Public fundraising for the NHS, and its discomforts
The fundraising of Captain Tom Moore and many others during the coronavirus outbreak has propelled charitable giving to the NHS into the public eye. At the time of writing, NHS Charities Together had raised over £100 million for its emergency...
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Pick a number, any number…
In the run-up to the 2019 general election, I wrote a piece about Boris Johnsons’ strategy for dealing with awkward interview questions. This outlined comment from Johnson himself, where he sketched his dead cat strategy. When faced with an impossible...
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The Whisper Network
On the 17th of March, 5 days after Denmark announced its official COVID lockdown, I received a surreptitious Facebook message from a Danish friend. ‘I’ve heard around they are going to make a full ban of going out of your...
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The Everyday Stuff of Covid-19: new and old normals
Hibs scored. The group of young men queuing with me just ahead of half time for the obligatory pie threw their arms around each other. They bounced up and down chanting Hi-bees, Hi-bees, Hi-bees. The vortex of celebration pulled me...
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Gallery
What we have seen Notice on Worthing Pier Local people decorating the social distancing markers on the promenade ‘Look after one another. Keep your distance’ – Notice in Swedish park Apparently outside a hospital in Lewisham Local Pub in Oxford...
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Health Inequalities and COVID-19
Health Inequalities matter: why the poor and disadvantaged are more likely to die of COVID Anxious politicians want to make the case that COVID doesn’t discriminate, in order to frame the fatalities as effecting us equally rather than being due...
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Disposable humans?
A response to the recent social commentary on the perceived value of individuals with ‘underlying health conditions’ The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the fabric of society and has left many wondering about the social, political and economic structures that will...
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The stop-start of collaboration in clinical settings
A post about the difficulties of applied interdisciplinary social science and healthcare collaboration in clinical settings Healthcare organisations and healthcare professionals are under a constant imperative to innovate. Social scientists, in the era of impact, are being asked to play...
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Loss and Grief during COVID
As inherently social beings, most of us have a need for physical contact with others to provide comfort during difficult emotional times. Losing a loved one during the COVID pandemic brings this into sharp relief, with social isolation making loss...
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The psychology of mutual aid
making sense of the public response to coronavirus (and how to sustain it) in an era of entrenched inequality Worthing is a Sussex town on the south coast. In the last few weeks, as Coronavirus has swept through our country,...
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In it together or socially distant?
COVID-19 is presented as an equal opportunities virus. It does not discriminate and can strike down anyone on an almost random basis. Witness the Insta postings by Madonna speaking from a rose petal filled bath and by David Geffen aboard...
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British inequality: It’s time to trust hungry people