It’s great news that our wonderful NHS staff and volunteers are storming forward with the UK’s vaccination programme. Still, I worry about people being lulled into a false sense of security once they have had their first and even second jab. Most of us will have had, or be getting, the AstraZeneca (Oxford) vaccine. It […]
Declare a mental health crisis say Scottish Lib Dem MSPs
Even if your circumstances have not been too adversely affected by the pandemic, chances are you have gone through some mental health challenges. Even people who were coping pretty well have found the dark and cold Winter lockdown pretty grim. And if you have had to suffer bereavement, loss or financial struggles along the way, […]
The party’s latest advice for campaigners in the pandemic
Mike Dixon, the Chief Executive Officer of the Liberal Democrats, has recently written to activists about campaigning in the pandemic, as follows: In the last few days, anger has been growing about the Tories’ brazen attempt to skew the May elections and stop elected councillors and volunteers doing their jobs by safely delivering literature. Independent […]
Rabina Khan on BBC Newsnight on tackling vaccine disinformation in Tower Hamlets
Here’s a clip of Councillor Rabina Khan on BBC’s Newsnight discussing the steps we need to take to tackle vaccine disinformation. You can see Rabina and her husband going into their community, in a socially distanced way, to support local residents – addressing their concerns directly. Rabina Khan – Vaccine Disinformation from Liberal Democrats on […]
Negative impact of Covid-19 on people with a learning (or intellectual) disability
This is a version of a post, revised by the author, that originally appeared earlier this week. The covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the unacceptable health inequalities faced by people with a learning (or intellectual) disability. This has been brought home by the JCVI decision not to prioritise them adequately during the vaccination programme and has […]
The Tragic loss of 100,000 lives to Covid
According to official figures, the UK became the first country in Europe to record (very unfortunately) 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths. Currently, the UK has the fifth-highest number of deaths globally, after the US, Brazil, India and Mexico (as a percentage of Covid deaths to population, the UK percentage is higher than that of the US). To […]
We need to talk about the Healthcare workforce – again
So what’s changed since my last piece for LDV on this ten months ago? – nothing and everything, in a phrase, it’s got much worse. Last March the fear of an unknown, rapidly spreading and possible deadly virus, the prospect of the NHS being overwhelmed; inadequate ventilators and ITU beds, terrifying pictures from Italy of […]
Telling Covid as it is in rural Shropshire
Last March, we didn’t know what we were getting in to. We just knew we had to get in. Up to our knees. Up to our necks. At times overwhelmed. The Lib Dems are in opposition in Shropshire so we could not be decision makers. Our duty in a Lib Dem stronghold was to tell […]
Should we thank Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon for 10 million vaccinations within a month?
Embed from Getty Images I could go on for hours about the government’s lamentable response to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the one the government has got right, in my view, is the speed and volume of vaccination. Some of my favourite heroes are Edward Jenner, Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. – Not the […]
Families of those of who have died from Covid-19 deserve answers – Ed Davey
Ed Davey has responded to Boris Johnson’s refusal to lay out a timeline for a public inquiry into his Government’s response to the coronavirus crisis: Boris Johnson says there will come a time to learn the lessons of the pandemic, but the public will rightly ask, if not now, then when? The best time to […]