Britain enters lockdown
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Politics
Read about the latest political news, views and analysis
Monday
Boris had little choice but to impose a coronavirus crackdown
Very few of us alive thought we would ever hear a prime minister of the United Kingdom, with its centuries old liberties, order us to stay in our homes, and only venture out, and never in groups, to acquire what we need to stay alive or for basic essential exercise – on pain if we disobey of being arrested and fined by the police. His reason, that won't have escaped you (I hope), is rarely in our history have we faced such a threat to the lives of those we hold most precious as that posed by Covid19. And never in its 72-year existence has the NHS teetered so precariously close to collapse, because of the demands it faces from those with the virus who are struggling for air.
Britain enters coronavirus lockdown
In the past few minutes, Boris Johnson has announced that the UK is going into lockdown from this evening. In a statement in Downing Street (which you can read in full here), he announced that people will not be allowed to leave their homes unless they are doing so for the following: - shopping for basic necessities - one form of exercise a day such as a run, walk or cycle and either alone or with other members of the same household - medical needs or caring for a vulnerable person - travelling to or from work but only when absolutely necessary. The police will be given the power to fine people and disperse gatherings and all non-essential shops and events such as weddings and baptisms will be banned.
Boris Johnson: why you must stay at home
Good Evening, The coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades – and this country is not alone. All over the world we are seeing the devastating impact of this invisible killer. And so tonight I want to update you on the latest steps we are taking to fight the disease and what you can do to help. And I want to begin by reminding you why the UK has been taking the approach that we have. Without a huge national effort to halt the growth of this virus, there will come a moment when no health service in the world could possibly cope; because there won’t be enough ventilators, enough intensive care beds, enough doctors and nurses.
Alex Salmond will have his revenge
Alex Salmond has been cleared of sexual assault following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh. The jury returned this afternoon and found the former First Minister not guilty of 12 charges and resorted to Scotland’s special not proven verdict on a 13th allegation. Salmond’s twin defences were that the claims against him were ‘exaggerations’ (he wasn’t perfect but he had never done anything criminal) or ‘deliberate fabrications for a political purpose’ (he was the victim of a conspiracy). In private, much of the Scottish political and media class already had him hanged, drawn and quartered and so this verdict is being met with a mixture of shock, horror and contempt. But the law is the law and the law says he didn’t do it.
Boris should be praised for his reluctance to send in the police
There was an extraordinary moment in the government’s Covid-19 news briefing yesterday. Boris Johnson was asked: ‘Prime Minister, people aren’t acting responsibly, so when are you going to bring in the police?’ Boris was aghast. ‘Bring in the police?!’, he said, looking, as one would hope he would, horrified by the prospect of the UK becoming a police state that arrests people for going outside and strolling in parks. Guess which side in this telling Q&A got the most flak? Yep, not the journalist wondering out loud when cops are going to step in, but the PM who has an instinctive loathing of such an authoritarian prospect.
My nightmare
Alex Salmond has been cleared of sexually assaulting nine women. The former Scottish first minister released this statement outside court: 'Ladies and gentlemen, just over a year ago, when we finished the Civil Action and Judicial Review, I said I had great faith in the court system in Scotland. That faith has been much reinforced today. So I'd like to start by explaining that faith and thanking the jury for their decision. I'd also like to thank the court service who have been courteous beyond limit over the last two weeks and for the police officers who've manned this trial under these extraordinary circumstances. Obviously, above all, I'd like to thank my friends and family for standing by me.
Is the government’s coronavirus approach confused?
15 min listen
Coronavirus shouldn’t be used as an excuse to expand the state
Since this is the nearest most of us have ever got to living under the Blitz, I’ve been re-reading George Orwell’s The Lion and the Unicorn. Written in London in 1940, it begins with the famous line: ‘As I write, highly civilised human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.’ The first part of the book, titled ‘England Your England’ contains more quotable lines per page than anything not written by Shakespeare. It is here that Orwell explains why he loves Britain, warts and all. The rest of the book, in which he makes the case for 'democratic socialism’ is maybe less well known, but is characteristically clear and unambiguous.
Breaking: Alex Salmond cleared of all sexual assault charges
Alex Salmond, the former first minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP, has been cleared of all charges of sexual assault. The former first minister had been charged with 13 offences against nine women, including indecent assault, sexual assault and intent to rape. A further charge of sexual assault against a tenth woman was dropped by the prosecution earlier in the trial. Salmond has denied all the charges. Today, at the High Court in Edinburgh, a jury found Salmond not guilty of 12 of those offences, and declared that the 13th offence was ‘not proven’. The 'not proven' verdict is unique to the Scottish courts, and leaves the accused innocent in the eyes of the law.
Coronavirus is a big blow to the SNP’s ‘Indyref 2’ plans
Amongst the many postponements and cancellations brought about by coronavirus, perhaps the least disappointing, at least for certain sections of Scottish society, was the SNP’s decision to suspend its demand for a 2020 independence referendum. Of course, with the government having maintained its firm opposition to ‘Indyref 2’ from day one, it was highly unlikely that the SNP would have got their way in any case. In essence then, the only immediate consequence is that the SNP’s representatives will simply take some time out before amending the lyrics on the song sheet and striking up again. Expect a post-Holyrood election (2021) poll to be the new demand.
