As Covid restrictions tighten and lockdown closes doors once again, the challenges he describes will strike a chord with thousands of independent cafes, restaurants and bars across Scotland.
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Testing times for Scottish Parliament
Why is Scottish Parliament a largely unreported world? Watch these important debates on testing, business support – and then listen to FAI podcast on what business really thinks
Time to ditch algorithmic government
‘The UK has, as Peter Hennessy has eloquently warned, a constitution that relies on the “good chaps theory of government”. That structure now looks incredibly vulnerable when faced with a prime minister and key advisers who reject the rules, lack self-restraint and engage in populist posturing. The result is sacrificial statecraft wrapped around a naive vision of populist technology. Ditch it now.’
All in the same boat?
Relationship breakdown, housing, mental health and finances have been some of the main issues impacting young people. It isn’t over yet. I can assure you – this pandemic is no great leveller.
Confiné en France
‘Working and living here has always been a dream of mine – but my French was never good enough to get a job. So, it seems ironic that, just as this has become a reality because of completely remote working, the possibility is being taken away.’
A plague on old age
‘By far the most important risk factor for getting hospitalised, being admitted to an ICU, and dying from the disease is old age, particularly being over 80. Not many housing scheme residents get that far…’
Allotments make a comeback
‘The most deprived communities have faced an eight times greater loss of allotments when compared to the least deprived. This is a loss of the ability to grow food in areas where communities are most at risk from not having enough food.’
The disappearing act
‘Faced with Westminster’s constitutional tinkering, independence may well appeal precisely because it looks less like a radical departure and more a restoration of sanity and normality—a factory reset rather than a clean slate’
We need a vaccine
‘It looks as though outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 will be a fact of life for some time to come, but “learning to live with the virus” should not mean letting it infect large numbers of people. The plan should be to make sure that very few people get infected so that new outbreaks are small and rare.’
Germany’s miles better…
‘Germany, even if one goes as far back as Bismarck and 1871, is a relatively young country and, in its latest iteration, highly attractive to a lot of Europe’s youth. It does offer, then, a model for any nascent Scottish republic: open, tolerant, European, nationalist in a civic, secular sense. But, as its friends, including Kampfner, acknowledge, it faces significant challenges now and in future.’