FACE mask U-turns, the income gap and lockdown television were the topics discussed by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Independent

Andrew Grice said Conservative MPs were tearing their hair out at the number of coronavirus U-turns performed by Government ministers.

“The most recent is the guidance on whether pupils should wear face coverings in communal areas in England’s secondary schools,” he said. “Hours after fellow ministers told us masks were not necessary, Gavin Williamson performed a handbrake turn. The same education secretary informed us he would not U-turn over exam grades, and then did.”

He said MPs saw an obvious pattern - namely that ministers said the science said it was not necessary to do X.

“Then Nicola Sturgeon announces the Scottish government is doing it to keep people safe.,” he said. “Labour sees which way the wind is blowing and says it has been calling for X all along, renewing its (deserved) charge of government incompetence. Ministers in London deny they are planning a U-turn. Then they perform one, hiding behind a different and more convenient bit of scientific advice.”

Grice has counted 12 U-turns so far, he said.

“The lack of a consistent message on coronavirus since “stay at home” leaves the public confused about the constantly-changing rules, as well as vital workers such as heads and teachers on the front line,” he said. “The next policy U-turn should and probably will be on Rishi Sunak’s furlough scheme. The chancellor is adamant that it will end in October. [But]we are nowhere near the other side yet. The furlough bridge is as vital as ever.”

The Guardian

Richard Wilkinson, emeritus professor of public health at the University of Nottingham, said successive governments had failed to address the issue of the widening death rates between unskilled workers and professionals, something that came to his attention as a research student in the 1970s.

“The gap in life expectancy between people living in the most and least deprived 10% of areas in England now stands at over seven years for women and over nine years for men,” he said. “The coronavirus pandemic has thrown these inequalities into sharp relief. It is the poor, those living in deprived areas, and people of black, Asian or minority ethnic status who have suffered the worst of Covid-19.”

He said the experiences of low social status and racism were deeply stigmatising.

“The coronavirus pandemic has again exposed our health and economic inequalities, just as the death of George Floyd again exposed the awfulness of racism,” he added. “It is good that current public debate is turning to the possibilities of “building back better” rather than simply returning to the status quo.

“The picture could hardly be simpler: almost all the problems that we know are related to social status within our society get worse when status differences are increased. If we want a less dysfunctional society and a healthier population, building back better means addressing the scourge of income inequality.”

The Scotsman

Martyn McLaughlin said that, due to the halt in film and television production in lockdown, ‘beige stodge’ was beginning to fill the gaps in the tv schedule.

“A case in point is the once hallowed Saturday night primetime slot on BBC One, where ‘Total Wipeout: Freddy & Paddy Takeover’ is currently halfway through its run,” he said. “In total, it amounts to just six episodes, but it already feels like it has been going on longer than the Ottoman empire.

The programme - a repurposed It’s A Knockout gameshow - plunged new depths ‘in the dark days of lockdown.’

“Its format has been exhumed, with the death rattle drollery of Paddy McGuinness and Freddy Flintoff dubbed over the original soundtrack of old episodes,” he said.

“The duo, each armed with a microphone and a laptop, recorded their partly scripted barbs in separate booths in a voiceover studio. The results of this hermetically sealed banter harvest are about as nourishing you might expect.”

A small glimmer of light exists in Limmy’s Homemade Show, he said - which demonstrated that, ‘with the right talent and concept, it is possible to make memorable television without a crew, a studio, or for that matter, a budget’.