Cover Page, 4 March 2021, Issue 269 Welcome to our latest edition. This week we consider political redemption, political gambles, the future of our species, the economics of bribery, the Donald’s political heirs, a Corbynista’s week, the latest Covid-19 statistics, and more… Share this using…FacebookTwitterLinkedinemail
04 March 2021 Redemption Drugs and the reshuffle. By John Watson It was enough to make me choke on my toast but in this morning’s The Times, among reports of a new government campaign to reduce the taking of recreational drugs by the middle classes, I found the following passage regarding Michael Gove’s prospects of
4 March 2021 The Son Also Rises So, do not forget, does the daughter By J.R. Thomas One of the advantages in having a large family is that it becomes much easier to start a dynasty, something American voters do seem surprisingly keen on in the White House. The Adams family (not that one), Harrisons,
4 March 2021 Lies, Damned Lies and Coronavirus Variants and variance by David Chilvers This week, we look at the progress of the Kent variant identified in the UK in December. We first looked at this at the start of 2021 and concluded that this variant had been increasing rapidly in London, The South East
04 March 2021 What it means to be Human No answers given. By Lynda Goetz This week sees the publication of Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel, Klara and the Sun, a story narrated by Klara, a solar-powered smart robot. Like Never Let Me Go, although in a different way, it examines what it means to be human.
04 March 2021 Bribery The “Winner’s Curse” By Neil Tidmarsh If only they’d studied the work of Paul Milgrom and Robert B Wilson, the winners of last year’s Nobel Prize for Economics. Or even Shaw Sheet’s own Frank O’Nomics (Noble Nobels, issue 252, 22 October 2020)… The UN-sponsored Libyan peace talks were in disarray this
25 February 2021 Diary of a Corbynista Furlough until we fire you by Don Urquhart 25 February The most recent SAGE minutes tell us: *SPI-M’s consensus view remains that the opening of primary and secondary schools is likely to increase effective R by a factor of 1.1 to 1.5 (10% to 50%). By taking this
04 March 2021 The Law of the Dice Betting our health. By Robert Kilconner “Much too slow getting off the ground at the beginning of the pandemic but did well on the ordering of vaccines”. If the polls are to be believed, that is the public appraisal of the government’s performance. It may fairly reflect
4 March 2021 Reflections on the vaccination programme, and beyond By Paul Branch Last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons was illuminated greatly by Boris Johnson’s pointed retort to Keir Starmer: “He vacillates, we vaccinate!” Brilliant … well done young hirsute Sir, and well done indeed to whichever speech writer thought that
04 March 2021 To: The Editors, The Shaw Sheet Re: ‘Capital Projects’, issue 267, 21 February 2021. Dear Sirs Your correspondent Mr Branch is no doubt sincere in his green urgings, but as so often with these things, he has not thought through his urge to stop the (much needed) Whitehaven coal mine. If we
