Let’s develop a little scorecard on where we are with the economic measures in the UK and Scotland to cope with our new pandemic-world. For corporations, we have 80 per cent of the wages they owe workers affected by Covid-19 covered by government. That’s a significant drop in their costs, overnight. For banks, we have […]
UK Government
“If politicians start talking about the post-virus priority being to get you all back to the shopping malls, then let’s use that 2021 election to tell them we want a better and more resilient society at the end of this.”
Robin McAlpine: When this is done, let’s build a resilient society
There are worrying signs about the UK’s Covid-19 trajectory. The UK’s death toll is now higher than Italy’s was at this stage, and is following the US in accelerating when other countries were by now seeing the rate of increase slowing. ITV Political Editor Robert Peston responded to that fact by stating plainly: “This is […]
The (lack of) testing scandal
Food. Everyone needs it. It’s one of those universal essentials that goes on regardless of a pandemic. But most of us are so used to getting it on our plate that we don’t worry about it how it got there, and whether the mechanisms which led it to get there are resilient. There is growing […]
Chickens coming home to roost
“Luckily, just as causes for pandemics and environmental degradation are related, so too are the solutions: state intervention and following science.”
Lena Swedlow: Climate, Coronavirus and the shared solution
Just before hundreds of thousands across Scotland and the UK cheered on the NHS last night, I had a conversation with a nurse in Glasgow working in the emergency department, i.e. on the COVID-19 frontline. She told me that “colleagues are writing wills and getting life insurance in order”. They’ve still not been tested, though there […]
The real face of Lord Kitchener
“Profiteering is making the market more fragile, and exposing the profound weaknesses that have been bred into the economy by recent trends.”
The Covid profiteers: How the great coronavirus robbery is already underway
There are signs of some positive steps in the Scottish Government’s approach to this crisis which hopefully bode well. The setting up of an independent expert group separate from the UK Government, which will at the moment “supplement” the UK-wide expert advice but could ultimately lead to different policies being taken in Scotland, sounds like […]
The work dilemma
“I am sick to the back teeth of independence, a cause very dear to my heart, being kicked around the gutter in a game of image management.”
Robin McAlpine: The impact of the virus on the independence movement
An important study was published yesterday from Bristol University on the possible economic repercussions of the Coronavirus lockdown. It found that a fall in GDP of more than 6.4 per cent could lead to more deaths than will be saved through beating the virus. “I’m worried that in order to solve one problem we’d create a bigger […]