The Tories introduced the 50% strike ballot threshold to make industrial action harder. MATT WRACK argues that a Labour government has no justification for leaving it on the statute book
IN Illness as Metaphor, Susan Sontag wrote: “Any disease that is treated as a mystery and acutely enough feared will be felt to be morally, if not literally, contagious.” Although the Covid-19 situation is changing rapidly by the day — at the time of writing, five people have died in Britain and there are 319 confirmed cases — the disease has not yet truly arrived.
Normal life continues, nervously. For most people, Covid-19 remains a mystery and the main contagion is fear. So far, the government has held off putting in place drastic public health measures. Major disruption has not yet arrived. But with evidence from the spread elsewhere, it is certain that it will, and soon.
Rising temperatures and human activity are making life far harder for these vital pollinators. ALEX DITTRICH explains
Extreme heat is now one of the defining public health challenges of a warming world, explains Prof IAN WILLIAMS
JULIA THOMAS unpicks the mental processes that explain why book-to-film adaptations so often disappoint
Government urged ‘to tackle the root causes’ of the NHS crisis and improve ‘social care services’


