covid-19 | Novara Media

Tag: covid-19

Opinion: I Work in a Restaurant. I Didn’t Choose to Go Back on ‘Super Saturday’ – I Had To

Many hospitality workers have survived lockdown on as little as 55% of their usual take-home pay. Bar and restaurant staff didn't go back to work at the weekend because they felt safe, writes hospitality worker Billie Walker, they went back because of the immense financial pressure to do so.

Opinion: Coronavirus Will Accelerate Automation. So Why the Calls for ‘Jobs Jobs Jobs’?

For more than a decade, a different kind of economy has been emerging all around us. Calls for ‘jobs jobs jobs’ fail to recognise that far from just creating temporary problems for businesses, coronavirus is accelerating changes which were already coming, argues Aaron Bastani.

Opinion: Britain’s Covid-19 Death Toll Goes Far Beyond Its Borders

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, criticism of the British government has focused on negligence within the UK’s own borders. But from Yemen to Iraq, Britain’s responsibility for the global death toll goes far further than is being reported, argues David Wearing.

Opinion: The ‘radical nannies’ Organising to Support Each Other Through Covid-19

Dominic Cummings has accidentally put childcare on the agenda, writes Veronica Deutsch, but within the sector not all workers are equal. High precarity is particularly common in nannying work, and, while coronavirus has highlighted the need for better support, regulation can feel like a threat to the most vulnerable.

Opinion: Dominic Cummings Should Be Sacked

Dominic Cummings broke the lockdown because he thought the rules didn’t apply to him. Aaron Bastani argues he should be sacked - and if the prime minister can’t bring himself to do that, then he should go too.

Opinion: Teachers Are Rediscovering Their Collective Power

Across the country, in meetings ranging from dozens to thousands, teachers and teaching assistants are standing up for safety and learning that there is power in a union, writes primary school teacher James McAsh.

Opinion: Coronavirus Won’t End the Scotland-England Union – But the Tories Will

Scotland’s approach to tackling coronavirus has prompted outrage from Westminster’s right-wing politicians and commentators. Michael Gray argues that while the virus won't break up Britain, the Tories will.

Analysis: Pandemic Labour and the Politics of Job Guarantees

With issues of power and control at work brought to the fore by the lockdown, the TUC has launched new proposals for a job guarantee. James Meadway examines the challenges such proposals face - particularly in the context of the pandemic - including the risk that a job guarantee could be used against workers.

Opinion: The Left’s Approach to Keir Starmer Isn’t Working

Since becoming Labour leader, Keir Starmer has failed to put any real pressure on Boris Johnson over his handling of the coronavirus crisis. But the reason Johnson has had an easy ride from Starmer is in part because Starmer has had an easy ride from the left, argues David Wearing.

Opinion: Sunak’s Furlough Rollback Shows the Government’s Priorities Are All Wrong

On the same day official figures showed the UK has the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in Europe, the chancellor chose to begin talking about ending furlough schemes. James Meadway argues the 'rush to return' has been baked into the government's response at the expense of public health.

Opinion: Don’t Fight the Last War: Why the Left Needs to Look Beyond Austerity

Covid-19 is a crisis on a scale never seen before in peacetime. But, James Meadway argues, the left risks losing the arguments of the future if it mistakes the political battles of the next decade for the battles of the last.

Opinion: Filth: Racist Scaremongering Around Covid-19 Is Nothing New. We Have Always Blamed Racial Others for Disease

Western governments have every reason to opportunistically stoke sinophobia, it helps them to distract us and to dodge blame. But what they are doing is nothing new. A glance over the history of colonialism and race-making reveals a longstanding tradition of scaremongering about racial others as founts and bearers of disease, writes Eleanor Penny, in part two of a series on 'filth'.

Analysis: This Week’s Oil Price Slump Signals Economic Dangers Ahead

For the first time in history, the price of West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark standard for US oil, became negative on Monday. James Meadway argues this is both a symptom of the catastrophic economic impact of Covid-19 on the world economy and a harbinger of problems to come.

Opinion: To Understand Why the NHS Is Struggling to Respond to Covid-19, We Must Look at Who Runs It

Coronavirus has highlighted the inertia of the NHS. This is not just down to incompetent yet powerful managers, writes doctor Jo Sutton-Klein, it is a problem with the very structures that govern our health service, impeding democracy and keeping frontline staff out of decision-making.

Britain and the Coronavirus: a Timeline of Failure

Despite previous claims by the government that it was well-prepared for the Coronavirus, Britain is now expected to have one of the highest death tolls in the world. In this video Aaron Bastani examines precisely what happened in recent months, and how public authorities – broadly unchallenged by the media – let a tragedy unfold.

Opinion: An Unprecedented Economic Crisis Is About to Hit the Global South. We Must Cancel Debts Now

Economic turmoil is about to hit the global South, as the instability of a global pandemic sends investors fleeing. Wealthy nations must write off debts immediately, argues Grace Blakeley, to avoid catastrophe in the world's poorest countries.

Of Course the Right Value Old People’s Lives Less – Our Ageing Population Is a Problem for Capitalism

As the coronavirus pandemic escalates, the lives of elderly people are increasingly portrayed as less worth saving. Given the immense problem demographic ageing presents to market capitalism, this is as unsurprising as it is unsettling, writes Aaron Bastani.

Yanis Varoufakis on the Coronacrisis

Yanis Varoufakis had a front row seat for the EU’s last existential crisis. Now that Europe is struck with coronavirus, are its leaders making the same mistakes all over again.