Coronavirus
When Britain failed to protect America from a flu pandemic in China
Before Covid-19, British colonial authorities allowed a deadly flu virus to spread from Hong Kong in 1968 with devastating consequences for the US and the rest of the world – one million people died.
The Westminster model of democracy was already unwell – Coronavirus has further exposed its limits
With coronavirus killing tens of thousands of Britons, the government’s poor response to the crisis shows that the UK’s current form of ‘democracy’ cannot protect the public. The ‘Westminster model’ was developed to promote unregulated economic growth and prevent the public from real participation in how society is run.
The British Armed Forces are using Covid-19 to solve a recruitment crisis and to heal their damaged reputation
The UK Ministry of Defence is using the Covid-19 pandemic to reverse a long-term recruitment crisis, which has seen it miss its enlistment targets for the past six years, and to repair damage to its reputation from the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Revealed: How Britain’s profiteering spymasters ignored the country’s biggest threats like coronavirus—and endangered the public
There is money and power in identifying Russia and cyber attacks as the key security threats facing Britain — but not in addressing the more important issues of pandemics and climate change. Former UK intelligence chiefs are personally profiting from the ‘revolving door’ between government and business, and the public is paying the price.
British ministers, complicit in millions of deaths since 1945, won’t face justice over coronavirus
The UK government’s failure to provide protective equipment to all health staff treating coronavirus victims prompts questions over whether ministers are legally culpable for failing to prevent deaths. But ministers routinely act with impunity and every prime minister since 1945 has been complicit in deaths abroad.
Coronavirus cannot stop Britain’s war in Yemen
Despite claiming to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic, Britain’s military and arms industry continue to facilitate bombing one of the world’s poorest countries, which is most at risk from Covid-19.
Coronavirus could overwhelm public healthcare in developing countries, where British aid has promoted private hospitals
British aid sponsors private hospitals for better-off patients from India to Zimbabwe, risking diverting doctors and money away from treating poorer patients who will be hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Who controls the World Health Organisation?
With some Western governments failing to follow the World Health Organisation’s advice on tackling coronavirus, right-wing figures in the US and UK are seeking to discredit the UN body as pro-China. But Britain and the US themselves are the WHO’s largest funders and among its major influencers.
Exclusive: Before coronavirus, UK government promoted ‘business opportunities’ in China’s wet markets
The UK government promoted exports of live animals and shellfish to China for years, knowing they would be sold at “wet markets”, amid repeated warnings from British health authorities that these markets posed an influenza threat, it can be revealed.