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Over the past few weeks the world has appeared to be in a form of stasis but behind the scenes many things are rumbling along. The lights are kept on, vital supplies are delivered to where they’re most needed and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU continues. The vast bulk …

Twitter is an interesting metaphor for infectious diseases. I write something. It might be seen be some of my followers, but it has to compete with what everyone else is writing so it might be ignored. If someone retweets, it might be seen by any of their followers, but just …

Journalists have been having fun at the government’s expense on the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) issue but what is actually happening? Why haven’t UK manufacturers been engaged to cope with the shortfall?  The answer seems to lie with NHS purchasing. The NHS has demonstrated true public sector flair by reducing …

There are essentially three positions on the lockdown. We should get out sooner (Hawks). We should get out later (Doves). There should not be a lock down at all (Enzas). Which is correct? We don’t know. The correct decision depends on knowing how many people have been infected with Covid …

The IMF has recently released predictions for the economy.  It predicts a 3% fall in global GDP in 2020 and a 6.5% fall in the UK: The IMF is pessimistic about global recovery, apparently the economic recovery is beginning now, which is puzzling.   It is interesting that only a month ago, …

The mistake that we most frequently make about history is that the past is like the present.  Scottish nationalists for instance think that the Declaration of Arbroath tells them something about Scotland in 2020. This is partly because too many of them are stuck in a badly understood version of medieval …

It is clear now that Covid 19 originated in Wuhan China sometime in November or early December 2019. It might have been stopped if the Chinese Government had taken the necessary steps early enough. Instead they tried to prevent Chinese doctors from telling the truth about the illness and repeatedly …

Italy and Spain are in trouble.  Not only do they have the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the EU but their economies are on the rocks.  The European Central Bank (ECB) saved Italy with promises in March as the Italian Treasury was having to offer ever increasing yields on its bonds …

Brent Cameron is a Senior Advisor with Concierge Strategies, and a local councillor in Ontario, Canada. The second edition of Brent H. Cameron’s book, “The Case for Commonwealth Free Trade: Options for a new globalization” is available now on Amazon worldwide. Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates was quoted as saying something …

Quite a lot of us are going to spend considerable amounts of time at home in the next few months. Social distancing will mean that we will have almost no social life. There will be no opportunities to meet up and most of us will not have the daily routine …

Political beliefs depend on the many assumptions that we accrue during our lives.  The young voter is particularly prone to fallacious assumptions because of lack of experience. The worst fallacies are the caring fallacy, the fallacy of reasonableness, the globalization fallacy, the fallacy of historical responsibility and the fallacy of …

In recent weeks we have seen the power of the sovereign nation state deal with a crisis in a way that has not been seen since 1945. The British Government has been able to spend almost without limit to keep our people safe. It has taken other extraordinary measures to …

The novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 has wreaked havoc across the global community, causing significant harm to international economies, social safety nets, standards of living as well as leading to massive job losses in markets that were once viewed as “concrete strong” The fight to stymie the spread of COVID-19 within …

Can you remember when Theresa May was Prime Minister? It seems like another time and another place. Britain was humiliated in our negotiations with the EU. She kept trying to get the worst Treaty in British history through the Commons and she kept failing. The country was divided into Leavers …

In six months time, after huge numbers of deaths in the Middle East and elsewhere due to Covid-19 what will have changed? The retail industry will experience the biggest change.  Many small shops cannot survive months of shutdown.  Expect town centres to contract yet further as everyone learns how to …

I think I saw the Killing Fields (1984) when it came out, but I really don’t remember. I may have seen it on video afterwards. It’s a film about the Cambodian genocide that took place between 1975 and 1979. I don’t remember the details of the film, but I remember …

Twice now in the space of twelve years we have seen a British Chancellor do what it takes to save the British economy. In 2008 the Treasury bailed out the banks in 2020 it has just bailed out everyone else. Can any Chancellor prior to Rishi Sunak have had such …

There is currently some talk of global economic collapse being imminent. (See for instance Complex Systems Collide, Markets Crash).   The basic thesis is that interactions between the world and the economy can cause the economy to switch into a different mode of operating. Things are looking bad at the moment. The …

We were promised that there would be an economic crisis if we voted to leave the EU. For three years our politicians argued with the EU and among themselves about little else. We were promised that leaving with “no deal” would cause economic chaos. Now we have a real crisis …

The problem with Scottish politics is that we have a devolved parliament that is uninterested in devolution. Scottish politicians of all political parties pretend to be interested in those areas of life that the Scottish Parliament actually controls, but campaign primarily on issues that we don’t control. The same goes …