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Category: Coronavirus

Patched with virtue. Britain’s historical legacy and how black lives matter

Patched with virtue. Britain’s historical legacy and how black lives matter

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Hong Kong has been much in the news recently, with the Chinese government looking to unilaterally set aside part of the “two systems” approach that it agreed to when Britain ceded it in 1997 by imposing new national security laws on it.  British public opinion is rightly deeply concerned.  The British government has offered Hong Kongers with a British National Overseas passport the right to live and work in the UK.  This is an admirable and principled stance by the…

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A big challenge for Johnson and his minsters is that their rating on how they’re handling COVID 19 has now gone negative

A big challenge for Johnson and his minsters is that their rating on how they’re handling COVID 19 has now gone negative

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Several pollsters are asking regular questions on how the public think the government is handling the pandemic. YouGov and Opinium have published the most data on this and I have chosen the former for my chart. The main trend is broadly the same which ever pollster you use and whatever the question format – a falling off of confidence in the government’s approach. It should be noted that with YouGov it went into negative territory before we got news of…

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A PBer lobbies the government over not being able to see his mother who is in a care home

A PBer lobbies the government over not being able to see his mother who is in a care home

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Care Home Visitor Rules: constructive suggestions for change Dear XXXXX My mother (86) is in a care home. Care homes are, of course, currently protected by special guidance due to Covid-19. This guidance specifies no visitors. Due to this, my mother has not been able to see her husband, children, grandchildren or friends for over ten weeks with no end in sight. The care home staff does a really great job but the best they can offer in terms of…

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The Covid-19 Inquiry: A Primer

The Covid-19 Inquiry: A Primer

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The PM does not enjoy scrutiny. It has even taken him 10 months to attend Parliament’s Liaison Committee. Nonetheless, sometimes even the most reluctant must submit to inquiries, often led by those great favourites of politicians – judges. 68 of them between 1990 and 2017, most into tragedies so serious that an inquiry was inevitable (the Piper Alpha explosion, e-Coli outbreaks, rail crashes). Many into the NHS (murdering nurses/doctors – Allitt/Shipman, child cardiac surgery, hospital failings – Bristol, Morecambe Bay,…

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However you view these poll numbers it doesn’t look good for Cummings or the PM

However you view these poll numbers it doesn’t look good for Cummings or the PM

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The above chart is based on the data from yesterday’s Opinium poll for the Observer and seeks to break down in visual form how different segments are viewing what Cummings did at the height of the lockdown. As can be seen the government’s argument that this was justified is not being received well across the key segments there. Even GE2019 CON voters have failed, admittedly by a small margin, to give it their blessing. The split I find most striking…

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Boris looks as though he’s survived the Cummings lockdown road trip – but at what price?

Boris looks as though he’s survived the Cummings lockdown road trip – but at what price?

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Can the PM get back to where he was? The above is one of the videos now on YouTube with the words of the Proclaimers 500 Miles song adapted for Mr Cummings and his drive to Durham during the lockdown. This events of the past week have dominated the headlines and become a big talking point. The question is what will be the long term political impact? All the polling as we have seen has been very negative with even…

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Motes and beams. Leading a response to a pandemic without moral authority

Motes and beams. Leading a response to a pandemic without moral authority

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So now we know: as in Pirates of the Caribbean, the rules of the C aren’t so much rules, they’re more what you’d call guidelines.  Robert Jenrick has confirmed that the public could always exercise “a degree of personal judgement”.   This will come as a considerable surprise to the 27million people who listened to Boris Johnson on 23 March: “give the British people a very simple instruction. You must stay at home, because the critical thing we must do to stop the disease spreading…

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