The UK’s Covid Inquiry has trundled into Scotland and the media lined up for Nicola Sturgeon’s evidence on January 31.At one point, she wiped a tear from her eye, which gave the Daily Mail Scotland a front-page headline that read like a bad Victorian children’s story. In fact, she got through the six-hour ordeal well - as is shown by the lack of subsequent Gotcha headlines. … [Read more...] about Sturgeon in the stocks
Covid19
2021: cause for celebration the year live music came back
It's good to care about something. Having live music and club nights back is something I'll not take for granted ever again.The news doesn’t make for pleasant reading. New COVID variants abound. The government lies – no shit. COP26 hasn’t halted the climate crisis. And yet, as 2021 draws to a close, those final days of increasingly limited daylight playing out, many will … [Read more...] about 2021: cause for celebration the year live music came back
Postcard from anti-vax France
‘Thanks to vaccines, the end of the crisis is on the horizon.’ No, that’s not a bullish Boris Johnson speaking but French president Emmanuel Macron. Why, then, is France entering its fourth national lockdown just as the UK, along with a more cautious Scotland, takes wary steps towards what Johnson calls ‘a semblance of normal life’? According to France 24: “The EU's troubled … [Read more...] about Postcard from anti-vax France
More real than reality TV – the virtual community kitchen
On camera, the guests hold up the contents of their pots and pans to be checked by Noura while children and pets flit by in the background.One of the silver linings to come out of Covid's many dark clouds is the way people adapt to the restrictions caused by the disease. When our usual activities are curtailed, we find new opportunities. New ways of doing things. The Virtual … [Read more...] about More real than reality TV – the virtual community kitchen
Covid inspires a can-do response to old problem
It’s Friday, not quite ten o’clock on a wet and windy spring morning. The University car park is busy with traffic for a drive-through Covid jag. A younger queue is gathering outside Maggie’s, the Students' Union café, for a different boost to healthy survival. They wait, in a well-spaced line, with shopping bags. Hair and scarves blowing in a strong south-westerly. You can’t … [Read more...] about Covid inspires a can-do response to old problem