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Category: Coronavirus

Why Starmer is not going to let go of the issue of Johnson not acting quickly enough on COVID19

Why Starmer is not going to let go of the issue of Johnson not acting quickly enough on COVID19

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One of the great sources of analysis during the pandemic has been on Radio 4’s “More of Less” programme which each week subjects big issues in the news to statistical analysis. It has just finished its current series and its last programme was basically a summation of how the pandemic evolved. It is well worth listening to here . Inevitably the issue of timing of the government’s decision in March is subject to scrutiny and a clear view is developing…

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12 Good Men

12 Good Men

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On the decision to suspend jury trials I loved Latin at school. My award for Latin poetry recital is carefully preserved and I remain mildly hopeful that, one day, it might even prove useful. Poetry aside, it was then seen as necessary to become a lawyer. For the first few years of practice those Latin sayings encapsulating legal rules became firmly lodged in my head. Then they were no longer compulsory, plain clear English becoming the rule. Quite right. But…

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The lockdown is being eased from July 4th but the virus has not gone away

The lockdown is being eased from July 4th but the virus has not gone away

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Is this going to change the political trends? As expected the man who desperately needs a haircut, PM Johnson, has announced a range of measures that will ease the lockdown from a week on Saturday which will be exactly three months to the day since Keir Starmer became opposition leader. In that time the Tories lead has been slashed from 26% in two polls in April to the blue team being just four or five points ahead. Johnson’s personal ratings…

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Johnson’s big gamble – setting a time table for the lockdown regulations to be eased

Johnson’s big gamble – setting a time table for the lockdown regulations to be eased

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Lockdown bandit Cummings and his team have certainly been hard at work briefing the media on the changes in the lockdown regulations that are due to be announced by the Prime Minister in House of Commons today The papers, as can be seen above, are pretty positive and are giving the changes the big treatment because, clearly, any easing of the strict controls that people have been living under since March is massive news. This, of course, represents a big…

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The reality is that life won’t get back to normal until a vaccine or palliative is widely available

The reality is that life won’t get back to normal until a vaccine or palliative is widely available

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During the day I had a call from an old friend who told me she had recently come out of hospital after getting COVID19. Her story was, no doubt, very similar to what many of the hundreds of thousands who have been struck down with the disease have experienced. The sheer awfulness of gasping for breath and then the incredible joy after arriving in hospital and getting oxygen. The totality of the pain, the physical discomfort when our organs aren’t…

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Perhaps pollsters should start weighting for those who have had Covid-19 or know someone who has had from Covid-19

Perhaps pollsters should start weighting for those who have had Covid-19 or know someone who has had from Covid-19

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This morning The Sunday Times have done some excellent analysis based on figures from the gold standard Office of National Statistics that shows While the virus threat is receding in London and other urban centres, our research shows many of the 44 parliamentary seats in the north and the Midlands that switched from Labour to Conservative last year are suffering an above-average mortality rate. The red wall has become a blue dilemma for a prime minister determined to make last year’s…

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The Social Undistanceables: A Plan

The Social Undistanceables: A Plan

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Thinking through the problem of the moment What a mouthful. Like the name for a reality TV programme. Trying to match up the odd, the awkward, the peculiar. Or perhaps a play – if a theatre can be found. Almost unremarked, the RSC recently announced it would close until next January. Birmingham Hippodrome has started redundancy consultations, its reason being what Basil Fawlty might have termed the “bleedin’ obvious”: “We are unable to reopen until social distancing measures are relaxed”….

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