As the latest estimate of excess deaths since the start of the pandemic passes 120,000, four main issues have continued to dominate the news this week, none of them inspiring confidence in how they’re being managed. At the start of the week a number of newspapers and websites headlined fury with Michael Gove, amid plungingContinue reading “Saturday 13 February”
Tag Archives: NHS
Saturday 6 February
As we move into February the first week has seen plenty to occupy minds and media, from the Covid death totals, which remain very high (eg 1449 on Tuesday, 915 on Thursday, 1014 on Friday), to the sad death of Captain Sir Tom Moore, continuing debate about the vaccination programme and challenges regarding the slowContinue reading “Saturday 6 February”
Saturday 30 January
Yet again it’s been a very eventful week, the most arresting issues being the passing of the ghastly 100,000 Covid deaths milestone and EC/AstraZeneca row (see below). With a further 1725 deaths being recorded on Wednesday, taking just one day as an example, the situation is clearly improving only very slowly, in terms of numbersContinue reading “Saturday 30 January”
Saturday 12 December
Whereas just one of these would be more than enough to contend with, this week has seen ‘V-Day’ jingoism, Christmas and Brexit dominating the news agenda, some media outlets generally assuming that everyone has a fairly middle class lifestyle. A letter to the Daily Telegraph demonstrated this, quoting SAGE advice as to how to manageContinue reading “Saturday 12 December”
Saturday 14 November
Of all the eventful weeks we’ve had recently, this one must be a record, including the aftermath of Biden’s victory, Trump’s ongoing refusal to concede amid allegations of fraud, the second predictable government U-turn on free school meals, the relief (despite the hard work to come) of the Pfizer vaccine announcement, the defeat of theContinue reading “Saturday 14 November”
Saturday 24 October
During a week dominated by the Greater Manchester standoff, more local mayors giving the lie to the PM’s insistence that he’d had some ‘great’ conversations with them, COVID cases continue to rise at an alarming rate, with more and more areas of the UK going into Tier 3 or total lockdown. As if it neededContinue reading “Saturday 24 October”
Sunday 2 August
As the death toll exceeds 46,201, the real total is thought to be around 66,000, so shocking it’s almost unimaginable. Yet the government sticks firmly to its script, heavily reliant upon mantras like being ‘guided by the science’, a rather selective process, it seems. It’s interesting that, throughout, neither the government nor the media haveContinue reading “Sunday 2 August”
Saturday 18 July
The death toll is now 45,233 and it’s been another very eventful news week. It started with the U-turn announcement (following confusion caused by ministers not singing from the same songsheet) that facemasks must be worn in shops, but oddly, not for another ten days. Various commentators have rightly said shop workers shouldn’t have toContinue reading “Saturday 18 July”
Sunday 12 July
As the COVID19 death toll reaches 44,798, it’s been another very busy news week, starting with widespread criticism of the PM for appearing to blame care homes for not taking sufficient precautions in the early stages of the pandemic, leading to over 20,000 care home deaths. It was then left yet again to hapless ministersContinue reading “Sunday 12 July”
Sunday 21 June
Following hot on the heels of the school meals U-turn came the news that the centralised contact tracing app, trialled and then apparently muted in the Isle of Wight, has been abandoned in favour of the Apple/Google decentralised model. How many lives could have been saved if, rather than wasting time on the foolish, ideologicalContinue reading “Sunday 21 June”
Politics and mental health - the missing link? 