“Politicians are not leading you to that hope-infused future, so you’re going to have to lead them. It is your best protection against despair. It also happens to be our best hope for our shared future.”
Scottish Government
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 lesson of the last spike was that when infections are growing exponentially, and you are following the same trend as a country that is a few weeks ahead of you, then the horrific sights of full ICUs and entire cities locked to standstill will happen to you too.”
Analysis: New restrictions must reflect a genuine elimination strategy
“If the Scottish Government were to decide to create a not for profit National Care Service under which the workforce was fairly paid and properly trained, domiciliary services would be the easiest to reform.”
Nick Kempe: Care at home and the Covid crisis
Around one million Scots were in poverty before the covid-19 crisis, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s new Poverty in Scotland 2020 report finds. That breaks down as 230,000 children, 640,000 working age adults, and 150,000 pensioners. These numbers have been rising over the past five years, especially child poverty, which is up to 24 per cent, almost one […]
Scotland is going backwards on poverty
“How can Scotland even begin to tackle gender inequality in what is an already deeply unequal area of Scottish politics without even collecting the data to measure success by?”
Ellen Höfer: Equality and women’s land rights in Scotland
“The combined power and resources of the entire university sector and the whole of the Scottish Government had seven months to put student and staff welfare at the heart of their plans. Is anyone seriously suggesting that that is what happened?”
Robin McAlpine: Prisoner-students were inevitable because of our university-businesses
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 […]
Circuit-breaks and faulty currents
“Regardless of any promise the current government might make before next year’s election, we’re unlikely to see meaningful land reform inside the next parliament.”
Craig Dalzell: Making more of Scotland’s land
“Lots of you think that ‘tampons on the NHS’ is the direction we’re going. I think it’s going to look more like ‘buy your own insulin’.”