I’ve been shielding since before we started calling it that.
By the start of March it was obvious to me that people with conditions like mine are highly vulnerable to C-19.
So from 4 Mar I started taking measures to isolate myself, as much as possible.
Suddenly, this weekend (May 30/31), we have been told we are free to go out like everyone else, just maintain social distancing. No warning, no explanation of why, or how.
My interview with Gareth Lewis for BBC Radio Wales on Monday 25th May 2020.
Coronavirus, Dominic Cummings and all that stuff.
To: Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP
Chair
Health and Social Care Select Committee
Dear Mr Hunt,
I am writing to ask your Committee to investigate one very specific aspect of the way in which the Corona-19 outbreak is being managed: the protection of the most vulnerable to the disease.
I have to declare an interest as I am one of the 1.9m who have, apparently, been designated as being in the most “at risk” group.
But I am writing primarily as an expert with experience in the scientific, engineering and social science fields – mostly the latter and particularly the study of government and public agencies, including health for over three decades. Continue reading
By Colin Talbot
In a crisis the default response of the British state is: command and control, centralise power, organize everything on a big scale, impose ‘one size fits all’ rules.
It happened on a massive scale in the two world wars, and it is happening again, on a lesser scale in the current crisis. Continue reading
A series of interviews with experts from around the globe on aspects of the response to Covid-19.
We are focussing on governments and how well, or badly, they have responded but we’ll also look at some related issues such as the role of businesses and civil society.
You view them all, as they appear, here on YouTube.
Here’s a recording of a webinar I did on this topic for the Whitehall in Industry Group on April 1st
By Colin Talbot
In democratic government the general rule is supposed to be simple: advisers advise, ministers decide, civil servants do.
In the UK system, that emerged fully at the beginning of the 20th century, the civil service were both the advisers and the doers.
Top civil servants told ministers what options there were to achieve what ministers wanted. Ministers chose, and the civil service went off and “made it so”.
Lots of people challenged this cosy and rather naïve view, not least the ever popular ‘Yes Minister’ series. In reality there have always grey areas on the boundary between elected politicians and permanent civil servants. Continue reading
