corruption – Page 7 – Politics and mental health

Saturday 24 April

Last week the Greensill scandal continued to be the gift that kept on giving, fresh revelations mushrooming up every day, although the government must have been grateful for the three distractions which the media made the most of. The latest bombshell from Dominic Cummings is a distraction the PM definitely won’t be grateful for –Continue reading “Saturday 24 April”

Saturday 17 April

After another eventful week, it now seems a long time since Monday, when pubs, cafes and restaurants could open for hospitality outside, and, with the sunny though chilly weather, it does feel that there’s a spirit of renewal in the air. There’s been as much talk about getting a hairdresser or barber appointment as thereContinue reading “Saturday 17 April”

Saturday 6 March

So much can happen in a week and when we come to look back over the trajectory of the pandemic, it could well seem as if a month’s worth has been packed into every single week. It’s interesting, then, that only on Monday there was extreme concern that our leaky border controls had enabled 6Continue reading “Saturday 6 March”

Sunday 28 February

This last week will be memorable at least for the formal announcement of the long awaited roadmap out of lockdown, widely leaked beforehand. It attracted criticism from some health experts and teachers for focusing on dates rather than data despite declarations to the contrary, and for allowing all schools to reopen at once on 8Continue reading “Sunday 28 February”

Sunday 21 February

As numbers of Covid deaths and new cases continue to fall but remain high, this last week finally saw the introduction of hotel quarantining for UK passengers returning from the 33 ‘red list’ countries (in Scotland it’s sensibly all countries since dangerous variants have been found in many besides the 33). Ministers had quite aContinue reading “Sunday 21 February”

Sunday 22 November

As bad news and government blunders continue to come thick and fast, the Office for National Statistics tells us that the latest weekly count of COVID deaths in England and Wales (week ending 6 November) showed a rise of 40%, the highest since May. Taking just one day as an example, Thursday saw 22,915 newContinue reading “Sunday 22 November”

Sunday 9 August

As the UK death toll reaches 46,574, this week started with no-nonsense senior scientist Sir Paul Nurse lambasting the secrecy which has dominated pandemic management: ‘Decisions are too often shrouded in secrecy. They need challenge and we need processes to ensure that happens. If they are going to keep the trust of the nation, theyContinue reading “Sunday 9 August”