ALAN SIMPSON

(Freedom and Democracy) Across the world, sports men and women have been ‘taking the knee’ in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. What troubles me is the prospect of this becoming a trivialised gesture, wrapped up in processes that change nothing. Stripped of specific, disruptive, demands it could slip intothe trough of gesture politics.…

The images of motorway tailbacks, even before Britain’s lockdown period officially loosened, brought two things home to me. The first was that, without clear leadership, crises always take you perilously close to collective insanity. I’m sure none of the families who decided it was a good moment to nip off to the coast (or the…

Labour’s Green New Deal faces a torrid credibility test. The world, post-Covid, will be nothing like the one preceding it. There will be no ‘V’ shaped economic recovery. Britain will struggle to avoid further economic decline. No one will be queueing up to shop their way out the current crisis. Large numbers of consumption-based jobs…

The Portal: another world is possible “A sense of cosmic specialness is no guarantee of good stewardship.”  David Wallace-Wells “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to…

“Everything we do during and after this crisis must be with a strong focus on building more equal, inclusive and sustainable economies and societies that are more resilient in the face of pandemics, climate change, and the many other global challenges we face.” This call could have come from any of the Labour Leadership candidates,…

Escaping today, rethinking tomorrow Welcome to ghost-town Britain, a land none of us were prepared for. Barely 3 months ago, you’d have ridiculed anyone suggesting we’d be tuning in to the daily death count from a virus creating mayhem across the land. But this is where we are. However, beyond deserted streets, closed shops and…