The New Normal

Published: May 19, 2020, 12:53 p.m.

If a week is a long time,not just in Scottish, but in all politics, a fortnight feels like a lifetime,but we're back.

We kick off with the Andy Wightman call for a rent freeze in his amendment to the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No. 2) Bill that will be considered by MSPs today at Holyrood. Will this suffer the same fate as others he's introduced? And if it falls due to lack of government support what does this say for the progressive credentials of the SNP leadership?

Labour controlled English local authorities have been flexing their municipal muscles in opposing the early return of schools and the cliff edge announcement of the easing of lockdown rules. However Keir Starmer's Westminster Labour has been less than supportive.

Small Scottish shops have been flourishing in their swift and flexible response to supplying their customers with high quality,locally sourced, groceries during the Covid crisis. Shouldn't this a model to be encouraged post lockdown?

This leads neatly,I hope,into the new world of platform cooperatives who're gearing up to take on the big boys of digital capitalism like Uber and Amazon. Can this,allied to the rolling out of the Preston model across Scotland, transform our economy and society right now?

Lots of the ideas surrounding coops and municipal socialism were incredibly influential in the post war creation of the Welfare State. We reckon it's more than worthwhile reexamining the ideas of thinkers like James Connolly and Tom Johnston to create the post crisis "new normal".

Along the way there's also adventures with the Eye Spy book of birds and the joys of E bikes.