track and trace – Politics and mental health

Saturday 3 April

A happy Easter to everyone! Whether or not you’re religious, this time of year is associated with a spirit of renewal, even more so this time as Monday signalled the easing of restrictions in England. Although ministers have long erroneously maintained that ‘most people are obeying the rules’ when sights on local high streets tellContinue reading “Saturday 3 April”

Saturday 7 November

Here we are in the first few days of England’s second lockdown and some are already asking ‘what lockdown’? At least in London we’re still seeing heavy traffic on the roads, numerous people walking around and on public transport, non-essential shops open and not a single police officer in sight, let alone the COVID marshallsContinue reading “Saturday 7 November”

Saturday 10 October

I seem to be saying this most weeks but it has indeed been another eventful week, some developments proving quite shocking when we thought it couldn’t get any worse. Leaving aside the drama across the Atlantic, the main one here must be being the loss under the aegis of Public Health England and the discreditedContinue reading “Saturday 10 October”

Sunday 27 September

During a week when the Support for Jobs scheme pushed the descriptors ‘viable’ and ‘non-viable’ to the fore, with robust debates about how ‘viable’ jobs should be defined, using the terms in other contexts has been too tempting for some to resist. John Crace has written about ‘our semi-viable leader’, whose position is looking increasinglyContinue reading “Sunday 27 September”

Thursday 24 September

This blog post is late because I was in North Wales over the weekend, where I found people much more compliant than in London about wearing masks and venues much more consistent about requesting contact details for Track and Trace but the most nightmarish part of the journey was the third ‘leg’, courtesy of TransportContinue reading “Thursday 24 September”