A failed track and trace programme. Locking down too late, lifting too early. The fact that the quarantine compliance is voluntary and not enforced (as in other countries). An incomprehensible border policy. It’s this that has cost the economy as much as anything. And that’s what the chancellor should have concentrated on today, and be fixing tomorrow.
The EU shellfish issue has further exposed the total incompetence of those who campaigned for Brexit and, having ‘taken back control’, now find themselves in positions of power. In what must surely rank as one of the most humiliating letters ever received by a UK government minister, DEFRA Secretary George Eustice has had to be […]
But isn’t the point of human rights that they should give equal rights to ALL humans; to you and to me; even to criminals, and even to those humans we do not like? Once basic rights are taken away from one human, the basic protections for all humans are eroded. Yours. Mine. Everyone’s.
Drax has now decided to move away from its proposals for small gas-fired stations and recognises that these would indeed be incompatible with Britain’s climate change targets. Instead they are putting their faith in wood burning and carbon capture.
Paige Yepko documents Joe Biden’s progress with the vaccination roll out in the US; he has upped his target to 150 million people vaccinated within his first 100 days. Will he achieve this and what impact will the harsh winter have on the goal?
We’ve been patient, as the numbers of disenfranchised voters have grown. We’ve watched from a distance as major decisions about the future of the UK have been made without our involvement. Decisions that affect us deeply. It’s time to give us the voice we’ve so long been promised, and in time for the next general election. Even if the government might not like what we have to say.
Steve and Tim discuss the deep fake behind the recent Mars space mission and the relative cost of the UK’s test and trace programme.
Pete Wilkinson, co-founder of Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace UK, explains the impact of nuclear reactors, which contain plutonium and uranium, on human health. A reports with evidence of the effects on young children has also been sent to different governments, but has received an underwhelming response.
The conclusion should be obvious. We need a heavy rethink about how we treat wildlife and how we obtain our food. Not just because this is the morally right thing to do, but because our current consumption models are putting lives at risk. Sooner or later there will be another pandemic. Sooner is more likely than later. Once again it will spread easily across the planet via mass plane travel.
Flipping ‘eck – it’s Pancake Day today, so let’s use ingredients such as sugar, fat and eggs before the beginning of Lent and 40 days of fasting leading to Easter. Well, that’s the tradition, which goes back for centuries.
Education specialist Sheila Smith denounces the mistake of unnecessarily leaving the Erasmus+ scheme after Brexit. “From the little we know so far, Turing focuses only on higher education. It shows a poor understanding of the years of quality, rigour and development behind Erasmus+.”
Isabel Ralphs unpacks the gendered impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and talks to one new mother who is helping to fight for much-needed change.
Kerry Pearson, as part of the Biden 100 series, looks at America’s response to the military coup in Myanmar. She considers the cost of democracy in Joe Biden’s foreign policy agenda.
Debbie Eade, in her first article with Yorkshire Bylines, explains the conundrum that Brexit creates for the border between Gibraltar and Spain and the negotiations that have taken place in order to maintain the friendly relationship between the neighbours.
John Cornwell recalls three Polish war memorials from the city of Bolesławiec in Poland, the site of a former concentration camp. “It was sad reminder of how history, once so furious and meaningful in a place, moves on and what was once so vitally significant is now just a footnote in a peaceful neighbourhood.”
The fact that the Northern Ireland protocol – designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland – is being put to the test so early, is no big surprise. It was always going to result in additional customs checks somewhere, and those checks landed firmly at the Northern Ireland ports, for goods crossing from Britain to Northern Ireland.
Michael Hindley looks at just how isolated Britain is going to be in post-Brexit trade talks, and the difficulty of ‘rollovers’ in trading. “Brexiters are in for shocks of recognition, as they realise that the key decisions in world trade will be made elsewhere. Washington, Beijing, Tokyo and the World Trade Organization in Geneva. Brexit Britain is truly on its own.”
What do the likes Facebook and Twitter mean for the future of Western Democracy? Oliver Lawrie takes a critical look at the relationship between healthy democracy and social media as a tool for democratic emancipation, considering why social media does significantly more harm than it does good.
Marc Limon looks at the significant decision Facebook’s new board will have to make in a few weeks time: should Trump be indefinitely barred from Facebook? Alongside this, he looks at recent cases the board has overturned, including posts about Muslims in Myanmar and ‘fake news’ in France.
Kerry Pearson reviews Biden’s first couple of weeks in the White House. His focus has been on reversing Trump-era legislation, rolling out the vaccine, restoring multilateralism and increasing welfare benefits for those impacted by the pandemic.
Kerry Pearson considers the paths that Biden can take with his Catholicism. Will he move towards the centre, to reconcile the nation, or will he move further leftwards?
John Cole calls into question how genuine libertarians have been, particularly during this crisis, when they have done more harm than good. Encouraging more open economies and taking the blame from the shoulders of government and putting it on the people, they have done nothing except exacerbate the situation.
The American videogame retailer ‘GameStop’ was trending in the news and on social media recently. This was the result of millions of, mostly young, members of online forum ‘Reddit’ uniting to talk up the value of GameStop after realising that hedge funds such as Melvin Capital Management had bet against the US retailer.
Andy Brown argues that “a government that has delivered the highest death rates globally, and helped to give the world the English variant of covid, is not in a great position to lecture the rest of the world on its superiority”.
Marc Limon provides a more optimistic view of the future of liberal democracy. Its political and civil rights ensure that leaders are held accountable for their actions.
Is democracy in crisis? Marc Limon looks at how and why democracy has been eroded across the globe and considers the role that identity politics has played.
Pauline Allon details the life and death of Lisa Montgomery, one of the last people to be executed during Donald Trump’s term in office. Montgomery herself lived with mental illness, and her death was ruled as “vicious, illegal and unnecessary”.
Stephen Davis examines the conflict between Vladimir Putin and his rivals in Russia, with escalating protests in Moscow. “Navalny’s fate and the world’s response to it lies very much in the balance. If he is sent to prison on Friday, it is likely that more protests will occur at the weekend.”
Dr Hywel Ceri Jones, who helped found Erasmus, explains why abandoning it was such a mistake in the government’s pursuit of a global Britain. “With its global interests in view, the closest UK involvement in Horizon and Erasmus is an obvious and necessary investment. It makes little economic or policy sense to join one but not the other.”
Kerry Pearson speaks with a range of Americans from all different backgrounds to try and understand their views of Biden and their hopes and fears for the future.