Cover Page, 14 May 2020, Issue 233 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 johnW@shawsheet.com for
09 May 2020 Starmer v Johnson The first round. By John Watson “Well, how did it go?” That is the question everyone asks when a new car has been given a road test and it is the question which members of the Labour Party will be asking about the first appearance of their new leader
14 May 2020 Iran Overreach in the Middle East. By Neil Tidmarsh In recent weeks there’s been a dramatic increase in tension between the US and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian gunboats harassed US navy ships and coastguard vessels; President Trump responded by Tweeting that he has “instructed the United States navy to
14 May 2020 Le Déconfinement How are the French coming out of their lockdown? By Richard Pooley We are stumbling out of lockdown in France. At least, I am. I wore a mask for the first time while out shopping in my village yesterday. I nearly stepped into the traffic. If Covid doesn’t kill me,
14 May 2020 Good Days at the Beeb Drastically Needed by Don Urquhart The BBC management either fears the government or actually believes the nonsense they are compelled to broadcast. There is clearly a massive pro-Tory bias most visible during the 2017 and 2019 General Elections and the Tory Party still controls the BBC output.
14 May 2020 Bad days at the BEEB Bye, Bye, Auntie? by J.R.Thomas The best time to go to bed is at 9.59pm. That way there is no risk of accidentally watching even a moment of the 10 o’clock BBC news, and thus inducing pillow rage and bad dreams. The BBC, dear old
14 May 2020 Common Sense ‘Work Safe’* By Lynda Goetz Elon Musk has said from the outset that reactions to the global outbreak of coronavirus have been ‘dumb’. He has now reopened the Tesla factory in defiance of California state lockdown regulations. President Trump has tweeted his support for Musk’s stance, saying that California should
14 May 2020 Unlocking Lockdown Keeping steady. By Robert Kilconner It is the old roofing problem again, the man trying to cover his shed with not quite enough roofing felt to do it properly who pulls the material up to one edge to find that he has created a gap on the other side. Never
14 May 2020 Desperately Seeking a Pandemic Positive Could it be productivity? by Frank O’Nomics This morning, as you opened your breakfast tin of beans and put them in the microwave, did you pause to thank Napoleon and the Luftwaffe? Probably not, but both the tin and the oven are products of wartime innovation. Napoleon
14 May 2020 Diary of a Corbynista Eat, drink and be merry by Don Urquhart 7 May I lifted this Facebook posting, not because it is uniquely informative, but because it is one of many similar: My daughter works as a care assistant for a care company/agency and has only just got PPE, which consists
