ON VACCINATION

If vaccine hesitancy keeps us below the threshold for herd immunity – and most estimates put this at between 60% to 70% of the population – the chance that a new coronavirus variant for which current vaccines are ineffective will always be there. That dreadful outcome, should it come to pass, will effectively put us […]

ON THE CULT OF THE 5G TRUTHER

In times of pestilence strange cults roam the land, and there is no stranger cult right now than the cult of the 5G Truther. Conspiracies alleging the 5G cellular data network is detrimental to our health have been around for a while now, largely confined to an online subculture and to professional conspiracy mongers like […]

KEY WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

History is seldom sedentary but it sometimes moves at a sickening pace. So much has changed so quickly for so many in the past few weeks we are like spinning tops in its forces. When the spinning will begin to slow is the great, terrifying, unknowable at this stage. Until then we cling on: residents […]

LOCKDOWNS AND LIBERTY

If nothing else, it really drives home how precious are our freedoms. This is different to being asked to observe a new speed limit. Freedom of movement and the right of assembly are two of our most basic liberties – liberties radicals argued for, fought for and died for on our behalf. To have them […]

CORBYNISM AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

What do we call someone who looks upon the pitiless reality of the worst pandemic since 1918 and sees reflected back at him the proof of his own political axioms? Ideology is a blunt instrument and make no mistake. Those that adhere to dogmas believe them to possess vast explanatory power. But ideology is an […]

IN PRAISE OF MAN MADE SOLUTIONS

This Telegraph article discusses a major scientific report that thoroughly debunks some of the more popular online conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic. The most common of these involves the intuition that the virus was “man made” in a laboratory somewhere and then accidentally or deliberately released into the world. By closely studying the genome […]

BRIEF JOURNAL ENTRY IN A TIME OF PLAGUE

It feels like this is only going to get more hellish before it gets better. London on lockdown? I’d never imagined such a thing outside of post apocalyptic popular culture. Then what? The rest of the country? We all sit indoors and wait for a vaccine? What state will the economy be in by then? […]