The test and trace crisis reveals why capitalism isn’t working
Lindsay Mackie, Andrew Simms and David Boyle argue that the UK test and trace debacle shows why capitalism - critics of which are now banned from school educational materials - isn't working The testing crisis in which we are now engulfed could easily - like the...
Why faking a volcanic blast to tackle the climate emergency is a really bad idea
In my just published eco-thriller, Skyseed, the untimely eruption of an obscure volcano in Bolivia dooms an illicit programme to engineer the climate to failure – and worse. The events that follow are pure fiction and hopefully will stay that way. Nonetheless,...
It is time to save the NHS from tickbox
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 – the new BBC ‘power & protest’ thriller by New Weather’s Sarah Woods
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...
How the AA was hollowed-out by Anglo American economics
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...
Plague poems – a creative response to the shock of Covid-19
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 – stop adverts fuelling the climate emergency
‘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...
Munich, ‘good Germans’ and the dangers of othering your opponents
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...
Is the climate worst case getting worse?
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...
Reckoning with Britain’s imperial legacy: time to search for new heroes
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...