A vaccine is on the way – hooray! Most people cheered when elated Pfizer and BionTech scientists announced their news last week, revealing that early results showed their vaccine to be 90 per cent effective against Covid-19. It was the first in a line of good news stories about possible vaccinations coming on stream. Will […]
Grassroots campaign group Save Our Hospital Services (SOHS) says Devon’s health services are under attack. They are holding a public meeting (via Zoom) on the threats to health Services in Devon. The public are invited to learn more about the future of their health service in a Zoom meeting on 10 December organised by campaign group, […]
Hello lockdown, my old friend; I’ve come to walk with you again. How are we all feeling? You may have awoken early in a state of uhtceare (pronounced uht-kay-ara; the ‘h’ is as in ‘loch’), an Anglo-Saxon expression for the ‘sorrow before dawn’ when you lie awake in the darkness and worry about the day […]
Recently I have begun feeling a little swamped by depressing stories regarding the scale of Covid-19 infections, Tory party skullduggery, disinformation and the state of our planet. There are a million and one minor stresses for us all, on top of that. It didn’t feel quite so bad in the summer, but now the nights […]
Greetings, everyone. We are enjoying a bit of Indian summer here with temperatures in the 80s, and far too many politicians invading our state. Now I had not really planned to write this article, but it just so happened that I received my Medicare summary notice today in the mail, and thought I would share some […]
We ran this article last week on Torridge Council’s decision to express its anger at the government’s decision to vote against protecting food and animal welfare standards in the Agriculture Bill. One of the passionate supporters of the motion proposed by sheep farmer and councillor, Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, was the local Rural Dean and team vicar, […]
Amongst numerous cuts to NHS services over the last 10 years have been those to hospital beds – 17,000 hospital beds have gone since 2010, with beds in community hospitals drastically reduced in 2017. Could this have contributed to the huge number of Covid-19 deaths in care homes earlier this year? We now know that […]
I took a mobile phone call yesterday. I was out walking the dog, when I heard a ringing sound in my ear, reached up and pressed the button and heard a voice – loud and clear. “Is that Sarah?” “Yes, hello.” I’m deaf, but I could talk to the caller through my new Bluetooth enabled […]
The news that every one of Cornwall’s six Conservative MPs had voted against extending help to hungry children came as little surprise to anyone who had studied the parliamentary voting history of Scott Mann (North Cornwall), Derek Thomas (St Ives), Steve Double (St Austell and Newquay), Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall), Cherilyn Mackrory (Truro and […]
Do you find yourself boiling with rage at the growing evidence of wanton cruelty and shameless and shameful politicking from this government? I do. Today was another terrible day. You might wonder why this piece mentions second helpings, when even firsts are being denied. Cast you mind back to the summer, when footballer Marcus Rashford […]
Editor’s comment: we are running this story because one of our aims is to give voice to those who are otherwise ignored. We do not endorse the breaking of the law – even “in a specific and limited way“. We suggest reading this personal perspective with its companion piece. When your doctors tell you your […]
The tide is slowly turning in one of the early fronts of the culture wars, as scientific possibility and questions of personal freedom challenge the assumptions of an earlier generation. Throughout its history, on questions where private vice encounters the desire to create the perfect ‘city on a hill’, the United States has lurched between […]
Greetings from an election-weary Pennsylvania. I hope I haven’t lost you along the way, as I’ve tried to lead you to some understanding of how the American healthcare system works for senior citizens. In this ‘instalment’ I would like to talk about the costs of Medicare, what supplemental insurance is, and what it costs me. […]
World Mental Health Day is on 10 October. This year, as we all try to navigate the emotional uncertainties of Covid-19, learning to manage our mental health is an essential skill. I hope this personal story helps to highlight the importance of finding and embracing some individual means of dealing with symptoms of poor mental […]
You’ve probably heard about ‘Obamacare’, but maybe not Medicare. They aren’t the same thing. I don’t know much about Obamacare except that it protects my insurance for pre-existing conditions: it is my only legal protection. There are so many provisions to it, but basically it is a resource to help people find some kind of […]
In the first of a new series of insights into other countries’ systems, John from across the pond gives us an appreciation of the complexities of health insurance in the United States. Greetings from across the pond. My name is John and I am a retired high school teacher from Pennsylvania. I am writing to […]
For Heidi Westbrook, sea-swimming has brought joy, friendship and vital solace through the lockdown. For 20 years I’ve been lucky enough to have lived on a clifftop high above Newquay’s famous Towan beach. Over the years, the number of people enjoying the water has steadily grown. Once these were mainly year-round surfers and families in […]
After a week back in school, my teenager had a temperature. My partner is vulnerable so we separated our household as best we could, and I started trying to book a Covid-19 test. Four days and many online hours later, the best I managed was a time slot at Bristol Airport – a four hour […]
Glowing from the positive feedback from the recently released Moonshot snakes and ladders game, HM Government launches a new card game: ‘Happy Households under the Rule of Six’.
Editor: We asked charities and community interest companies who share our values to tell us about their work. We do not edit their words. Nature Connects is a Community Interest Company (CIC) offering Nature connection and adult forest school for health and well-being in Cornwall. Alice Wall and Sarah Witts, its founders, made the decision […]
“As a father of a disabled child, and the patron of the Disability Law Service, I’ve seen legal advice that suggests his [Johnson’s] government broke international law in how the Coronavirus Act reduced the rights of disabled people,” Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson in the House of Commons […]
Moonshot: A fun-filled game of chance! HM Government has released a new version of ‘snakes and ladders’ to occupy citizens during self-isolation or new lockdown time.
As this economical-with-the-truth government continues to claim that testing is working fine, the facts on the ground tell a completely different story. Here is a message for our Prime Minister from a Devon mum with young kids, caught up in the testing chaos. Dear Prime Minister, This is what your handling of the pandemic is […]
Despite its mild winters, Cornwall has among the highest levels of cold homes and fuel poverty in the UK, forcing many people to choose between heating their homes, and eating. The Government’s £2bn Green Homes Grant scheme, which aims to insulate up to 650,000 homes and create 140,000 jobs across the UK, launches this month. […]
Covid-19 lockdown restrictions appear to be all over the place – easing with the opening of schools, pubs and restaurants and a return to the workplace, but then about to be tightened again with the rule of six. The only certainty is that there is one cohort of the population for whom life will not […]
Note from the editor: there are some great, informative tweets out there that need to go way beyond the twittersphere. Here is one such. Please share widely. We’ve had enough of the lies. Time for truth. I’ll give you one example of how devastating #NoDeal will be. AstraZeneca is a British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant. It accounts […]
This week, all students across the United Kingdom should be safe at school. Or will they? When the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) modelled the wider opening of schools, it concluded that a full opening would lead to a rise in the R number. Consequently, SAGE advised against full opening of schools. The […]
Does it not fill your heart with dread, when a minister in the current government states that a proposed new organisation will become “world-renowned”? Well, Health Minister Matt Hancock has recently said this about the body he is planning to set up to replace the battered Public Health England (PHE). PHE, itself, was only established […]
Well, here we are again, heading for the end of the transition period without any real sign that the UK will have a proper trading arrangement with the EU, and amidst increasingly dire warnings about possible shortages of food and other essentials. The Covid-19 pandemic has also served to expose the weaknesses in the “just-in-time” […]
It’s summer, normally a time for holidaying, socialising, enjoying the long sunny days and building resilience for the darker days ahead. Most of us remember summer holidays from school as one of the best times of our lives; meeting friends, going on trips, learning to flex our wings. This year is, of course, not like […]