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Telegraph
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Adam Curtis's thrilling, maddening and soul-destroying portrait of a faithless, jaded nation
To try to explain what Adam Curtis's latest documentary series is about is like trying to build an igloo out of jelly. In one sense, Shifty (BBC iPlayer) has a simple premise – a jaunty yet thumpingly depressing trot through 20 years of British politics and economics (1979-1999), from Thatcher and monetarism to Blair and the Private Finance Initiative. It is, as the blurb has it, about how 'extreme money and hyper-individualism… undermined the fundamental structures of mass democracy'; it's about how and why British society is now so fragmented, atomised and siloed. Yet that barely scratches the surface of this gloriously obtuse series. It's like being talked at for six hours by a coked-up bipolar genius at an aggressively loud house party. It is a thrilling, maddening, brilliant and soul-destroying portrait of a faithless, jaded nation. As the five episodes take us chronologically through 20 years of British economic policy, leaning heavily on Thatcher's premiership, Shifty has a more traditional shape than many of Curtis's other works (Hypernormalisation, Can't Get You Out of My Head). It also does not feature Curtis's languid, oft-parodied voiceover, relying instead on his trademark stark-white subtitles to give some shape to his traditional carnival of scintillatingly edited archive footage. There is less of the nightmarish incongruousness that marks his work, but it's no less chilling and disorienting for it. There is still plenty, however, of Curtis's mind-boggling leaps. In the first episode, introducing us to Thatcher's policy of monetarism – reduce the amount of money circulating, inflation falls, wages stabilise, industry booms – you'll spend a long time scratching your head wondering what links the death of the Irish author JG Farrell, the remains of a Second World War fighter pilot found in a bog in Sheppey, a transgender dog called Bruno, the National Front and the cheese and onion crisp production line at the Golden Wonder factory. Each episode is like a Magic Eye picture – you just have to relax your eyes and stare and stare and stare. It all comes clear eventually. Well, some of it. The rest of the series is a phantasmagoria of 1980s and 1990s home video and documentary and news footage, with Stephen Hawking, the Old Kent Road, hairdressers, the Duke of Westminster and house parties becoming surreal recurring themes. The picture it paints of the UK, then and now, is utterly bleak, with our institutions being shown as at best hollow. The police come out particularly badly – anyone wincing at Donald Trump's recent heavy-handed approach to protestors will be agog at the scenes of police violence here, while one sequence in which detectives in Reading interview a female rape victim is horrifying. Despite this, Curtis finds an impish gallows humour in the decaying remains of 150 years of British exceptionalism. The first image we see, for instance, is Jimmy Savile introducing some schoolchildren to Thatcher, while a segment on the synthetised pop music of the 1980s warns us not to trust the past because it can be edited, remixed and repackaged – before launching into a pastiche of Curtis's documentaries. Those unconvinced by him will find it all simplistic and cynical, but Curtis has never claimed to be a historian. Instead, Shifty is a remarkable, unreliable and potent chronicle of a society in freefall. 'We are living [Thatcher's] version of Churchill's version of British history,' says Patrick Cosgrave, Thatcher's closest adviser. Shifty is Curtis's version.
