COMMENT

Russia, Ukraine, Schrodinger’s cat and our interconnected world.

— Vladimir Putin may have deliberately created a crisis in Ukraine in which everything is possible at once, including global food supplies being affected.

COMMENT

How warfare language is being used to demonise asylum seekers.

— The use of state-authorised force against asylum seekers is well documented – but they also use the language of warfare to deny them rights.

COMMENT

‘All the world’s somewhat corrupt and men and women merely players.’

— The worry of Transparency International’s new Corruption Perception Index is that so much of the world scores so poorly.

COMMENT

Do not oversimplify Long COVID.

— Dr Nisreen Alwan on the challenges of studying Long COVID.

The Week In Tory

The Week in Tory – Friday 28 Jan.

— Believe it or not, this covers Tory events that took place in the last 24 hours compiled by the great Russell Jones.

COMMENT

Some surprising actors want the Yankees in their backyard.

— The Estonians want the Americans to stand guard in the Baltics. So too, it seems, do the Pakistanis.

COMMENT

How dare scientists do something to prevent more deaths in the UK!

— Why shouldn’t we look for ways to pursue better health care in the UK? And why wouldn’t we want “to do more” to prevent deaths? Dr Deepti Gurdasani on the scale of normalisation of excess deaths in the UK media.

COMMENT

A consultant anaesthetist who refuses to take a vaccine?

— A very informative and articulate take on the unvaccinated consultant anaesthetist who challenged Sajid Javid in a hospital, and the implications of his views.

COMMENT

Home Office’s flawed and dangerous “scientific assessments” put children claiming asylum at risk.

— The Home Office has announced that it is setting up a new Scientific Advisory Committee to provide advice on ways to check how old an asylum seeker is. To say there are concerns to be had about this is underselling it spectacularly.

COMMENT

Masks in schools is not a matter of opinion. It works.

— Suggesting that the benefit of wearing face masks at school to limit the spread of COVID-19 is more based on hope than evidence is misinformation. Even when it comes from the BBC.

COMMENT

21st century Britain: Still the ‘emancipated empire’?

— Is history best looked at once we have finished with the future, as UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss seems to believe?

COMMENT

This Christmas we managed to frighten ourselves into deep gloom.

— It’s probably a sign of the times that the hottest, newest Netflix Christmas movie this year was ‘Don’t Look Up’.

COMMENT

On the Imperial College study on Omicron severity.

— All suggest that the observed reduction in severity is very likely due to the fact that a much larger proportion of omicron cases are people with prior infection.

EU Citizens

Home Office sued for breach of the Withdrawal Agreement.

— On Wednesday, the Independent Monitoring Authority for the Citizens’ Rights Agreements (IMA) launched a lawsuit against the Home Office for breaching the terms of the Withdrawal Agreements for people who have been granted pre-settled status.

COMMENT

A moral vacuum... on either side of the English Channel?

— On either side of the English Channel, the debate is about a moral vacuum.

COMMENT

Who do we not save?

— Stop using words like ‘balance’ to justify a policy of mass infection, avoidable deaths, and chronic illness. This was never about balance.