Cover Page, 30 April 2020, Issue 231 Welcome to our latest edition. We hope you enjoy its articles, features and puzzles. The Shaw Sheet would like to introduce new writers either on an occasional or regular basis. So have you got some spare time at the moment? If so contact the editors at [email protected] for… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Cover page
Issue: 231: LeadershipCAN CAN
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: SAGE Penetrated
26 April 2020 Sage Penetrated Cummings at the gate. By John Watson Every profession has its holy of holies and, for the medical profession, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is about as holy as you can get. It gives its advice in secret. Membership, until published by The Guardian recently, could only be… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: SAGE Penetrated
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Wanted
30 April 2020 Wanted Dead or alive? By Neil Tidmarsh On March 27, Alba Maruri, a seventy-four year old woman hospitalised with Covid-19 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, was pronounced dead. Relatives were informed and a week later they received ashes in a cremation urn. On April 23, however, her sister had a telephone call from the… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Wanted
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: The Grim Reaper
30 April 2020 The Grim Reaper ‘An unimaginable tragedy’. By Lynda Goetz The coronavirus outbreak prompts me to return to a subject I addressed just over a year ago in The Shaw Sheet in Being Mortal and earlier than that in A 21st Century Death. It is quite clear that, in the West at least,… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: The Grim Reaper
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: In for a Tenner
30 April 2020 In for a Tenner Restarting the Museums J.R.Thomas Like a motorist trying to start a disused car, the government is starting to crank the engine of the stalled British economy. Not so much charging the battery or cleaning the spark plugs as encouraging the building trade back to work, allowing reopening of… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: In for a Tenner
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Leadership
30 April 2020 Leadership in the time of Covid-19. By Richard Pooley When I came back from the UK to my village in south-west France on 14 March, the first person to speak to me was Valerie, owner of one of the two boulangeries. “Your Prime Minister is crazy, completely crazy!” I reminded her that… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Leadership
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Boris
30 April 2020 Boris The man for the job? By Robert Kilconner Newspaper columnists should make you think and certainly that was the achievement of whoever it was who recently said that Boris Johnson was the wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time. Alas, I have forgotten who they were, or where… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Boris
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: What did you do?
30 April 2020 What did you do in the Great (Covid-19) War? Lockdown Man* By Frank O’Nomics * Lockdown man should not be confused with Piltdown Man – but he may be equally bogus. Let’s start by sharing one of the numerous ‘jokes’ sent to me across one of the myriad of Whatsapp groups that… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: What did you do?
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: El Virus Corona
30 April 2020 El Virus Corona A View from Spain by Santiago Aldea del Fresno Like most other countries, at the beginning of the year Spain was aware of a viral infection in China but we were not too worried because China is a long way away, the virus had been reported in December 2019… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: El Virus Corona
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Diary of a Corbynista
30 April 2020 Diary of a Corbynista Capacity and Delivery by Don Urquhart 23 April Corbynista received two types of response to Downing Street Press Briefing Bingo (DSPBB). Clearly a number of utterances had been left out: “unbelievable” (Hancock delivers time after time); “rolling out”; “driving hard”; “challenges”. There must be many more. We are… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Diary of a Corbynista
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Letter to the Editor
25 April 2020 Letter to the Editor Labour from W.G.Grace I write in response to Diary of a Corbynista in Shawsheet 230. As John Crace says in this morning’s Guardian, after five years of absence, “finally we have a fully functioning opposition”. Keir Starmer was very effective in Parliament yesterday. I particularly liked the gracious… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Letter to the Editor
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Letter to the Editor
26 April 2020 Letter to the Editor Hopes for a New Normal A Ragged Trousered Analysis from Paul Branch Sir I absolutely do not understand the adulation and emotional support Jeremy Corbyn inspires. In fact I joined the Labour Party solely to help vote him out, as did many others. My worst fears came to… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Letter to the Editor
Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Social distancing
28 April 2020 Social Distancing in Cumbria Week 6 by Vic Leader Halfway through? When my Social Distancing (“lockdown”) began the indication was that it could be for 12 weeks. I conditioned myself to that duration. The good thing about halfway is that, from now on, there is less to go than already done, a… Continue reading Issue 231: 2020 04 30: Social distancing