When Covid-19 swept the world, governments scrambled to protect their citizens and chart a course back to normality. As Health Secretary, Matt Hancock was at the forefront of Britain's battle against the virus, trying to steer the country through the crisis in a world where information was scarce, judgements huge and the roadmap non-existent. Drawing on a wealth of never-before-seen material, including official records, his notes at the time and communications with all the key players in Britain's Covid-19 story, this candid account reveals the inner workings of government during a time of national crisis, reflecting on both the successes and the failures. Recounting the most important decisions in the race to develop a vaccine in record time and to build a nationwide testing capacity from the ground up, Pandemic Diaries provides the definitive account of Britain's battle to turn the tide against Covid-19. Crucially, it also offers an honest assessment of the lessons we need to learn to be prepared for next time – because there will be a next time.
FOREWORD BY GENERAL SIR MIKE JACKSON After the pain of Iraq and Afghanistan, it is hard to imagine the UK being drawn into another war. Defence chiefs warn that there is a real prospect of future conflict, but they have struggled to persuade most politicians to take them seriously. Our leaders have concluded there are no votes in defence, and have progressively run down the armed forces. Today, the army is at its smallest since the Napoleonic Wars; the RAF is less than half its size twenty five years ago, and the Royal Navy will struggle to muster the ships and weapons required to protect our new aircraft carriers. Is there really a risk of war? Is our military less capable and, if so, what could that mean for our future? White Flag? explains what has happened to our armed forces in recent years and asks whether their decline endangers our safety and prosperity.
When Covid-19 swept the world, governments scrambled to protect their citizens and chart a course back to normality. As Health Secretary, Matt Hancock was at the forefront of Britain's battle against the virus, trying to steer the country through the crisis in a world where information was scarce, judgements huge and the roadmap non-existent. Drawing on a wealth of never-before-seen material, including official records, his notes at the time and communications with all the key players in Britain's Covid-19 story, this candid account reveals the inner workings of government during a time of national crisis, reflecting on both the successes and the failures. Recounting the most important decisions in the race to develop a vaccine in record time and to build a nationwide testing capacity from the ground up, Pandemic Diaries provides the definitive account of Britain's battle to turn the tide against Covid-19. Crucially, it also offers an honest assessment of the lessons we need to learn to be prepared for next time – because there will be a next time.
FOREWORD BY GENERAL SIR MIKE JACKSON After the pain of Iraq and Afghanistan, it is hard to imagine the UK being drawn into another war. Defence chiefs warn that there is a real prospect of future conflict, but they have struggled to persuade most politicians to take them seriously. Our leaders have concluded there are no votes in defence, and have progressively run down the armed forces. Today, the army is at its smallest since the Napoleonic Wars; the RAF is less than half its size twenty five years ago, and the Royal Navy will struggle to muster the ships and weapons required to protect our new aircraft carriers. Is there really a risk of war? Is our military less capable and, if so, what could that mean for our future? White Flag? explains what has happened to our armed forces in recent years and asks whether their decline endangers our safety and prosperity.
A truly insightful tour d'horizon" – Rt Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Health, 2012–18 "Insightful and thought-provoking" – Rt Hon. Matt Hancock MP, Secretary of State for Health, 2018–21 "Brilliant" – Sir Stephen Bubb, director of Charity Futures and the Oxford Institute of Charity "A tour de force" – Niall Dickson CBE, former chief executive of The King's Fund, the General Medical Council and the NHS Confederation *** How good is the NHS, really? That is the question this book seeks to answer, as the health service emerges from the gravest crisis in its history with more money – but greater challenges – than ever before. During the pandemic, voters made extraordinary sacrifices to save the NHS from collapse. Thanks to these efforts and the dedication and bravery of the NHS workforce, hospitals were able to treat patients with coronavirus, but millions of others lost out. Now an exhausted and depleted NHS workforce faces a huge backlog. The gap between supply and demand for publicly funded healthcare has never been so wide. With record numbers waiting for treatment, the politicians' answer has been to spend ever more taxpayers' money. The question is whether throwing cash at the problem will work. Every day, millions of patients receive care that is fair, good or outstanding. In keeping with Nye Bevan's founding principles, the same treatment is available to rich and poor, free at the point of need. Public support for the concept remains overwhelming. Yet for every positive NHS experience there are negatives: care that is substandard, disjointed and arrives too late. A cult of secrecy surrounds errors and failings. Politicians on all sides dissemble and lie. This book seeks to strip away the spin and uncover the true state of the NHS: the good, the bad and the ugly. It explores an increasingly urgent question: in an era of pandemics, can the NHS provide the quality of service patients deserve?
Isabel MacCaffrey contends that, in allegory, the mind makes a model of itself, and she shows that The Faerie Queene, mirroring as it does the mind's structure, is both a treatise on and an example of the central role that imagination plays in human life. Viewing the poem as a model of Spenser's universe, the author investigates the poet's theory of knowledge and the role of imagination in the construction of cosmic models. She begins with a survey of theories of the imagination and the creation of fictions, establishing a context in which allegorical images may be understood throughout the European allegorical tradition to which The Faerie Queene belongs. Isabel MacCaffrey's new readings show that insofar as Spenser's poem concerns modes of knowledge, it offers the reader an anatomy of its own composition, an analysis of imagination in its varied relations to the world. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Based on twenty years of global research, this is the first comprehensive reference on crop genetic diversity as it is maintained on farmland around the world. Showcasing the findings of seven experts representing the fields of ecology, crop breeding, genetics, anthropology, economics, and policy, this invaluable resource places farmer-managed crop biodiversity squarely in the center of the science needed to feed the world and restore health to our productive landscapes. It will prove to be an essential tool in the training of agricultural and environmental scientists seeking the solutions necessary to ensure healthy, resilient ecosystems for future generations.
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