Are we the new Number 6? Don’t be under any illusions. This article offers no sanctuary for the advocates of ‘herd immunity’. As an answer to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s a price too high. A colossal increase in death...
Blog
Alan SimpsonThe Politics of Uncertainty
The government’s educational omnishambles is stealing all the headlines at the moment. It pushes political incompetence to new limits. But behind the debacle lies a bigger crime. Boris Johnson is killing parliamentary...
Robin Hood Dies: the legend lives on
Robin Hood Dies: the legend lives on As news hits the press about the imminent demise of Nottingham’s Robin Hood Energy company (RHE), I took a look at the plinth in front of St Mary’s church in the middle of Nottingham...
A crisis like no other
Tipping or turning: the choice is still ours We are in a bad place; a really bad place. The IMF predicts that the Covid pandemic will shrink the global economy by 5% this year, with a cumulative loss of around $9...
Who’s Lives Matter
(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...
Energy and Equity
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...
Green New Deal – time for an ecological reboot?
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...
The Great Unravelling: Part 4
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...
After the Apocalypse
“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...
The Great Unravelling: Part 3
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...
