Politics

‘A split party will be doomed to defeat,’ says Len McCluskey, with a hint of threat. The left of Labour are sabre rattling behind the scenes and starting to go public; talk of them actually leaving the party is becoming louder. They are annoyed at Jeremy Corbyn’s ongoing suspension more than anything, but there are other gripes. They are irritated at Keir Starmer avoiding the culture wars as much as he can instead of taking their side without question. They are angered by the fact that Biden’s victory has robbed them of the ‘centrists can’t win’ narrative they were hoping to promote. But if the Labour party does split as a result, it could prove to be a blessing rather than a curse for Starmer in his bid to become prime minister.

David Davis said something remarkable yesterday. In a debate on the membership of the Committee on Standards, he told MPs that the Tory deputy chief whip has 203 proxy votes. If Davis’s numbers are right, that is more than half the Tory parliamentary party. Obviously this is a consequence of Covid. But it has profound constitutional implications. If MPs can simply let their whips vote for them, they won’t have to think about what they are supporting in the same way they would if they had to walk through the division lobbies. The system will also, if left unchecked, lead to pressure on MPs to simply give their whip their vote and exercise it by proxy. The pandemic has inevitably forced changes on Parliament.

News that the Pfizer vaccine is 90 per cent effective has sparked a number of questions about the prospect of a vaccine ending this pandemic. As a special adviser in the Department of Health and Social Care until recently, my job was not to be an expert in epidemiology or science. My job was to ask questions, challenge answers, and ensure ministers had the right advice to be able to take important decisions. When it comes to working out how successful a vaccination programme will be, and what they can do to make it as successful as possible, there are three key questions ministers will be considering. First question: how effective is the vaccine? Clinical trials consist of enrolling a huge number of participants (43,538 in Pfizer’s case) and splitting them into two groups.

There are still safety trials to be completed. Data has to be collected, checked, double-checked, and then peer-reviewed. And we still need to find out whether it is the most effective of the various candidates currently in development or whether there is something even better just around the corner. But the Pfizer vaccine has already proved something beyond any reasonable doubt. Free enterprise works. And for all its flaws, it remains the best system for solving complex problems. Amid all the justifiable excitement over the potential approval of the first safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19 it would be easy to overlook one point: the vaccine was developed with private money.

Is it time for vicars to speak out against lockdown? As an Anglican priest, I've watched in bemusement as some of my colleagues have waded in on Brexit, Black Lives Matter, or Dominic Cummings's trip to Barnard Castle. But why are many of these same voices silent on an issue that affects far more of us: the Prime Minister's drastic order for us to stay at home and the curtailing (again) of church services? The church used to pride itself on robust debate. It was a seedbed for intellectual giants who were not afraid to say their mind. But whatever happened to those colourful canons, dotty theologians, and rebellious bishops who made the Church of England so gloriously interesting, if not fun?

Patrick Vallance has rightly come under fire over the use of statistics during the government’s now infamous lockdown press conference, but we ought to give him some credit for the UK’s preparedness for a Covid vaccine. It was Vallance’s forward thinking that established the taskforce responsible for securing 40 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine (enough to cover 20 million people) back in May 2020. This taskforce also made the call to spread the UK’s vaccine investment across six suppliers. People will quibble about the number of doses ordered, but thanks to Vallance, the UK is in a position to benefit from whichever vaccine reaches the market first. After months of negative headlines, Boris Johnson's government also deserves some praise.