Tag Archives: coronavirus

About a year ago I was planning a long-haul trip. I looked the country up on the fitfortravel.nhs.uk website to see what diseases were present there and which vaccinations were recommended. I booked an appointment at Boots and went to get the injections. I didn’t look up any of the …

In March I supported lockdown and I was rather dismissive of lockdown sceptics. I thought Covid was probably the worst pandemic for one hundred years. Shutting everything down for a few weeks seemed a reasonable response. I still think Covid is probably the worst pandemic for one hundred years. The …

What could have been. Originally, Britain, led by a Prime Minister that called the mayor of Jaws his hero, intended to follow the “Swedish” strategy of trusting people’s common sense to tackle the coronavirus. However, the British government famously u-turned and decided instead to follow the extreme strategy of lockdown …

In every previous virus epidemic in history there was no lockdown. Neither in 1918-1919 (Spanish flu), nor 1957-1958 (Asian Flu) nor in 1968-1969 (Hong Kong Flu) did we attempt to prevent people from working or going to school. What if we had done the same this time? What if back …

Margaret Thatcher once said that “there can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.” She was right. For far too long before Margaret Thatcher took office there was very little economic liberty in the United Kingdom. We had relied on the same school of Keynesian Economic thought for much …

The SNP has been demanding a second referendum on Scottish independence from the moment it lost the first one. We never get a break. I began writing about Scottish politics in 2012. I was willing to be magnanimous when we won in 2014. I advised people not to gloat or …

The reason we are in lockdown is because of the The Health Protection (Coronavirus) (Restrictions) (Scotland) Regulations 2020 which were laid before the Scottish Parliament on the 27th of March 2020. Similar regulations were laid before the House of Commons on 26th of March, but these applied to England. Health …

Before the United Kingdom instituted its lockdown, it was intent on following the Swedish model of “mitigation” i.e. trusting people to do the right thing to avert the spread of the virus, rather than instituting draconian lockdowns. The British’s government’s reasoning at the time was based on an understanding that …

At first I was sceptical about how effective this lock down would be. I should say I remain highly sceptical about the effectiveness of this lockdown and its impact on slowing this virus. But that’s a discussion for another day. Today we should recognise the heroic effort of the British …

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. The phrase from the United States’ Declaration of Independence which states our natural rights and which the executive is designed to protect and defend. Most governments all over the world are pursuing, as they see it, the continuation of life to the detriment …

Twitter is an interesting metaphor for infectious diseases. I write something. It might be seen be some of my followers, but it has to compete with what everyone else is writing so it might be ignored. If someone retweets, it might be seen by any of their followers, but just …

Journalists have been having fun at the government’s expense on the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) issue but what is actually happening? Why haven’t UK manufacturers been engaged to cope with the shortfall?  The answer seems to lie with NHS purchasing. The NHS has demonstrated true public sector flair by reducing …

There are essentially three positions on the lockdown. We should get out sooner (Hawks). We should get out later (Doves). There should not be a lock down at all (Enzas). Which is correct? We don’t know. The correct decision depends on knowing how many people have been infected with Covid …

The IMF has recently released predictions for the economy.  It predicts a 3% fall in global GDP in 2020 and a 6.5% fall in the UK: The IMF is pessimistic about global recovery, apparently the economic recovery is beginning now, which is puzzling.   It is interesting that only a month ago, …

It is clear now that Covid 19 originated in Wuhan China sometime in November or early December 2019. It might have been stopped if the Chinese Government had taken the necessary steps early enough. Instead they tried to prevent Chinese doctors from telling the truth about the illness and repeatedly …

Italy and Spain are in trouble.  Not only do they have the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the EU but their economies are on the rocks.  The European Central Bank (ECB) saved Italy with promises in March as the Italian Treasury was having to offer ever increasing yields on its bonds …

Quite a lot of us are going to spend considerable amounts of time at home in the next few months. Social distancing will mean that we will have almost no social life. There will be no opportunities to meet up and most of us will not have the daily routine …

In recent weeks we have seen the power of the sovereign nation state deal with a crisis in a way that has not been seen since 1945. The British Government has been able to spend almost without limit to keep our people safe. It has taken other extraordinary measures to …

The novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 has wreaked havoc across the global community, causing significant harm to international economies, social safety nets, standards of living as well as leading to massive job losses in markets that were once viewed as “concrete strong” The fight to stymie the spread of COVID-19 within …

Can you remember when Theresa May was Prime Minister? It seems like another time and another place. Britain was humiliated in our negotiations with the EU. She kept trying to get the worst Treaty in British history through the Commons and she kept failing. The country was divided into Leavers …