covid-19
We must pay to view the action online and onstage
Theatre and all performing arts are in crisis. We can, and must, get into the habit of paying for online culture, just as we would if we were attending the event in real life.
No more political games
‘It’s right that we do not forget that the objective of protecting the NHS in Scotland resulted in people being denied essential care for non-COVID-19 conditions nor the mistakes made in respect of care homes…But…
Small numbers, big uncertainty: hard decisions
On R numbers and more stats: ‘Government ministers who say they are just following the science are deceiving us and possibly themselves. It is their unenviable responsibility to weigh up advice, acknowledge the uncertainty and…
Second wave scepticism
‘The current COVID-19 events are not a “second wave”, or a “second peak”, or “second spikes”. They are continuations of the ongoing epidemic. There was no second wave with SARS, a closely related coronavirus, and…
If you didn’t laugh
“I wanted to upset everybody, including myself. Half the problem with the world is that half the people take themselves too seriously. The other half don’t take themselves seriously enough.”
Schools ahead of their time – and ours too
What might we learn from the progressive thinking which gave power to local public health officers who understood local lives and deaths.
Monkey Barrel Comedy Club
How to keep comedy live in lockdown and no Fringe in town? Craig Angus heads for Monkey Barrel Comedy Club. They have plans.
The Ministry of Truth
In his latest piece, senior statistician James Urquhart, investigates how the UK Government uses UK data to buttress policy decisions for England and asks: manipulation or malfeasance…
Young, gifted and scarred…
As much as a third (32%) of the Scottish workforce isn’t working in the lockdown but it’s the young who are the hardest hit and faces the bleakest future – unless we adopt New Deal-style…
Easing out of our lockdown bubble
The psychology world has recognised the Covid pandemic as a form of trauma. Lockdown brought added stress but how will we deal with the anxiety of easing back into the outside world?
Coronavirus, conspiracies and corrosion
‘Conspiracy theorists believe that political leaders spend their time plotting, planning and pulling strings. Journalistic accounts… suggest that, far from conspiring to pull anything off, politicians miscalculated, dithered and bumbled. The lateness of the UK…
Pareto and the pandemic
Conferences, churches, weddings, Cheltenham races: clusters of cases of coronavirus may be key to the spread of the pandemic, says Prof Pennington