covid19

Everything is always more complicated than you think, COVID edition

Everything is always more complicated than you think, COVID edition

One of the big economic and social stories of the past year is that for the first time since WWII the UK’s population is shrinking. I did a report for Sky News about this earlier on this year [https://news.sky.com/story/the-three-forces-at-play-that-raise-serious-questions-about-this-years-census-12250750] , a film of which you

Is this worst pandemic in British history?

Is this worst pandemic in British history?

The short answer is no. In terms of the numbers of people dying, this is not yet Britain’s worst pandemic. It’s not yet worse, in terms of deaths, than the worst weeks of the Hong Kong flu epidemic in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. It is almost

Why is Britain's COVID-19 economic response not hitting the spot?

Why is Britain's COVID-19 economic response not hitting the spot?

Earlier this morning Business Secretary Alok Sharma was grilled by Sophy Ridge about how many loans the Government’s new COVID-19 emergency lending facility had actually handed out. His answer? Here’s the funny thing about this. You or I may hear that so far only 4,200 of these

Coronavirus charts - your questions answered

Coronavirus charts - your questions answered

Each day I’ve been updating a chart showing the UK’s trajectory through COVID-19. Since each time I do so there are frequent questions- why are you choosing this measure? why are you using that odd axis? etc etc – I figure rather than repeating them daily on Twitter it

Bretton Woods: could we do it all over again today?

Bretton Woods: could we do it all over again today?

A few years ago I wrote a book [https://www.edmundconway.com/books/thesummit/] about the Bretton Woods conference of 1944. The conference was one of those rare things: a moment where countries came together to fix long-standing problems that had bedevilled the global system for years. The imbalances between