Relying on students’ predicted grades is a recipe for trouble
My daughter Leah was predicted a 5 in her English Literature exam. In the actual GCSE she sat at our local secondary in 2017, she got an 8, the equivalent of a starred A. I was delighted but not surprised. But while my daughter was able to prove her teacher wrong, what about those who this year will have to rely on predicted grades? For Leah, such a situation would have been dreadful news. Two years after her GCSE English teacher under-predicted her, we found ourselves in the same situation again, but this time there was more than my daughter’s self-esteem to consider. Her academic future was at stake. In the autumn term of her final year at school, Leah was predicted ABB in her A levels.
Will coronavirus revive liberalism – or deliver it a fatal blow?
Politicians, said the historian A.J.P. Taylor, do not create the current of events. They can only float along with them and try to steer. But he was talking about the long contours of European history, not the sudden and shocking arrival of a global pandemic. How to float along and steer through something that looks like an overwhelming tsunami is, largely, unknown. The outbreak of coronavirus has already put much of the world in lockdown. It has pushed the global economy into freefall, killed more than 13,000 people and could yet kill hundreds of thousands more, perhaps millions. It will also have big political effects. Leaders, governments, even ideologies will be judged according to how well they meet the crisis and the fallout.
Carole’s corona conspiracy codswallop
It seems the Observer's favourite intrepid investigative journalist has been at it again. Yes, Carole Cadwalladr has been tweeting. On Sunday evening, Cadwalladr decided to deviate from telling her half a million Twitter followers that the UK is in the palm of the Russians by explaining that we are now living through an unprecedented era of press control and media manipulation. Cadwalladr was able to uncover something that no other journalist had yet revealed - that the daily coronavirus press briefings are, in fact, a sham: As you, dear reader, may have guessed by now, this statement is entirely and utterly false. it is untrue. It bears no resemblance to the facts. The press conferences are not 'stage managed'.
Sunday
Why hasn’t Boris Johnson announced a coronavirus lockdown?
This weekend has been dominated by photos of people having a jolly good time in groups at the park, or strolling along Columbia Road Flower Market as though nothing has changed. Sunday's Downing Street press conference was therefore dominated by questions about whether the government would clamp down on this behaviour to stop coronavirus spreading still further. But while Boris Johnson urged people to stop ignoring social distancing rules, telling them that 'even if you think you are personally invulnerable, there are plenty of people you can infect and whose lives will them be put at risk', he only suggested that there could be 'further measures if we think that is necessary'.
Who is Labour’s ‘designated survivor’?
With Westminster seemingly awash with coronavirus, the number of MPs and government aides in self-isolation increases by the day. This has led to chatter within government over who ought to step in should Boris Johnson find himself out of action for two weeks with a case of Covid-19. As first secretary of state, Dominic Raab is the minister No. 10 plan to draft in should Johnson fall ill – reportedly to the disappointment of Michael Gove and Matt Hancock. So, what about Labour? Given that the leadership contest doesn't end til next month, the stand-in leader would have to come from the current shadow cabinet.
Are people really panic buying?
We have, of course, been transformed into a nation of hoarders and panic buyers. We know this because everyone keeps telling us. There are the queues around the block, waiting for Asda to open; the tearful nurse on Twitter who couldn’t get any food after a 48-hour shift; anecdotes galore about people loading loo rolls into their trolleys by the tree trunk-load, fighting over each consignment as it arrives. How much more civilised we all were – it has been claimed – during wartime. I’m sure there are people panic-buying and hoarding vast quantities of tinned foods, but is it all quite so bad as being made out?
Sunday shows round-up: Shop just for what you and your family needs
Robert Jenrick - We will do 'whatever it takes' to support those at risk Sophy Ridge was first joined this morning by the Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick. With the threat from coronavirus still looming large, Jenrick told Ridge that the Chief Medical Officer was now officially advising around 1.5 million people at particular risk from the virus to remain indoors for potentially as long as three months. He pledged that the government would do its utmost to support them: https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1241645655703146497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw RJ: We are writing to these people... and we're asking them, as soon as practical, to stay at home and to do so for a prolonged period, perhaps as long as 12 weeks...
Doctors and nurses deserve to know if the NHS has enough protective clothing
We are relying on courageous NHS staff to help us through this terrible Covid-19 crisis. So many would say we have a duty to listen to their concerns and anxieties. And as you will be aware, and as the chief executive of St George's University Hospital's Jac Totterdell has made explicit, lots of doctors and nurses do not feel that they are being given the appropriate protective clothing. A leading consultant has explained the issue to me. It is probably best if I just use the consultant's own words. 'All we get are little plastic aprons that don’t cover your arms or neck or back or lower legs. And no facial protection, yet patients are coughing all over you. 'Then you walk through the hospital covered in (the) bug. Which as we know can live for days on surfaces...
Should ‘Spanish flu’ have been known as ‘American flu’?
There's an ongoing debate in the media as to whether or not president Trump is being 'racist' by repeatedly referring to Covid-19 as a 'Chinese' virus. 'It's not racist at all,' Trump insisted at one press conference. 'It comes from China, that's why.' This is at least objectively true – unlike the case with Spanish Flu, which didn't come from Spain at all. In fact the 1918 pandemic – which killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people around the world – most likely originated in the flat, treeless cattle country of Haskell County, Kansas, west of Dodge City. But it was never known as American Flu. Why?