THE future of pantomimes, why we must save the arts sector post Covid-19 and the difficulty of social distancing with restricted vision were the topics covered by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Baz Bamigboye said 'the showman' behind pantomimes made it clear that unless the Government was clearer about opening theatres it looked like this year?s season would be called off.

Pantomime is the subsidy for many theatres, he said, with no Government funding.

"Such a calamity would bring about 'the loss of thousands of jobs ' and millions of pounds to the treasury", he said. "Michael Harrison, who controls his own production company and is co-owner of Qdos Entertainment (the UK's biggest panto producers), said many regional theatres, including some in Greater London, depend on profits from their Xmas shows to sustain them throughout the year."

Bamigboye said that, due to its popularity, pantomime was like Britain's 'national theatre.'

"The panto community needs clarity, so it can plan for December," he said.

He said Harrison claimed the Government was keeping theatres 'in the dark' and said the industry needed clear guidelines.

"Ominously, he said that unless Government provides answers soon, 'theatres just won't be able to open for Christmas'."

The Guardian

Polly Toynbee said we are entering a new era of mass unemployment, with thousands more redundancies announced every day.

"The shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, has called on the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to slow the pace of withdrawing support or risk wasting the job-saving good done by furloughing so far," she said. "The Treasury view is that paying for 9.2 million workers can't last forever, so there's no point in propping up businesses that won't survive - so shake out zombies that were staggering even before the pandemic hit."

She argued that the most 'calamitous error' was to impose a one-size-fits-all retreat from job support, where the Treasury makes no distinction between failing companies and highly profitable thriving sectors closed only by virus diktat.

She said the performing arts, theatres across the land, were closed only because they are banned from opening. Otherwise, they are one of the 'world beating high earners' for the Treasury.

"When even Cameron Mackintosh - the West End impresario of Hamilton, Mary Poppins and other blockbusters - cancels all of his moneyspinners until next year, warning he's about to take 'drastic steps' with mass layoffs, the government should take fright," she said.

She said the industry needed the Government to invest in it, to take shares and give tax relief.

"Failure to back the arts is madness when the UK's future is in its booming film, TV, theatre, music, gaming and design industries, only dark due to the virus. None of that can leap back to life if venues have been allowed to go bankrupt and talent has fled elsewhere," she said.

The Scotsman

Mark O?Donnell, chief executive, Royal Blind and Scottish War Blinded, said that amidst all the optimistic talk of getting back to normal, very little has been said about those who will not have a new normal thanks to social distancing - the thousands of blind and partially sighted people in Scotland.

"If you can't see who is around you, maintaining a distance of two metres from anyone else is simply not possible," he said. "This makes getting out and about very difficult for people living with sight loss, and has made shopping, using public transport, and even accessing public areas extremely challenging."

He said things like the new cycle lanes to encourage people to cycle to work caused problems, as blind and partially sighted people weren't aware of them. There were also reports of some being subjected to hate crime, he said.

Blind and partially sighted people are also twice as likely to be out of work, before you factor in the pandemic.

"We all have a role to play to ensure this unprecedented situation does not become overwhelming for our blind and partially sighted citizens," he said.

"We can achieve this if we are guided by kindness in our interactions with others as we all deal with social distancing, and if our government and public agencies are conscious of the need to do far more to protect the rights of disabled people."