Yup, I expect the PBS couldn’t justify it financially. The original in ‘94 was a collab between them and The Poetry Society; a good pooling of resources. But these are difficult times for arts orgs and charities.

Surviving, ta, even if this long Covid business is really living up to its name…

I don’t think the promotion ran, which seems a shame. Like prizes, these marketing exercises are what they are, and never perfect. But anything that strives to promote excellence in contemporary poetry beyond the usual bubbles strikes me as valuable.

Definitely worth paying for to avoid potential complications if you were to catch the virus, but infuriating that it isn’t routinely available to those in various vulnerable categories. I’m properly on the mend now, mercifully, so I feel quite lucky in some ways.

I’ve spent nearly a year and a half recovering from a fairly horrific spell of long Covid, but because it isn’t yet recognised as a medical condition, I had to pay nearly £100 for my recent vaccination.

True enough. Recall folks enthusiastically claiming much the same about social media, then we had Cambridge Analytica, Russian bots, Brexit, Trumpism… I haven’t the highest hopes of AI being utilised for particularly noble or edifying ends.