The tickbox phenomenon, which I have been writing about for most of this year, seems finally to have reached its apotheosis with the appointment of the queen of tickbox, Dido Harding, to run the government’s test and trace service. Now I have never met her, I’m afraid...
POWER OUT is a new BBC thriller about power and protest on a dying planet, starring Vinnie Heaven and written by New Weather's Sarah Woods. It asks what happens when the power system we’re hooked up to fails? If this is power, then POWER OUT: POWER OUT on the BBC...
The world of staycation is bound to lead to those sad scenes by motorways and country roads of the broken down, burst tire, overheating vehicle. Time to call the AA (Automobile Association) or the RAC - splendid British institutions, supposed to be there to assist. A...
In response to the shock of COVID-19, 3 friends wrote 33 poems in 3 months: the new volume, Plague Poems, is the result. In the midst of COVID-19, we need moments to reflect, to pay attention to things that matter, things we hadn’t noticed before, to new terrors and...
‘Badvertising’ is a new campaign to stop adverts fuelling the climate emergency. This includes ads for cars, airline flights and fossil fuels. We ended tobacco advertising when we understood the harm done by smoking. Now we know the damage done by fossil...
Rupprecht Gerngross is not a household name, even among historians of World War II, though he led what may have been the only successful internal coup against Hitler's regime. In the final weeks of the war, he led his small band of military translators to take control...
It's not what most people want to hear at the moment, but the impact of Covid19 on society and economy is a gentle breeze compared to the hurricane that global heating and ensuing climate breakdown will ultimately bring. Some problems, when examined closely, simply...
We need an open public competition to update our national monuments, remove imperial injustice and celebrate a new generation of diverse heroes write Nick Robins and Andrew Simms The brutal death of George Floyd has triggered revulsion across the world, stimulating...
Bernie Ward is a friend mine, but she is also something of a heroine. For six thrilling years, she led the local economic tools team at the New Economics Foundation. During that time she developed, not just money flows analysis but also Bizfizz (enterprise coaching)...
In the sorry tale of the UK’s response to the corona virus there are many lessons. The current unfolding illumination is how test and trace is destined to fail because of the actions of this and previous governments which have rendered a sensible response to testing...