, not vice versa
Capitalism, our system, is ageing, inept, bilious and barely able to rise from its sickbed. Economic news does not determine the constitution, but it does ask questions about what type of independence might be possible or desirable.
Source Direct: System Shock
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.
Source Direct: Lock Me Down
“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
Lockdowns don’t hit all businesses equally. That’s a point that Andrew McRae, the Federation of Small Businesses policy chair, made following the latest announcement of tougher restrictions. He said that small businesses like retailers had to shut their doors for the next three weeks, “when many big businesses face few operating restrictions”. If you can […]
Small businesses are suffering – and it’s the banking system that’s the problem
As Scotland enters its new tiered system of restrictions today, England is getting prepared to dump it. Boris Johnson’s Saturday announcement of a four-week national lockdown, only for England, came about six weeks after his SAGE advisors had argued for a two-week circuit-breaker lockdown and he offered up the tiered system. What a mess. The […]
A second lockdown will be very different
Craig Dalzell has written a detailed response on Source here to the new restrictions imposed by the Scottish Government yesterday. Dalzell looks at the evidence report that the new measures are based on, which is really well worth a read if you have the time. Crucially, the evidence report finds that “at the current rate of growth (7 per cent increase per […]
The Great Barrington Declaration is Capitalist Realism for the pandemic-age
The new need-to-know term of the Coronavirus era is: “circuit-breaker”. Scottish and UK Government ministers are openly talking about the possibility of a circuit-breaker lockdown to stem the spread of covid-19. The October holidays is rumoured to be the week when the Scottish Government will introduce the measure, though it would probably extend to the […]