As coronavirus continues to claim its victims editorials look at the spread of it and and source, while other media seem to be concerned over taxes and the future of the BBC.
The Daily Telegraph
It's editorial says the coronavirus spread brings the slaughter of wild animals into question.
"Confirmation that the number of deaths attributed to coronavirus has overtaken the fatalities caused by Sars in 2003 is a further indication that China was too slow to get on top of this virus.
"It is known that Li Wenliang, a doctor who identified the new strain, was admonished by local authorities for "scaremongering", thereby delaying a response. Dr Li has since died from the virus, contracted while treating patients in Wuhan, the source of the outbreak.
"This is indicative of a society in which experts are dissuaded from speaking out for fear that it will redound to the discredit of the local region and its administration.
"There is another cultural issue that needs to be tackled as a matter of urgency and that is the sale and slaughter of wild animals in markets. Scientists are now working on the possibility that coronavirus was passed to humans from the pangolin, or scaly anteater, an endangered badger-like animal that is smuggled into China in its thousands from Africa.While it has not been confirmed, pangolins should not be on sale at all. They are a protected species, yet are believed to be the world's most trafficked animal, accounting for 20 per cent of total trade."
The Daily Mail
Jane Fryer defends the rights of the pangolin in her column. She said it might be Prince William's favourite beast, but will never win in a beauty contest.
She says: "It is also the most trafficked animal in the world and is now critically endangered.
"They need all the help they can get. Because illicit hunting continues to flourish and, at current rates of attrition, the species could be wiped out within five to ten years. While many pangolins are killed, skinned and frozen before being traded on the black market (often hidden among fish and snake skins), others are kept alive and force-fed gravel to increase their weight and, therefore, value."
The Times
Magnus Linklater in his column said it was the Scottish tax rate that grabbed his attention in last week's budget.
He said: "What I wanted to know as I listened to the youthful Kate Forbes spelling out the government's financial intentions was how much more I had paid as a Scottish resident than I would have I had lived in England. Reader, it is not a small amount - £880, to be precise.
"I don't pretend for a moment that this extra burden is enough for me to up sticks and move across the border, to Alnwick, perhaps, or Dunstable. It is more about the direction of travel, and the message it sends out about what kind of country Scotland wants to be. I sit at about the middle of the range but if I were, say, chief executive of an up-and-coming company I would, according to figures published by the Fraser of Allander Institute, be paying £1,700 more than if I lived in England. If I were a senior air traffic controller the extra would be £2,200 or more, at which point I might decide to set my wings farther south."
The Guardian
Nesrine Malik writes in her column on the merits of the BBC.
She says: "Those who advocate for the elimination of public services, because of the rise and success of private providers that do something marginally similar, fail to understand that the BBC needs to remain a public service because there is more competition, not in spite of it. Competition creates a race to the bottom, cutting everything that doesn't cover its costs.
"I was exposed to a different BBC when I moved to the UK - a more inward looking but no less ambitious broadcaster than its World Service channels. Through it came an initiation into British pop culture, humour and debate. With that initiation came the more intimate relationship of being a licence fee-paying stakeholder. And so the pleasure of being able to switch on the radio in the morning and listen ad-free, to the prime minister being grilled on the Today programme, came a frustration with the tone of the debate about the future of the BBC, a despair at what had became a less thoughtful, more pugilistic debating culture."
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