Month: March 2022

Finding correct statistical lessons is vital to improving any future ‘crisis’ decision-making

THE UK GOVERNMENT has announced an independent inquiry to “examine the UK’s pandemic response and to ensure that the UK is better prepared to respond to future pandemics.”  A consultation is in progress regarding the scope and form of the inquiry (open until 7 April – closes a week today!) This article discusses how we should …

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Still weighed down by fear

Austria shows Europe is not yet free and reminds us we must remain vigilant too “You are an Englishman, and have subsequently drawn the greatest prize in the lottery of life”, Rhodes is recorded as saying to Lord Grey in the ‘good old days’ when Britannia ruled the waves.  WITH INFLATION going through the roof, …

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How I was silenced from revealing the awful truth about NHS pandemic mismanagement

Last year we took the testimony of NHS workers concerned about the way our NHS was being run during the pandemic. Today we start publishing a selection of those testimonies to place them on the record. “I WORK for NHS England and have been at the heart of the monitoring of the NHS response to …

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Devolving the pandemic response was a tragic error that weaponised it

WHEN IT COMES to learning lessons from the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-22 one of the least talked about in London but most important for those furthest away from the capital is how not just the management but also the policy was devolved to Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh. The result of taking …

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In reality the ‘cost-of-living-crisis’ is a ‘cost-of-lockdown-crisis’

THERE are many reasons for the rate of inflation to be growing in the UK – but whatever your political disposition it would be a clear act of self-delusion to deny that lockdowns and accompanying restrictions have not played a substantive part in what we are experiencing.  Today’s announcement that the year-on-year inflation rate for …

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Trudeau’s Emergencies Act reappraised – how the Canadian Maple fell without a sound

What happened in Canada earlier this year has been almost forgotten in the light of the war in Ukraine. Yet Justin Trudeau’s response to the truckers’ protest shocked the world. As Alex Story argues here, it is a reminder about the fragility of Western democratic values and is too troubling to ignore. Let it be …

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18 million excess mortality from COVID-19 – what does it mean?

A PAPER published in the Lancet last week caused a stir, asserting that ‘excess deaths’ owing to the pandemic reached 18.2 million around the world during 2020-21.  This is triple the official COVID-19 death tally of 5.9 million for the same period. For those not steeped in the terminology: ‘Excess Deaths’ are deaths over and above those that …

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