Sunday Briefing 26 July

It is a notion we have been peddling in the NTI newsroom for a while now; the Covid-19 pandemic and the ripples of its fallout have shone a Super Trouper on the inert failures of some businesses and the gleaming successes of others. But how does this work? When Charles Darwin rocked Victorian Britain with his theory of evolution by natural selection he stated that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce (unless they are hit by a large meteor, which re-starts the game, and brings the species back to 'Level 1 - A Slug'). But did you know that Darwin's grandad, Erasmus, was a poet and alluded to the same theory before his grandson could hold a quill? He eventually got stuck over a rhyme for Thecodontosaurus, but his theories were showing promise until then.