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Enough Rope
After a fluffy savaging from Ireland’s Taoiseach Leo Varadkar this week, the EU has spluttered into action (of sorts). Yes, dear Leo is still clinging to power, courtesy of COVID-19 and a level of incompetence in Irish politics that makes the new UK Labour Shadow Cabinet seem like a brains trust. Deliciously ironic when you…
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Shop and Search
So, the lockdown is being reviewed as promised but will almost certainly be extended – no surprises there, then. As time drags on in splendid isolation, and domestic violence, obesity, and suicides spike, we will doubtless focus on the slide that we vicariously permitted when our elected representatives pushed it all through into law without…
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Theory-Eyed
In a number of countries, prisoners are being considered for an early corona release, which is slightly bonkers when you consider that prisons are arguably best suited – indeed uniquely placed – to support isolation. Not exactly the best timing either, to be pouring criminals back out onto the streets, what with police resources being…
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The Mask Raid
So, in a wholly unexpected development, the PM Boris Johnson has been carted off where he was subsequently inducted – not into the EU Hall of Fame – but into hospital intensive care. This has exacerbated the seemingly unabated coronapanic – we at least have to pretend that we need somebody to lead on the…
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Don’t Go for the Juggler
There’s been a notable shift on coronawaffle: originally, the virus itself was used to distract attention from the lamentable shitshow of Brexit and domestic political incapability. Now, the government’s management of the response to coronavirus needs a distraction tool of its own. Or a ventilator – if there’s a spare one available. Step forward Matt…
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#Keirin
With the election of Sir Keir Starmer as the new Leader of the Labour Party, I saw the hashtag #keirin trending in Twitter. It rang a bell, so I refreshed my memory. In cycling, Keirin is an event of Japanese origin where a host of riders circle a track on fixed-gear bicycles with no brakes,…
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Deflection Reflection
Yesterday, while pondering on the ongoing coronadebacle and how we got to where we are, I recalled Hitler’s Enabling Law (Ermächtigungsgesetz) of 1933 which carried a formal title of Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich). It’s the kind of historical snippet that is never…
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Venture Catalysts
Day God-knows-what in the Big Brother House and who’s going to retrieve the samurai sword from our intestines after our economic hari kari? Don’t hold your breath. If there’s light at the end of the tunnel, it’s probably some minister with a torch looking for another absurd policy. It’s the most joined-up we’ve been for…
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Take a Step Back, Please…
Well. After a few days of headless-chicken coppering in the new corona state, constabularies around the country have taken a momentous step. They’re actually going to read the 350-page Coronavirus Act in order to understand exactly what the law says. Or at least their Legal Directors are. It beggars belief that they weren’t all over…
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Irony Deficiency
Well, it was inevitable, I suppose. Not only have we Fosbury-flopped into a rights-less chasm, but the CSE Grade III philosophy salon has been issuing guidance for the interpretation of the Government guidance and the Coronavirus Act. It’s provided the perfect platform for the nation’s professional underlings to take their lives out of first gear,…
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Fighting the Good Fight…
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