I have over the past few months mused on the relevance of calling these monthly blog posts 'lockdown reads', given that the formal, UK wide, lockdown ended in June. Given that many of us were still under local lockdowns from June onwards (hello Leicester), it still seemed fair enough, and given that two of our four nations in the UK are once again under full Covid lockdowns, it feels even more relevant this month. I suspect that some of you will have slightly more time on your hands this week than you anticipated a month or so back and, if so, I hope you find something here to entertain and inform.
We begin, inevitably, with COVID-19. The New Scientist did a good breakdown and analysis of the Imperial College study into excess deaths by country during the first wave earlier this year whereas The Guardian wrote a more cheerful piece about teenager entrepreneurs whose businesses and earnings have boomed during lockdown.
Greater Manchester's ten council areas found themselves increasingly under the Covid spotlight in October, thanks to Mayor Andy Burnham's two week stand off with the Johnson government over funding for the introduction of Tier 3 measures here. This followed the introduction of Tier 3 measures in both Liverpool and Lancashire, both of whom received widely differing instructions on what could and couldn't stay open, as well as different financial packages. Lancashire went so far as to say that they felt they had been 'bullied and blackmailed' into accepting Tier 3 measures.
Given that Greater Manchester had already been under local lockdown since 31st July, with no financial package to mitigate the economic damage, it wasn't a surprise that October's announcement of new measures saw Burnham and council leaders decide to take a stand. The media fallout has been... interesting.
Not only has Covid led to a bit of a crash course in geography for many of us (one of the more popular jokes doing the rounds in Greater Manchester back on 31st July was around Trafford having to finally accept it was geographically located in Greater Manchester, not Cheshire) it's created some weirdly iconic moments: That Civil Service Tweet, for example, the politicalisation of Barnard Castle, and - in October - the starring role of iconic Mancunian geographical backdrops such as Central Library and The Bridgewater Hall in Andy Burnham's increasingly exasperated press conferences. Helen Pidd, The Guardian's North of England Editor, also pointed to another unexpected phenomenon. The Manchester Evening News, meanwhile, wrote a suitably lively take on the whole standoff as it was continuing. They were also the first to write about that northern secession banner on Princess Parkway. New media startup The Mill have also been covering the standoff as it unfolded and last week they wrote about the ongoing financial destruction of the arts, and how it's playing out in a workshop in Ashton. In a broader sense, this World Economic Forum report offers detailed analysis of the future of work.
In other Covid news, Imperial College London are starting vaccine trials in January, but the UK wide Covid tracking survey has gone really tits up in recent weeks. Oh, and Matt Hancock got his long Covid stats wrong.
If September's Reply All episode on QAnon and the BBC's take on the build up to and long shadow of the Oklahoma City Bombing has whetted your appetite for reporting and analysis of conspiracy theorists, you might find The Mill's take on disinformation and panic during a cholera outbreak nearly 200 years ago a worryingly familiar read. See also EM Forster's The Machine Stops for the full dystopian take, if you've already binge watched that Netflix series inspired by Brave New World.
Another big story this month has been the ongoing pantomime that is the US election, not so much partisanship as screaming civil war in the making. Into this chaos Narratively inserted a surprisingly positive take on the whole mess in the form of a story about Justine Lee and Tria Chang, co-founders of Make America Dinner again, in which they host dinner parties in order to facilitate civilised discourse between Americans of different opinions and from different walks of life. Feel free to revisit this one in the weeks to come.
Delivering food and friendship in a slightly different way on this side of the pond are FoodCycle, who featured in a piece on Wicked Leeks this month. Also Marcus Rashford, who hasn't forgotten what nearly happened with free school meals in the UK over the summer. In an innovative modern take on the historical practice of 'rough musicing', Tory MP's in Bury who voted against extending provision of free school meals to children over half term saw their constituency office decorated with paper plates and 'feed kids' signs last week.
On the theme of poverty, the Manchester Evening News ran two harrowing homeless stories last week that both served to reveal the basic decentness of local humanity. In the first instance, a man took off his jeans and gave them to a homeless man outside a petrol station in Wythenshawe and multiple people have been trying to locate and help a distressed elderly woman found sleeping rough in Manchester.
Ahead of Wales and Northern Ireland announcing their own 'Circuit Break' lockdowns, the New Scientist offered a calm discussion as to what exactly a circuit breaker lockdown might look like, and what the science says about them.
My Wales correspondent (ie my sister Jenni, who is reprising her role after a long absence) has been sending me reports on how the lockdown in Wales is going, including this hilarious protest over what does and doesn't constitute an 'essential' item. There was also a massive fuck up over sanitary towels in Tesco as well, which seems odd given pharmacies are allowed to stay open during lockdowns. The tone coming from the Welsh government seems to be that they're doing their best but that it's amazing how much potential their is for misinterpretation in the phrase 'essential items'.
Over in Scotland, regular polling since March has indicated a strong preference for Scottish independence from the UK, which the New Statesman have written about this month.
In lighter news, CNN reported that a giant ancient cat illustration has been found carved into a hillside in Peru. And finally, my current favourite headline of the year: Python tried to eat sleeping woman while being tracked by biologists. An honourable mention should also be given to Sky's baffling Brexit: Department for International Trade in soy sauce row after Great British Bake Off claim, which came courtesy of our Wales correspondent.
Image of Thank you NHS and Key Workers banner pinned up by a basketball court in East Belfast by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash
Image of the River Irwell at sunset by by Matthew Waring on Unsplash
Image of child playing outside against a sunset by Sujeeth Potla on Unsplash
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