Abandon All Reason

Red crosses on wooden doors/ And if you float you burn/ Loose talk around tables/ Abandon all reason/ Avoid all eye contact/ Do not react/ Shoot the messengers. (Radiohead, ‘Burn the Witch’) So here we are on the eve of what is coming to be known as ‘Freedom Day’.  It is not ‘Freedom Day’. The

All is Not Yet Lost: Part II

This piece accompanies All is Not Yet Lost: Part I There was a major football final at Wembley Stadium last Sunday night for the Euros tournament. Please excuse our bias, but England have a great team at the moment, complete with players who are unafraid to speak out about social issues, and a manager who

All is Not Yet Lost: Part I

‘All is not yet lost.’ So I have to keep reminding myself in order to cling on to my last remaining shreds of optimism. It’s becoming increasingly unsettling to live on Plague Island: the numbers of Covid infections that have been predicted are, frankly, horrific and frightening. It seems absurd to be so brazenly and

Back to Normal

Two week’s time, 19th July 2021, is set to be the ‘terminus point’ (who keeps thinking up these stupid soundbites?). That is, the point of no return from Covid restrictions: e.g. no legal requirement to wear masks, to socially distance, an end to school bubbles, no legal limit on gatherings, etc. Yet, we are clearly in