Lifting lockdown and learning lessons

Stephen Glover said Boris Johnson had not looked as cheerful for a long time as he did in the Commons on Tuesday.

“Boris is a good-news man who hated imposing the lockdown and depriving us of our ancient liberties. I fear his dilly-dallying gave Covid-19 more time to spread,” he said. “Yesterday he was able to restore a fair portion of what he had taken away, which was why he looked so buoyant and jovial.”

Glover doubted whether a one metre distance rule would be observed in opubs when they reopen on July 4 and questioned whether people would be willing to hand over their contact details to owners.

“There was one unforgivable omission: schools. They won’t be fully up and running until September at the earliest,” he said. “Isn’t it shameful that pubs and restaurants will open in England at least two months before the institutions charged with educating our children?”

He warned that, even with the current mood of optimism, we are not the same country as the one that went into lockdown three months ago.

“What Boris didn’t say is that the measures he announced yesterday are emergency dressings being applied to a traumatised economy,” he said. “Nobody can know whether they will be enough to revive the patient.

“We can only be sure that, if the Government hadn’t acted, the outlook for many businesses would have been terminal.”

The Daily Express

Professor Karol Sikora said he had always been optimistic that we could return to some form of normality.

“There is no doubt that we are now moving out of lockdown fast,” he said. “A second wave is always possible, but nothing has been seen so far in the first countries to come out of lockdown, such as Austria and Denmark.

“As I always say, we should prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.”

He said the small things such as going to the pub to meet friends for a pint or getting a haircut would make a big difference in lifting people’s spirits.

“Cutting the two-metre rule is great news,” he added. “Readers will know I have long pushed for that. The World Health Organisation have recommended it throughout. It’s so essential for businesses and the transport system to get things moving that drive the economy.”

He said it was important people kept their distance and continued to wash their hands.

“I was always hopeful summer would feel a lot more like normal than was feared, but this progress will only continue if we all play our part,” he said.

The Guardian

Martin Kettle examined the responses taken by the UK and Germany to coronavirus.

“In the larger pandemic picture the difference between Planets Britain and Germany remains vast,” he said. “ On June 23 in Britain 42,927 people had died from the virus. In Germany the figure on the same day stood at 8,895 deaths.Tthe current death rate per 100,000 people [in the UK] stands at 64.27. In Germany, the rate is 10.73.”

The difference, he said, was stunning.

“One underlying reason is that the UK’s health spending level per head of $4,000 is only approximately two-thirds that of Germany,” he said. “Another more immediate one is that Germany was much quicker to lock down.”

Overall, he said, Germany was much better prepared, both in terms of the state and industry.

“Contact tracing was also well developed across the German health system before the pandemic and was able to swing into action straightaway,” he said, and pointed out that Germany was conducting 160,000 tests a week in March when Britain had abandoned it.

“Why can’t Britain do things more like Germany?,” he asked and pointed out that David Lloyd George had gone to Germany in 1908 to find out about their social welfare system.

“The most urgent lesson for Britain will be to grasp its need to learn seriously from others if we are to ensure improved national resilience against the inevitable next threat. That lesson applies with just as much, if not more, force in economics and politics. Many other nations get this. Modern Britain does not.”