International aid and an inspiring pair

Ian Goldin, professor of globalisation and development at Oxford University, warned how Covid-19 was the biggest disaster for developing nations ‘in our lifetime.’

For some, like Uganda which only has 55 intensive care beds for a population of 35 million, it is unthinkable.

“No poor country could afford the economic safety net that is currently sustaining citizens and companies here in the UK,” he said. “Poorer people are at greater risk of catching the virus and are more likely to suffer the worst effects of an economic shock.”

More than a third of all jobs and income in Africa could be lost, he said, with the vast majority of people living in countries in sub-Saharan Africa employed in the informal sector and receiving no unemployment, sickness or other benefits.

“There is the question of how countries will cope with the coming medical emergency,” he added. “In South Africa, for example, it is expected that the pandemic peak will only be reached in September, but incomes have already shrunk due to a lockdown that was announced before the UK’s and is every bit as stringent as that in Italy.”

He called for international support, which has been lacking, he said, as the US ‘turns its back on the world’ and the UK is too preoccupied with its own crisis.

“We need a global Marshall plan that would write off of the $44bn in debt due by African countries in 2020 and give at least $2.5tn in aid to poor countries,” he said “If there is one lesson Covid-19 has taught us, it is how interconnected our lives are. In the case of Covid-19, if one country is a pandemic hotspot, we’re all at risk of reinfection.”

The Scotsman

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard hoped the reconvening of the Scottish Parliament - obeying social distancing rules - would ‘usher in a new phase of heightened accountability and greater openness.’

He said the national emergency was ‘all the more reason for an intensification rather than a dilution of parliamentary scrutiny.’

“That means members of the Scottish Parliament from all parties should have access to fully question Government ministers who are running the country during these most extraordinary of times,” he said. “Everywhere around there is mounting pressure to restart the economy. For me the choice is clear. Put simply, people’s lives and well-being must be placed ahead of business considerations.”

He said those putting themselves most at risk during the pandemic - those working in care, for example, and stacking shelves supermarkets - are already those on lower wages, even zero hours contracts.

“So the parliamentary scrutiny which we now need is about ensuring that the real-lived experiences of people have an influential bearing on the decisions made by both governments,” he argued. “It is about ensuring that the maximum level of income support goes to those who need it. But it is also about the ethics of how we treat our elderly and infirm in the face of this pandemic. Everyone must have an equal right of access to treatment, dignity and respect and so the chance of life itself.”

The Daily Express

Stephen Pollard admitted there ‘wasn’t much to cheer about at the moment’ but, at a time when anyone over 70 is deemed especially vulnerable, he said, there was a ‘wonderful irony that the two people who have done most to bring us together are both in their 90s.’

“Captain Tom Moore, the war veteran who captivated the nation over the weekend with his fund-raising walk for the NHS, is a scarcely believable 99,” he said “But when it comes to the scarcely believable, nothing comes close to the fact that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is 94 today.”

Just over two weeks ago she spoke to the nation - and the world - about the pandemic.

“There is no one else on the planet who could have talked as she did, with the history she has lived through and been part of, and with the respect she has earned from a life devoted to service and duty,” he said. “We are so lucky to have her and all the more so at a time of national crisis.”