Daily Mirror
03-06-2025
- Daily Mirror
'Hated' £2.2bn tunnel in the UK to temporarily close just months after opening
The controversial Silvertown Tunnel, which cost around £2.2bn, has temporarily closed due to maintenance and snagging works - just two months after its grand opening Drivers have been warned after a mega £2.2 billion tunnel, that promised to slash congestion and delays, has temporarily closed. Despite opening just two months ago, the hated Silvertown Tunnel has closed for 17 nights for general maintenance and snagging works. During the southbound-only closures - buses will be diverted via the Blackwall Tunnel. When both directions are closed, buses will operate a split-service that terminates at Canning Town and North Greenwich. "TfL will look to ensure bus services can continue to run where possible and has been communicating with drivers about the closures and weekly customer emails," a spokesperson said. Drivers will be advised through email communications to use alternative routes like the London Underground or route 108. The closures started on Friday, May 30 and will last until Sunday, June 22. Silvertown tunnel closures - the full list Friday, May 30: 22:00–06:00 (Southbound only) Saturday, May 31: 22:00–06:00 (Southbound only) Sunday, June 1: 22:00–05:00 (Southbound only) Monday, June 2: 22:00–05:00 (Southbound only) Tuesday, June 3: 22:00–05:00 (Southbound only) Wednesday, June 4: 22:00–05:00 (Both directions closed) Thursday, June 5: 22:00–05:00 (Northbound only) Friday, June 6: 22:00–06:00 (Both directions closed) Saturday, June 7: 22:00–06:00 (Both directions closed) Sunday, June 8: 22:00–05:00 (Both directions closed) Friday, June 13: 22:00–06:00 (Both directions closed) Saturday, June 14: 22:00–06:00 (Both directions closed) Sunday, June 15: 22:00–05:00 (Both directions closed) Wednesday, June 18: 22:00–05:00 (Southbound only) Friday, June 20: 22:00–06:00 (Both directions closed) Saturday, June 21: 22:00–06:00 (Both bores closed) Sunday, June 22: 22:00–05:00 (Both directions closed) The 1.4km tunnel - which opened on April 7, 2025, links Silvertown to the Greenwich Peninsula in east London and aims to reduce traffic in the area by making peak-time journeys faster and more reliable. After its grand opening, the average trip across the river was slashed by up to 20 minutes. Funded with a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) against future earnings for £2.2 billion, the tunnel was met with unwavering criticism ever since its planning approval back in 2018. While TfL argued the nearby Blackwall Tunnel was 'never designed' for the levels of traffic now whizzing through the Big Smoke - residents slammed the decision to allow Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) to use the new tunnel - meaning they no longer have to travel over the Dartford Crossing. Campaigners have slammed this rule, arguing they'll be subject to gas-guzzling vehicles travelling past their 'schools and kids', worsening the area's air quality. TfL has clapped back, saying it has been monitoring air quality for the past five years across five boroughs and will continue to monitor them for at least three years after the tunnel is opened. "This is to make sure the tunnel user charge levels are working and the project meets its objectives," TFL said. Silvertown Tunnel has resulted in more public transport offerings, with 21 zero-emission buses an hour travelling in each direction between 7am and 7pm Monday-Friday. However, the project was slammed again after it was revealed how almost £2 million was being spent on a three-year 'bike bus' contract that will allow cyclists to travel through the tunnel. The revelation came after TfL prohibited cycling in the tunnel for 'safety reasons' - meaning those on their bike will have to hop off and take a shuttle to cross the tunnel. find out if you're eligible for a discount here.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
MP takes health centre fight to Westminster
Dudley MP Sonia Kumar has taken the fight for answers on the future of a Sedgley health centre to Parliament. Ms Kumar presented a petition containing over 1,600 names to the House of Commons, telling MPs the number of signatures shows the strength of feeling among people in Dudley. Campaigners are calling on Dudley Council to finalise a deal to keep services at the Ladies Walk Health Centre and library by renewing a lease on the property, which is set to expire in March 2026. Ms Kumar told MPs: 'This facility is a vital community hub and a treasured lifeline for local people accessing essential care. 'The petitioners request that the House of Commons urge the government to communicate urgently with the owners of the Ladies Walk centre property, Dudley Council and the NHS to secure the centre and stop its closure.' Campaigners fear, if the lease is not renewed, services will be relocated. They are calling for the council to either renew the lease or buy the centre under a compulsory purchase order. Dudley council's leader, Cllr Patrick Harley, says the situation has moved on substantially and negotiations are underway. Clr Harley said: 'We are all around the table and things seem to be moving at pace. Talks are ongoing, and I am confident we will come to an agreement at some point and things will stay as they are. 'We need to let the people who know what they are doing negotiate a good deal.' The centre was opened 25 years ago, it was constructed from 72 steel-framed modules which were craned into position. The centre was the first Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project to be constructed off-site. Under a PFI deal the private sector pays to construct public buildings and the public sector pays to use the building over a long-term contract. A public meeting to discuss progress on the Ladies Walk centre will take place at the Parish Church of All Saints, Vicar Street, Sedgley, on May 21, starting at 6.30pm. Anyone wishing to attend the meeting must pre-book at
