David Paton

After the JCVI recommended against offering vaccines to children aged 12 to 15 on health grounds, the government asked the four chief medical officers to consider the broader case, including the impact on schooling. As we know, the government has now accepted the chief medical officers’ recommendation: that all 12 to 15 year olds should be offered one dose of Pfizer on the grounds that doing so will reduce disruption to education. The government has released details of the modelling that underpins that rationale. The approach was first to estimate the number of infections with and without vaccination under different scenarios of infection spread. Next, they used this to model the number of days of lost education that could be prevented by vaccination.

Some were surprised when history lecturer and Brexit party candidate Kevin Yuill revealed that there were plenty of secret Brexit supporters in British universities. As another out-and-proud academic Brexiteer, I am happy to report that I too have come across my own fair share of pro-Brexit colleagues. But we should not underestimate the isolation that many of those Leave supporters feel within the world of higher education. One consequence of being open about my views is that it has led to people of all political persuasions contacting me, often out of the blue, keen to discuss Brexit. Some are critical. Others are just intrigued to know why I hold the views I do.

William Hazlitt said hypocrisy is the only unforgivable vice. He would surely have a field day with our current crop of politicians. But perhaps the worst of the bunch is Caroline Lucas. The Green MP responded to the Liberal Democrat’s promise to overturn Article 50 without even a further referendum by saying: Lucas is partly correct: the Lib Dem’s policy move is remarkable in its audaciousness. Jo Swinson recently told us that she could never forgive David Cameron for his decision to have an in-out EU referendum, conveniently forgetting the fact that she herself called for such a referendum back in 2008 and that nearly all Lib Dem MPs voted in favour of the EU Referendum Act in 2015.

The current obsession with Boris Johnson’s decision to marginally reduce Parliament's sittings days has had the side effect of taking the spotlight off the tricky strategic decisions Jeremy Corbyn faces over the next two months. Up until now, Corbyn has been content to continue attacking the prospect of no deal largely on the basis of the threat to workers’ jobs. The sight of him lining up on the same side as the big business forces of Remain is somewhat incongruous, whilst his description of no deal as a 'bankers’ Brexit' looks odd given how much funding Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and the other international banks gave to the Remain campaign during the referendum.

As was to be expected, the EU’s reaction to Boris Johnson’s offer of revisiting the Withdrawal Agreement if the backstop is removed has been to reject it out of hand. But there are still 68 days to go before the UK is due to leave the EU and if the EU’s resolve wavers between now and then, Boris’s high-risk strategy could come back to haunt him. Reading Martin Howe’s evisceration of the Withdrawal Agreement, one is reminded of Jerome K Jerome’s visit to the doctor in Three Men in a Boat. Rather than explaining that he was suffering from the symptoms of pretty much every disease known to mankind, J found it easier to tell his doctor the one thing that was not wrong with him: housemaid’s knee.

So after months of prevarication, Labour have announced that they will back a second referendum under any circumstances and will campaign for Remain to stop a 'no deal or a damaging Tory Brexit'. The reaction has dismayed Labour MPs in vulnerable Leave-leaning seats, but delighted Nigel Farage. Indeed, the decision has played perfectly into the Brexit party's strategy of targeting working-class voters in the North and Midlands. Three months ago, many assumed that a Tory wipe-out at the next election was inevitable. But now the tables are turned and it is difficult to see anything but electoral doom for Labour. The Brexit party will surely siphon off Leave voters in Labour’s industrial heartlands.

Project Fear is back after a seasonal break. Far from resolving anything, Theresa May’s decision to delay Brexit back in the spring simply kicked the can down the road, frustrating companies who invested scarce resources into getting ready for a 31st March departure. Damaging as the decision to delay Brexit was, the silver lining is that seven months’ on, the UK is likely to be in a much better position to cope with the no-deal fall out. You wouldn’t know if it you listened to the CBI who continue to churn out “no-deal” scare stories. Or if you read the civil service memo apparently “leaked” to the media, explaining that the UK needs at least another five months to be ready for “no deal”.