Society
Representative democracy needs to concentrate more on the representation…
It is a relief that Macron has been re-elected, though the whole binary ‘ballotage’ system is in many ways demonstrative of how democracy gets reduced so quickly to a plague on both your houses. Indeed it forces most of the reasonable French left to support the centrist candidate through fear of an even worse outcome... Read more
Johnson to escape scot-free?
So Johnson had up until now enquiries into his Covid conduct from the Metrpolitan Police, Sue Gray and now the third enquiry from the Commons Privileges Committee. Now we have a further and fourth inquiry likely, in the form of two complainants who think that the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons has... Read more
Another way for Labour to censure Brexit
The Observer carried an interesting piece on Language Schools yesterday where with an 80% drop in revenue since Brexit, the reckoning is that there are a good 40,000 jobs in the balance. This is another disaster that has been hidden by Covid, but is plain for all to see in empty language schools accross Britain... Read more
That ministerial direction and what it tells us
Home Secretary Patel was forced to issue a ministerial direction, the BBC tells us, in order to push through the the Rwanda policy of forcefully exporting refugees. We learn that: Home Office civil servants could not precisely quantify the benefits of the policy, and uncertainty about the costs meant Ms Patel had to take personal... Read more
‘Rwanda Policy’
Firstly, who knew we had one? Nonetheless this absolutely gobsmacking comment from FT columnist Robert Shrimsley suggests three incisive points: We should also be aware that Rwanda is landlocked and its population is about 12 million – so not a lot more than Greater London – and it is run by a democratic dictator (aren’t... Read more
Dismantling Truths About Emerging Adulthood
We need a really radical re-imagining of, not just how we think about young adulthood, but how we move through our lives and where we find value. I would want people to know that this myth of young adulthood is not your individual burden. Doing the best you can within that has a lot of value....
More evidence – free ideology worsening lives
Two insightful articles – one recently in the Guardian and one from January in Yorkshire Bylines demonstrate more of the fundamental flaws inherent in current government thinking. The Guardian article is by Professor Michael Marmot, well known for his report on health and well-being which is now twelve years old. Since when, of course things... Read more
Crises? What crises? Government still looks the other way
More worrying news from our justice system and our hospital system. First the Criminal Bar Association is commencing action on Monday towards a measure of non co-operation with the court service, particularly when asked to accept cases at short notice: Government has failed to recognise the crisis in the court service despite delays of two... Read more
NICE recommendation at last…
A welcome recommendation from NICE at last – and why doesn’t Public Health England (now surely, in a sleight of hand, ‘The UK Health Security Agency’)endorse it similarly? Maybe it will… This is the idea that your waist measurement should be less than half your height. This is a concept which has been around for... Read more
Covid conclusions – such as they are
This will, I think be controversial – as it should be – and is indeed for me. The video is made by a retired doctor, whose previous job was to train A&E nurses – and his teaching ability shows, for sure, in the video. The video is about 20 minutes and suggests that the vaccines... Read more