Andy Brown argues that Boris Johnson is right to maintain covid restrictions – there’s a first time for everything. But having got this right, he’s being undermined by his own backbenchers who claim it will damage the economy. These are the same MPs who are happy to do serious damage to the economy by sticking to their arbitrary Brexit deadlines.
Jane Thomas examines the impact of Brexit and the coronavirus to the economy of Sheffield, speaking to local business leaders in the city. The two crises are perfectly suited to each other, with Brexit impacting the few businesses who have escaped relatively unscathed from the pandemic.
Jane Thomas breaks down the announcement of Tier 3 for much of Yorkshire, and the impending chaos of the UK’s departure from the transition period. Will there be a national lockdown to help ease the congestion at ports on New Year’s Day? We’ll have to wait and see.
Chancellor Rushi Sunak delivers his 2021 spending plan against a backdrop of unprecedented risks financial and, for some, existential. These are detailed in what looks like an updated and more apocalyptic version of Operation Yellowhammer about to become reality.
The ‘Covid Recovery Group’ is nothing to do with helping the country, and is pursuing a reckless strategy. Helen Davidson examines what the group wants, and how their end-game may be nothing to do with the controlling the virus, but instead controlling Boris Johnson
A Sheffield resident details her experience with coronavirus, and the incompetence of track and trace, detailing “threatening and unnecessary phone calls, misleading and inaccurate information, and enquiries about health matters from people with no healthcare expertise.”
During the covid crisis, the government has spent millions of pounds of taxpayer on firms owned by their associates, often without experience of providing what they had been offering, and often without a competitive tender process. Jane Thomas presents a catalogue of corruption.
Helen Davidson looks at what needs to be done to get us out of lockdown.
National Audit Office publishes its report into the government’s awarding of PPE contracts, saying the process lacked transparency and favoured suppliers with political connections
We are in the grip of the second wave of the pandemic. Yesterday, the government announced another 24,962 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and a further 168 deaths within 28 days of a positive test. Average daily deaths in the last seven days are now 413 per day, with a total of 51,934 deaths since the […]
Brides in the market towns of Yorkshire have become activists to fight for the right to hold their wedding at their dream venue – an historic and culturally significant building dating back to c.1650 that is at risk of closure due to council cutbacks. Their stories are not only heart breaking, but are a response […]
The Northern Research Group makes its Westminster debut On Wednesday, members of the Northern Research Group took part in a Westminster hall debate called by Sheffield City Region Mayor Dan Jarvis to quiz the government (represented by exchequer secretary to the Treasury Kemi Badenoch) over economic support for the North. NRG chair Jake Berry followed […]
One of the single most astonishing things about all the pain we have been through this year is how few people have made the link to the obvious fact that this is an environmental crisis.
The Scarborough Gift Card, part of the Town and City Gift Card programme, is being introduced with the hope of protecting the town’s economy during the Covid-19 pandemic. The initiative is supported by local organisations including the Scarborough and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce, Yorkshire Coast Business Improvement District (BID), Scarborough Council and the […]
The appearance of being ‘relatable’ has always been important in politics. The pub trip photo-op has become a staple of electoral campaigning, and candidates can be savaged for their apparent detachment from reality. Long after their disappearance from frontline politics, people still remember Ed Miliband as the sandwich-mangler, and Theresa May as the wheat-field sprinter. […]
What did you do in lockdown? Bradford-based Trapezium Arts is hosting a brand new exhibition of one artist’s response to the coronavirus crisis. Sue Wilde’s show, entitled The Covid 19, is based on road maps, using the routes, towns and coastlines to create a vivid picture of life in lockdown. “During the first lockdown, needing to […]
For me, journalism has always been about changing things. I didn’t just want to report on what’s happening; I wanted to challenge it.
Local leaders react to second lockdown On Thursday, the entirety of England entered national lockdown, with stay-at-home orders issued and non-essential businesses closed. As Yorkshire becomes the focal point of the second wave of Covid-19, hospitals have been struggling, with Doncaster public health director Dr Rupert Suckling announcing that the city had more hospitalised patients than […]
Measures introduced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, MP for Richmond, have until now prevented mass unemployment and kept many businesses afloat. However, not everyone is equal when it comes to a place in the lifeboat. Many self-employed, for example, have not been given a seat – as highlighted by the campaign group #ExcludedUK. And despite creating […]
With another lockdown in England starting on Thursday, covid is well and truly back with a bang. It is sweeping the streets, crashing the Test and Trace system and even being carried into parliament by MP Margaret Ferrier. A virus doesn’t spread itself, as the government has repeatedly exclaimed when lambasting young people for house […]
How long can the prime minister’s senior adviser cling on? There is a growing rebellion in Tory ranks against the latest lockdown measures, with leading Tories including Sir Desmond Swayne and Iain Duncan Smith in the vanguard. Even the chair and vice-chair of the powerful backbench 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady and Charles Walker, have […]
The one thing this pandemic has shown us is how much we rely on our emergency services – not just the NHS, but all those who are keeping us safe during these Covid times. So, news that one of our key emergency services – the fire service – has shed more than a thousand workers […]
Today’s news that Downing Street is understood to be considering a month-long form of lockdown is no big surprise. But this latest move is already generating a reaction – from those who urged the government to move faster and earlier, to those who do not want to see further restrictions for fear of untold harm […]
Now that Brexit is all but done and Boris Johnson has the biggest parliamentary majority since the days of Margaret Thatcher, along comes a new schism to occupy northern Tory backbenchers – the North-South divide. On 26 October, Prime Minister Johnson came under considerable pressure from his own side in the form of a letter, […]
We have been warned about the logistical problems we will face when the transition period ends on 31 December and we formally leave the EU single market and customs union. We know there will be supply chain problems affecting imported goods, including food and medicine. But the logistical nightmare doesn’t stop there and covid vaccine […]
It should be welcome news that the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca has been shown to work as planned, as reported by Sky News last Thursday. But in the light of Brexit it is somewhat bitter sweet. On 16 October, Richard Torbett, chief executive of the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries […]
Tiers for fears This week was marked by an escalation in coronavirus measures as South Yorkshire was put into Tier 3, starting from Saturday. As cases rise across the region, York public health director Sharon Stolz had to deny that any move to Tier 3 was imminent in the city, and talks continue between West […]
Choirs and covid don’t mix. Before it was really a thing, we decided to halt rehearsals (for a short while we thought) until things became clearer. But droplets versus aerosols, social distancing, meeting in public areas and the rule of six soon made choral singing a thing of the past. A community choir of over […]
Today it was announced that Chancellor Rishi Sunak is due to update the Job Support Scheme, which replaces furlough in November. This will give support to Tier 2 businesses that have seen demand collapse without being formally required to shut. But as Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, told the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy […]
It’s time to take back control, before it’s too late. The sense that something is being done to us, not by us and not even for us, and the anger that this imposition evokes, is palpable today in South Yorkshire. As George Monbiot said in the Guardian, “if you are not incandescent with rage, you […]