• Dig where you stand: Histories of where you live in a Global Pandemic

    As a public and community historian, I am interested in how people engage with the past in their lives in the present. In an undoubtedly historic moment like a global pandemic our anxieties tend to be on the future; but the past still matters – and right now it appears to be hyperlocal. We are…

  • Blitzed by Myths: The ‘Spirit’ of the Blitz and COVID-19

    In the current climate, particularly today, on the 75th anniversary of VE Day, and the current Prime Minister’s penchant for Churchillian rhetoric, it is perhaps inevitable that people are drawing parallels with the Second World War, the ‘Dunkirk Spirit’, the ‘Britain can take it’ response to the German ‘Blitz’, and so on. Clearly, there are…

  • New Realities? New Culture? What next for HR post Covid-19?

    There is no doubt that changes inflicted on the workforce, practically overnight, are unprecedented. Whilst this shows what can be achieved when there is a collective purpose, as ‘people experts’ we know the toll this takes on some individuals, those who struggle to adapt, especially when it is brought in at such a significant pace…

  • Temporary or Fixed? Changing Business Models in a Global Pandemic

    From lack of hand sanitiser to toilet paper, cargo stuck in ports, crops unpicked in fields and a work force relocated to their homes; organisations and consumers are adopting new approaches to deal with these shortages. With amazing flexibility and agility some firms have shifted their business models, invested in people and processes, explored new…

  • Slackening of Statutory Measures to Safeguard Children: An Outcome of the Coronavirus Outbreak

    Since lock down measures have been implemented in the United Kingdom, the Secretary of State for England has exercised its powers to make changes to regulations concerned with the care planning, placement and review of services designed for some of our most vulnerable children. Specifically, changes have been made which dilute regulations relating to the…

  • Re-imagining a ‘Good Society’ in the wake of COVID-19

    In 1909 Beatrice and Sydney Webb published The Minority Report envisioning ‘a good society’ where the state provided the basics; health, education and welfare, while civil society and the private sector offered extension to this in the form of  wealth, prosperity and societal support. Research, conducted by myself and Professor John Diamond at Edge Hill…

  • Lockdown and Educational Inequality: Some Reflections

    In 1970, Basil Bernstein famously wrote that education cannot compensate for society. Bernstein may have been writing fifty years ago, but recent reports on the impact of school closures on disadvantaged children and young people resonate with his conclusions. Despite decades of government rhetoric about inclusion, the empirical reality of social inequality has been exposed…

  • Coronavirus and Calais refugees: How can you stay safe without soap?

    France has been in lockdown since 16 March with strict rules limiting movement outside homes but what does this mean if you haven’t actually got a home? There are around 1200 refugees living rough in the pas-de-Calais region. They are in constant fear about their health and supplies of food and water as COVID-19 takes…

  • Wither Fake News: COVID-19 and its Impact on Journalism

    The current pandemic has reproposed, this time with more acuity than ever, key questions for the media and journalism. First, the current crisis has reconfirmed that our reality is indeed substantially shaped by media. We live in an era of deep mediatization, as researchers call it (see Andreas Hepp’s Deep Mediatization book published in 2019,…

  • In Troubled Times, Philosophy CAN Help

    There is much for us reflect upon during these difficult times, not the least of which might well be encompassed by how the modern, high-tech, sophisticated world of Homo Sapiens can be brought to a virtual standstill by a simple single-celled organism called Covid-19. This very fact is sufficient in itself to make us stop…

  • COVID-19: Lockdown when you are Locked Up

    The onset of COVID-19 has made an impact on every aspect of our society. But one group in particular is facing real difficulties in coping with the crisis, a group so often ignored by society, and that is people in prison. It is shocking that reportedly up to 60% of prisoners could become infected with…

  • Ministry without the Ministered: Reflections from a Vicar in Lockdown

    As a Church of England Vicar, like other professionals called to work in local community the idea of this lockdown has been a tremendous shock. I am learning to cope (but not very well!). Ministers of the Gospel are called to preach, teach and minister God’s love in community; isolation is a very painful and…

  • Who Needs Society? Authoritarianism and COVID-19

    The Wall Street Journal recently suggested that ‘western democracies’ should look to Eastern Europe to how it contained the COVID-19 pandemic. With some Eastern European countries first ignoring or diminishing the COVID-19 threat (Russia) or asserting the benefits of ‘alternative’ therapies such as the encouragement of steam baths, eating garlic, and drinking Vodka – the…

  • COVID-19 & the (dis)proportionate case for lockdown

    The Government has been criticised for doing ‘too little, too late’. But is this fair? One of the issues I identify here is the way mortality statistics have been recorded. This is important because mortality rates are fundamental to assessments of risk to public health, which in turn are fundamental to any rationale for lockdown.…

  • COVID-19 lockdown: What are the implications for individual freedom?

    Central Edinburgh under lockdown on Easter Saturday 2020. © kaysgeog, Fickr The Coronavirus outbreak is having a profound impact on our personal and work lives. Like many countries around the world, UK has been placed under lockdown for more than four weeks now. Unlike some European countries who have declared a state of emergency under…

  • Pandemic, Press Conference and Performance: What future for the politician’s ‘Direct Address’?

    27/04/2020. London, United Kingdom. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson gives a statement outside 10 Downing Street, as he returns to work following recovering from Coronavirus at Chequers. Picture by Pippa Fowles / No 10 Downing Street. © Crown copyright I decided not to watch the coronavirus press conference the other day.  I heard the names…

  • What is the new ‘normal’? Autism, Routine and Covid-19

    On April 2nd World Autism Day was being celebrated around the world. Just as it has for the last few years, the Twitterverse was particularly active, with the popular hashtag #autismawarenessday being posted in thousands of tweets in support of those on the spectrum. This year of course, many #autismawarenessday tweets were also focused on…

  • Hannah Arendt: A Theorist for Troubled Times

    At a time of existential threat, Hannah Arendt is, I believe, a good theorist to turn to in troubled times. Throughout her career Arendt addressed many existential themes, most notably, totalitarianism and the so-called “banality of evil”, in her study of the trial of Adolf Eichmann. As a political theorist, however, Arendt was most interested…

  • Fingerprints, DNA and Policing Powers during COVID-19

    Lockdown measures have now been extended by a further three weeks and may last until mid-June. So, you might be wondering what the mechanisms are behind such structures. How can the police force people to disperse from large gatherings? What in fact are large gatherings? What about leaving your home for anything other reason than…

  • Lockdown 2020 – The Impact on Social Care

    During this unprecedented lockdown, serious concerns have been raised across society about the social care of the country’s most marginalised and vulnerable groups; and the safety and protection of those who provide their care. Despite this, provisions within the Coronavirus Act 2020 undermine the Equality Act 2010 and the Care Act 2014, which guarantees disabled…