Left voices, unfiltered, unedited, Ungagged.
Remembered as youthful and active. Dismissed by a brutally dishonest and cynical Tory regime as collateral damage. This is a short piece to recognise the sacrifice of a generation. It cannot be done without reference to the hypocrisy of a government, with the consent of media and state broadcasting, in its failure to recognise that […]
Browsing social media recently I came across one blogger who claimed that Covid-19 will be America’s Chernobyl. That seems a bit like hyperbole. Chernobyl, as history records, became a central part of Gorbachev’s Glasnost campaign which eventually led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union (helped of course by the industrial level of corruption among […]
These days it feels like every app on my phone has some Covid-19 related content. One of them has a list of all the rich and famous who’ve fallen victim to the virus – movie stars, sports people, politicians. I’ve seen the related conversations on social media, where people debate who the most famous victim […]
You hardly have to join many dots to understand that the policy of the British government was never not herd immunity. But the fact that it still is ‘targeted herd immunity’, despite and even including the lockdown measures, seems to be less understood. Rather than considering the lockdown as a complete u-turn from the British […]
Indian novelist and activist Arundhati Roy penned an article in the Financial Times last week on the global effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Many writers have offered ideas on this topic, but Roy’s stood out as some of the most prescient speculation on the new groove of a post-COVID world: “Our minds are still racing […]
It was January 2020 and I had travelled from China back to Scotland to spend a couple of weeks with my family. I’m a teacher so my time off coincides with Chinese festivals rather than Western holidays. We were having a belated Christmas and New Year, as has become normal for us in recent years. […]
The news that an unknown virus which caused breathing and respiratory problems was spreading rapidly in Wuhan at the end of last year caused little alarm at first, and people could be forgiven for paying it no attention. The other news stories of January and February 2020 included the assassination of one of Iran’s leading generals by the US and the horrific Australian bush fires. In the UK, Labour had suffered its worst […]
A look at the Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland provides us with the hope and the proof that Scotland desires change, and that we can and must come out of this crisis with a decisive move to the economic left. Over the past few weeks we have seen the very worst and the very best of […]
Here in China, COVID-19 has changed the conversation about journalism. We need a similar shift in attitudes back in the UK. #BuildBackBetter In December, several hospitals in Wuhan began receiving patients with pneumonia of an unknown etiology. From Decemebr 27th to 30th it was becoming clear that a mystery virus was circulating in the city. […]
Available FREE on iTunes and Podbean Or Stream via our player, here: In this episode Neil Scott talks about his fears during the Northern Irish Troubles, Nathália Urban reviews an extraordinary book by The SNP founder on Brazil, Debra Torrance dares not mention Coronavirus and Richie Venton talks about the recent decision (overturned) by Glasgow City Council […]