LOCKDOWN secrets, the cost of the shutdown and the role of carers in Covid were the topics debated by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Sarah Vine said a lot had been written this week about a year in lockdown.

“No doubt in years to come academics and scientists will pore over the data and a clear picture will emerge of the social, economic and psychological effects,” she said. “For now it’s hard to tell. We are too close to the epicentre of the impact to see the true scale of the devastation.”

She said an artist in London had compiled ‘postcards from the edge’ - she invited her followers on Instagram to share their experiences of life in lockdown.

From confessions about not wearing a bra for three months, to pretending to go for a jog but eating pizza on a park bench, and eating entire packs of Angel Delights, the ‘secrets’ of lockdown living are revealed.

“As well as being a unique snapshot of a bewildering moment in time, it’s a collection of our deepest thoughts as humans, filled with wit, sincerity, honesty — and more than a hint of sadness,” she said.

The Daily Express

Jamie Walden, author of The Cult of Covid: How Lockdown Destroyed Britain, said the hidden human costs of our reaction to Covid-19 led him to want to explore the damage being done to our society.

“The economy has been given a more savage shock than it has experienced in over three centuries,” he said. “A gigantic surge of unemployment and lower living standards are waiting patiently for us .The repealing of our ancient civil liberties is the “most significant interference with personal freedom in the history of our country” according to the former Supreme Court Justice Lord Sumption.

“The more people who realise that the damage done by many of the interventions should be regarded as unpalatable and the benefits illusory, the more likely we are to salvage something from this crisis and do better for the vulnerable next time.”

The Guardian

Gaby Hinsliff said Kate Garraway’s documentary about her husband’s battle with Covid had brought the ‘unglamorous business of caring’ - with wheelchair ramps and hospital-grade beds and awkward conversations about the changed dynamics of one’s marriage and all – into the light.

Boris Johnson signalled this week that his long-trailed plans for social care reforms might finally surface in the Queen’s speech in May, she said.

“The public debate can’t just be about how we all pay for nursing homes in our old age, however vexed that question has become,” she said.

“There has to be a proper safety net for those who end up caring much earlier on in life too, and provision for the permanent scars Covid-19 will leave on some families. Garraway was brave enough to start a candid conversation about a subject that is all too often hurriedly glossed over. Let’s not end it there.”