The National
13-05-2025
- Health
- The National
Founding principles of NHS betrayed by both Labour and SNP
It was fun to be back in the industrial Lanarkshire heartland where I cut my political teeth 40 years ago. It seems like only yesterday I was jousting with the local Labour MP, George (now Lord) Robertson, in the town hall at Young Socialist meetings. On the doorsteps, then as now, the state of our National Health Service was never far from people's minds. It's not surprising, since the British Medical Association believes the health service is currently facing 'the most severe crisis in its history'. If so, it's a crisis precipitated by widespread privatisation, chronic underfunding and NHS leaders who do not support its founding principles. Wishaw General and Hairmyres are the NHS Lanarkshire hospitals covering the Hamilton area. Both buildings are owned by commercial companies under the now-notorious Private Finance Initiative. READ MORE: Quality and quantity of GP appointments have both declined Their budgets, like six other PFIs in Scotland, have been drained by this arrangement because of the profit-taking inherent to its DNA the profit-taking in the DNA of such arrangements. The controversial model is neither popular nor efficient. History will record for ever more that Labour used these schemes to build six Scottish hospitals and the SNP two more. Bluntly speaking, this means both parties betrayed the promises they made to protect the NHS's founding principle, established in 1948: that our health services would be free at point of need, publicly owned and run, and guarantee equity of access. Two reports published last week highlighted the extent of that much-restricted access. First, Audit Scotland reported that one-fifth of all calls to the NHS 24 service last year were abandoned – in other words, 60,000 people gave up waiting for an answer in their doubtless exasperated quest for help. Adding to that appalling statistic, BMA Scotland calculated that we are now 1800 GPs short in the ambition to return to even pre-Covid levels of primary care provision. Reinforcing patient dissatisfaction even more, Professor Allyson Pollock, of Newcastle University, sent me her study of elective surgery performance from 1997-2021, which concludes that private medicine is not augmenting the NHS, as successive governments insisted it would. It is in fact replacing it when it comes to hip and knee surgery, to the detriment of long-suffering patients who can't afford the exorbitant private hospital charges. Meanwhile, a University of York study on productivity in the NHS revealed that the organisation is now performing 11% below pre-pandemic levels because of the triple whammy of privatisation, chronic underinvestment and staff shortages. The promise First Minister John Swinney made last week of 100,000 extra GP appointments next year will therefore underwhelm most people experiencing the crisis our NHS is now facing. The intense frustration patients across Scotland feel at 8am daily attempting to access the medical care from GP surgeries to which they are entitled will be little diminished by such paltry promises. The provision of social care in Scotland is another demonstrable disgrace. During the pandemic, then-first minister Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged that the situation was completely unacceptable and repeatedly promised us 'a national care service on a par with the NHS'. Little did we know she intended to diminish the care provided by both! Today's NHS is unquestionably performing poorer than it was prior to the SNP's first Holyrood victory in 2007. That is something Nationalists must honestly face up to across Scotland. Meanwhile, back in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, people awaiting the vote on June 5 recognise that Reform UK have the wind in their sails after the English local election results. I fear we could see a sizeable increase in support for them because of the failures of the parties of the 'extreme centre' who have angered people with their insipid managerialism in office. READ MORE: Andrew Bowie panned over 'contempt for scientific evidence' with climate comments While I detect no great admiration for the SNP, Geoff Aberdein, the seasoned political strategist and former adviser to Alex Salmond, asked on his podcast recently: 'Where else in the western world is a party in government for almost two decades, and facing a by-election, the favourites to win?' He has a point. But it says more perhaps about the calibre of the opposition than anything else. Labour are under more pressure than the SNP to win this contest, yet they are haemorrhaging support under the dull leadership of Keir Starmer and Anas Sarwar. As we have seen this week, Labour fully intend to embrace the reactionary politics of Reform UK on issues such as immigration, the economy and climate change. Instead of offering even a mild left-of-centre alternative, they seem to believe Scotland needs more privatisation, inequality and division. The middle-aged woman I met in Union Street, Larkhall last Saturday weighed up the Scottish Socialist Party's case presented to her, and perhaps summed up the mood in the constituency when she said: 'Right enough. It's time someone else had the chance to show what they can do.'
