It has emerged that, senior No.10 aide Dominic Cummings travelled hundreds of miles from London to County Durham during the lockdown when he had virus symptoms. This comes after the resignation of Prof. Neil Ferguson, who ignored the law to visit his partner in another home. Back in April the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland, Dr Catherine Calderwood was also forced to resign after flouting lockdown measures, which she herself had advocated for.
Tag Archives: Britain
The youth need quality apprenticeships
Apprenticeships, on paper, sound like a fantastic initiative, right? Learning practical skills for the workplace, gaining qualifications, all while earning a wage. Indeed, there is a romantic image surrounding apprenticeships that still pervades among popular opinion, students learning to become skilled craftsmen at the foot of an all knowing master, the making of the artisans of the future, all very nostalgic.
It was this romantic image that was harnessed by the Conservative Government in its push for apprenticeships, including degree apprenticeships, to be rolled out en masse in the early 2010s, with Cameron vowing to create 3 million apprenticeships, including prestigious ‘degree apprenticeships’, in 2014, payed for via cuts to housing benefit of course.
The Gendered Impact of COVID-19
The ongoing Covid-19 crisis taking place across the world is producing some of the most significant upheavals the world has seen since the Second World War. UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was first admitted to hospital with the Virus on the 5thof April. His battle with the illness prompted a wave of sympathy, with commentators sending niceties, positing that this highlighted that the Coronavirus can and does affect us all. “We are all in this together”, as Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, argued, and while it is clear that the Coronavirus is affecting us all, it is important to highlight that it is not affecting us all equally. There are obvious class differences in how people are able to cope amid the government lockdown. However, there are also key gender differences, and as usual women are bearing the brunt of both the economic repercussions of the lockdown, and are put at greater risk of infection.
We must continue fighting the good fight
Nelson Mandela once said, “I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could notContinue reading “We must continue fighting the good fight”
Class divide at the heart of our education
I’m sure everyone reading this is aware of the deep class divisions within the British educational system. The disparities could not be more glaringly obvious. Children of rich bankers go off to Eton, while the heating of the local comp still hasn’t been fixed. Fairly common knowledge. While the existence of public schools such asContinue reading “Class divide at the heart of our education”
Italy and Britain: a tale of two pandemics?
The critical failure of our government in to Britain in the wake of the Coronavirus becomes more apparent as the days go by. In the initial period of the crisis, much of the British press looked to Italy with shock horror at how the virus had managed to take hold, yet little over a month later, Italy looks to be improving while the UK Government fails to maintain promise after promise.
