The ethics of the vaccine booster by Angela Caldin
‘Nobody is safe until everyone is safe.’ I take that to mean that, as we’re in the middle of a pandemic affecting the whole world, it would be logical to ensure that the whole world is vaccinated, not just the wealthy bits of it. Many developed countries, including the UK, the US and several EU member states, have rolled out booster vaccination programmes. The thinking behind the booster campaigns is that a third round of vaccination provides an extra defence against Covid-19, at a time when protection might be starting to diminish…. Read More
Fishers of men by Trevor Plumbly
Ploughshares and swords I’ve always been reluctant to ‘do’ politics: there’s so little humour in it and social unrest seems to bring out the worst of the breed. If the old political adage ‘never let a good crisis go to waste’ stands, leaders have never had it so good. With Afghanistan out of the way, the USA can get back to comparing penis sizes with the Chinese, leaving others with climate change and the pandemic to argue about. China doesn’t seem to worry us much down here; we have a ‘trade relationship’:… Read More
You can bank on it! By Trevor Plumbly
Hard cash I wonder where the guy got his inspiration when he announced that ‘money was the root of all evil’? Maybe he’d been mugged or something. Lack of the stuff certainly clouded my childhood: having a few bob was the birth-right of the upper and middle classes, along with decent housing, education, clothing and food, whilst lack of it sentenced the rest of us poor sods to struggle. Growing up like that makes it hard not to be cynical about money; like religion and democracy it’s OK if it’s properly dealt… Read More
After the gold rush by Trevor Plumbly
‘Helpless, helpless’ (Neil Young) Neil was scarcely boy-next-door material; he looked like someone had abandoned him in a doorway: overlong hair and a face that charity would describe as ‘lived in’. But the guy could write! He was the high priest of the folk/druggie followers (see ‘The needle and the damage done’). Vocally he wasn’t much, but then neither were the others; the message was more important than the melody. They were heady times with newly discovered drugs, rights, sexual freedom and social wrongs to identify with, from racial discrimination to nuclear… Read More
Historical bias by Susan Grimsdell
The British perspective Sometimes I wonder if kids in every Commonwealth country were taught the same history in school – British history. I grew up in Canada and yes, we did learn a bit about Canadian history, mainly focusing on how brave the British were, to fight against the Indian “savages”, and how wonderful it was that they won and now look at our fantastic country. Mostly we had to learn about the kings and queens of England. It wasn’t until I left school that I learned the real history of Canada… Read More
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