COVID anger and the threat to Christmas and public freedom were the issues debated by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.
The Daily Express
Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute, Kings College, said we went into the pandemic back in March united as a nation and a ‘we’re all in this together’ feeling.
“But as the pandemic has dragged on, tensions have surfaced,” he said. “Many are becoming angry, frustrated and resentful – and it’s having a very real impact on people’s relationships. King’s College London and Ipsos MORI found more than half the population say they’ve felt angry with people they know because of how they’ve behaved during the crisis, with nearly a quarter having argued with family or friends.”
He said they found one in 12 were no longer speaking to a family member or friend because of disagreements about the pandemic, and that was taking a toll on their mental health.
Others have argued with strangers over how close they were standing to others, he said.
“This highlights how we’re no longer all in it together in the fight against the virus,” he pointed out. “The vast majority of people understand the threat we face and the sacrifices that need to be made, but a significant section of the population have a very different view of the risks from Covid-19.”
However, it wasn’t all bad news, he said, with many reporting feeling closer to friends, family and neighbours due to Covid 19.
“As we enter a winter period in which the rules look set to tighten, the challenge for the government is to somehow rekindle the community spirit and sense of collective responsibility we saw earlier in the year. The anger and resentment seen in our study suggests they have their work cut out.”
The Daily Mail
Stephen Glover said Christmas, eight weeks today, was ‘a moment of truth.’
“Is it really tenable, Boris should be asking himself, to curtail people’s freedom to celebrate the festival with their families?,” he asked. “Under Tier One, the ‘rule of six’ makes a normal Christmas challenging. Tiers Two and Three make it impossible. So, of course, would a lockdown or circuit breaker.”
He said even a short lockdown now, to try and ‘clear the decks’ for Christmas, would destroy more jobs.
“In his heart Boris surely knows it is wrong for any government to interfere with people’s lives so that they can’t spend it with those they love.” he added. “And he probably also agrees that, as it is a Christian festival, people should be allowed to go to church to give thanks for the birth of Jesus, if that is what they want to do.
“Predictions are perilous, but I suspect that if Boris Johnson caves into pressure from secularly-minded scientists, and cancels Christmas, he will not be forgiven by millions of people.”
He said we couldn’t continue down the path of intermittent lockdowns.
“I fear that over the coming weeks the Prime Minister will respond to the grim daily toll of rising deaths and higher infection rates by edging ever closer to another national lockdown, which will wreck Christmas,” he said. “And not only Christmas.”
The Guardian
Martin Kettle said the Prime Minister and his cabinet were foolishly speeding to a Christmas car crash.
“Britain’s surging rate of second-wave Covid cases is getting out of control,” he said. “The test-and-trace system is failing. Coronavirus restrictions across Britain are a confusing tangle. Unless he is extremely lucky, Johnson is hurtling towards an unwanted choice between imposing a Christmas lockdown and permitting a Christmas viral explosion in the population.”
He said it was ridiculous that England had a three tier system and Scotland a five while Wales has a national lockdown.
“Standardised tiers would definitely be more understandable to the public, who are increasingly saying they are confused about the rules,” he argued. “
“No British politician, least of all Johnson, is going to do an Oliver Cromwell and cancel Christmas, and nor should they. Civil disobedience would inevitably follow on a daunting scale.
“All the same, Christmas 2020 is a public health disaster waiting to happen unless the authorities raise their game, and do it together. This issue cannot be put off. “
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here