Meryl White provides a Prune and Whisky Tart recipe and an invitation to an online Burns’ Night event. Let’s stay safe at home and celebrate Burns’ Night by raising a toast to this famous Scottish bard and maybe try out Fiona’s recipe. Slainte Mhath! Happy Burns Night!
It takes some arrogance to believe that you know more about how to deploy a vaccine than the manufacturers of it. It also takes supreme self-belief for the leaders of one country to insist on following their own untested theory when the rest of the world seems to think it is a good idea to read the instructions on the vial and follow the science.
I don’t suppose Donald Trump was living in Wolverhampton in the 90’s. And I don’t suppose, even if he was there, he went dancing in The Web with his blonde Lego hair.
With tough on crime Trump gone, and Biden’s justice reform on the agenda, might Priti Patel temper her focus on the death penalty? Dr Stella Perrott looks at the similarities between Patel’s and Trump’s views on justice, and how the home secretary may change under Biden.
Without an effective test, trace isolate programme – and with the abject failure to deal with what happens at our borders to stop the international flow of the virus – vaccination is our only way out of this. And that is why any delay to roll out OR compromise of efficacy is concerning.
A covid passport is not the only or even the most important answer to getting back to some form of normality. And as long as the UK’s covid rates remain the worst in the world, we are likely to be blacklisted. Restrictions against travellers from areas where high infection and death rates continue will not be lifted anytime soon.
As Craven District Green councillor, Andy Brown notes that we’re all suffering from the consequences of neglecting our environment. With deregulation in China causing deaths in Yorkshire, we need to treat our globe as a unified whole in our response to climate change, not to ignore it.
Beanna Olding reports on the efforts by the organisers of the 2016 anti-Trump Women’s March to survey global feminists. “the team has constructed a survey to collect data about the cultural and socio-economic obstacles women all over the world are facing today.”
As Alex Toal writes, the people of Yorkshire need economic support more than ever, but their first Chancellor from the region in 45 years ignores their need. Is Rishi Sunak’s stance on Universal Credit a play to the backbenches, that “a vote for Sunak is a vote for fiscal orthodoxy”?
Steve’s friend Tim suspects his plumber may be part of the Big Plumbing corporate machine, controlling his life.
Health inequalities are systemic. The government has not prioritised Covid-19 jabs for all people with intellectual disability. Nor does it prioritise those at home, their family carers, or peripatetic agency carers going into several different homes daily, and often wearing the one set of PPE provided for the day.
Education specialist Dr Pam Jarvis looks at how a strict view of education is letting down children during the pandemic. With civil servants enforcing traditional methods of teaching in this period, Pam reflects that we need a broader view of how to teach.
Jenrick must have solved looming crises in housing, local government debt, and cladding, Alex Toal writes, given his obsession with statues. The minister has been borrowing tactics from one of his predecessors, Eric Pickles, in preventing communities in having a voice about their public space.
Steve Pottinger speaks with people on the ground as British importers struggle with the reality of trade outside of the European Union. “Given the lengthy negotiations which preceded this treaty, it’s hard to imagine much goodwill in the EU if and when it comes to helping dig the UK out of a hole it’s chosen to jump into. The implications of that are profoundly worrying for us all.”
Jane Thomas looks at how scrapping the universal credit uplift of £20 a week would have the biggest impact in the poorest towns in England. “The promise of levelling up is receding not growing – and unless the chancellor changes tack, the opportunities for our poorest will be swept away.”
Sheffield-based Green Party peer Natalie Bennett has seen firsthand the results of disinformation. Now, she argues, we need to start taking it as seriously as the pandemic, and start working on solutions.
Former MEP Michael Hindley discusses how we can stay close to Europe: “the way back to the EU will be facilitated by maintaining and even furthering such initiatives. Labour needs to explore which EU projects are still open to the UK’s participation.”
Marcus Cain looks at the truth behind the UK government’s rejection of the EU’s offer of visa-free travel for musicians and crew. “All this begs the question, why would our government, a Conservative government, let an industry that is our second largest export and worth over £5.8bn a year to the UK economy wither and die?”
The U.K.’s media landscape is one already dominated by right-wing oligarchs. As Granville Williams writes, this is only going to get worse, with the upcoming launch of “GB News”, which has expressly opposed the “woke” agenda of the BBC.
Fishing trade organisations have accused Johnson of negotiating a “desperately poor” deal for them, misleading them by claiming the deal was a major success and essentially of telling lies about the new quotas. Tory MPs who were quick to offer support find themselves out on a limb.
Pen Hemingway describes her experience of living with long covid, having caught covid in March, at a time when treatment was refused and symptoms were denied. “This is one roller-coaster nobody is getting off any time soon.”
Sheffield campaigner Jane Thomas reacts to the news that Transport for the North’s budget has been cut by 40 percent, a harsh blow to dreams of levelling up the north. “If the government does not support this through proper funding of local authorities, and through deeper devolution, the levelling-up agenda will never happen.”
John Cole questions why we have foodbanks in such a prosperous society, and how austerity led to divisions in this country. “Austerity has a lot to answer for and we may note that the two leading protagonists were David Cameron and George Osborne (both dismissed by a third Conservative MP Nadine Dorries as ‘two arrogant posh boys who don’t know the price of milk’).”
The peaks of coronavirus and Brexit are converging at the worst possible moment to supercharge and amplify each other, threatening to engulf the government in a perfect storm over the next few weeks. This is a result of the deliberate choices made by the most incompetent government in British history.
Alok Sharma’s role as chair of the Cop26 conference – to be held in Glasgow in November – is now a full-time Cabinet position. But his record on climate issues is poor, and he doesn’t have long to turn this around. The world will be watching.
Trevor Fisher investigates the international spread of conspiracies during the pandemic which may hinder us getting out of it. “The rapid spread of these theories and the way they boost actual fascist activities make the ‘Scamdemic’ movement a dangerous threat.”
As fishermen accuse the government of betrayal and selling them out, Michael Gove’s words are about to come back to haunt him. In 2016, he accused the EU of being a “job destroying machine”. Four years on he has become an industry destroyer.
Richard Claxton reports on the work of non-profit group Humane Being in their efforts to put an end to factory farming. Represented by renowned QC, Michael Mansfield, and with the support of the RPCA, Humane Being have launched a crowdfunder to support their bid to end the practice.
Steve’s friend Tim can’t get his ex to accept his offer of fish, and is struggling to get by on the “specialist catering” offered by his mate Spaffa for £30
What do accusations of bribing the UN, striking NHS workers, and Tory donors have to do with the latest government procurement scandal? York-based Alex Toal breaks down the news of another government contractor misusing public money during a national crisis, this time using £30 school meal credits to provide £5 worth of food to children in need.