The Herald Scotland
11-05-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
Fearless consultant physician and scourge of PFI dies
Died: April 18, 2025 Matthew Dunnigan, who has died aged 93, was a consultant physician at Stobhill Hospital for 27 years who distinguished himself, both in his studies on delivery of health care, and in the clinical arena. When health leaders in Glasgow were planning a reduction in acute bed numbers in the 1990s, Dr Dunnigan forensically analysed the planning models and showed the health board's plans would not cope with an increasingly frail and elderly population. Sadly, his detailed analysis was repeatedly ignored with the resultant consequences we are all living with today. The late 1990s was a period of major hospital closures and the building of new hospitals under the exorbitant Private Finance Initiative (PFI) throughout the UK. All of these schemes entailed selling off NHS land and hospitals with major reductions in beds. Dr Dunnigan extended his forensic analysis of bed planning to Lothian Health Board's plans for the New Edinburgh Royal and many of the new PFI hospital plans in England. He exposed the flawed assumptions regarding bed provisions and in every case the evidence was ignored by the policy makers. His analysis, unlike those of the NHS bed planners, has stood the test of time – the UK now has the lowest hospital bed numbers of all the countries in Europe. Dr Dunnigan's academic curiosity was also in evidence in the clinical arena where he also distinguished himself. Arguably the most meritorious was his work with severely physically and mentally disabled patients in the long-since-closed Lennox Castle Hospital in the 1980s. Read more Dr Dunnigan's attention was drawn to this by observing dehydration in patients being admitted to Stobhill Hospital from Lennox Castle. He suspected that these patients were not being fed adequately. He therefore looked at the intake of the inpatients at that institution and demonstrated severe caloric and nutritional deficiencies, especially in those who were unable to feed themselves. Correction of this led to the patients gaining weight and being more settled and easier to look after. His findings were eventually accepted by the health board who agreed to provide more staff and better nutrition for the patients. Dr Dunnigan was also involved in a study looking at the high incidence of rickets in the recently arrived Asian children to Glasgow in the 1960s. In their homeland, the sun provided all the Vitamin D they required but this was not the case in Glasgow's tenement blocks. Having identified the problem, Dr Dunnigan arranged to have Vitamin D inserted into the flour used to make chapattis, and the rickets all but disappeared. He continued to conduct studies and write about Vitamin D deficiency in South Asians for two decades. Dr Dunnigan contributed in a number of other clinical areas including unexplained fluid retention in women and Dunnigan's Syndrome which described a rare type of genetic lipid disorder. Matthew Dunnigan was born in 1931 to what he described as poor but honest parents in a steel house in Clydebank. Matthew continued: 'my parents were both keen on self-improvement, evening classes and 'getting on'.' His mother taught primary classes of 50-60 children as a 19-year-old until marriage prevented her from continuing. His father, who left school at 15, was self-educated and became a cost accountant. As a young child Matthew suffered from scarlet fever, which then was a life-threatening illness. This necessitated several months in hospital without any contact with his family. Perversely, this experience was to be repeated in the last years of his life through Covid. The family moved to Troon during the Second World War and Dr Dunnigan attended Marr College where he was Dux. He entered Glasgow University to study medicine, graduating in 1955. After completing his national service, he chose endocrinology as his specialty. He also completed an MD (with honours) under the guidance of the renowned cardiologist Dr JH Wright. He was appointed consultant physician at Stobhill Hospital in 1969 and following his retiral in 1996 continued as a senior research fellow at Glasgow University. His strengths included being a gifted orator, having a wonderful way with words and the ability to back up his arguments with thoroughly analysed data. He was always an inquisitive physician which was to the considerable benefit of his patients. Within all of these activities, his family were front and centre in his life. He cared lovingly for his wife Anna of 57 years in her final illness. He is survived by his son Matthew and daughter Sarah, both of whom are distinguished academics in Edinburgh. FRANK DUNN and ALLYSON POLLOCK
