The Burner

The lockdown is about to be renewed – but what do we actually know about the scientific group advising on it?

Plus, why is dystopia in such easy reach in responses to the pandemic?

James Butler asks: what would a tech-led exit from lockdown look like?

James Meadway tells us what we should make of the OBR’s ‘bouncing ball’ scenario on the economic shock.

Ross Anderson: Contact tracing in the real world: https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2020/04/12/contact-tracing-in-the-real-world/

Ash Sarkar tackles the weekend’s leak of an internal Labour dossier and what it reveals about what was going on at the top of the party

Plus, we speak to leading thinkers on the left about how the UK should really be responding to the coronavirus crisis. With Clive Lewis MP, Maya Goodfellow, Carys Roberts, Kojo Koram and Andrew Fisher.

More on the Labour dossier at the website: https://novaramedia.com/2020/04/12/its-going-to-be-a-long-night-how-members-of-labours-senior-management-campaigned-to-lose/

James Butler asks: can Covid-19 tell us anything about climate change?

Vincent Bevins brings us the lowdown on the crisis in Brazil.

And Michael Walker delivers a verdict on the UK government’s handling of the pandemic.

Sunak drops some cash on charities: but what’s his long term plan? Austerity?

Plus, do tech companies see something to exploit in the crisis?

And where next for the American left?

Tectonix video: https://twitter.com/tectonixgeo/status/1242628347034767361?s=21

How are decisions made without a Prime Minister?

Aaron Bastani takes us inside the politics of ageing – about to explode under the pressure of the coronavirus – and also asks: by the end of this, will anyone buy a print newspaper? And should we care?

James Butler on the politics of the coronavirus crisis in the LRB: https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n07/james-butler/follow-the-science

Boris Johnson is in intensive care: so how does the government now run? And shouldn’t we have known earlier?

What are the politics of the new Labour top team?

Plus, Georgia Anderson speaks to an NHS worker involved in setting up the training for the new Nightingale hospitals about the front line of the crisis.

James Butler on the politics of the coronavirus crisis in the LRB: https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n07/james-butler/follow-the-science

Jeremy Corbyn finishes his term, and Keir Starmer takes the reins. But he comes to power in the midst of a deepening crisis: what will he do? And what will the left in Labour do?

Who’s worth what? That’s the question put by the hard right about the costs of the lockdown – but what are the real issues at stake? We take a lightning-quick tour through the states of emergency that have been declared – or, in one case, avoided – across Europe.

Didier Fassin on the last state of emergency in France: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v38/n05/didier-fassin/short-cuts

The Hungarian laws in English: https://hungarianspectrum.org/2020/03/21/translation-of-draft-law-on-protecting-against-the-coronavirus/

And the extra laws passed by Orban: https://hungarianspectrum.org/2020/04/01/decrees-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-the-coronavirus-pandemic/

As the papers wake up to the testing crisis, we ask what an inquiry might eventually do.

Plus, Sarah Jaffe dials in from Philly to tell us about the reaction to the crisis in the US.

Jacques Attali, Que naîtra-t-il?: http://www.attali.com/societe/que-naitra-t-il/