POSITIVITY, proximity to others and stopping the brain drain were the issues raised by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.
The Daily Mail
Henry Deedes watched the latest Downing Street press conference on Monday afternoon and said the message from Boris Johnson was clear - ‘Britain, we are go for landing.’
“For once a bit of positivity was pinging around the briefing room walls,” he said. “As of Monday, cinemas will reopen. So too will hotels, hostels and bed and breakfast establishments. Families can hug and kiss once more. Frankly, I’m not sure even the most busybody Covid marshals were ever going to stop them, but there you go. “
He said the Prime Minister was pleased to say we were nearing a time when we don’t have to rely on detailed Government edicts, and make our own decisions’.
“In other words, when he no longer has to dole out jackboot instructions. Being bossy feels about as natural to him as a diet of tofu and quinoa.”
The Daily Express
Vanessa Feltz confessed to ‘half snuggling’ her grandchildren recently.
“Can you believe on Monday next the portals to real life swing open?,” she asked. “Are we even able to imagine ourselves cuddling with impunity? Have we become so used to straitened behaviour, reining in our sociable urges and curbing our enthusiasm that we have stiffened and formalised our conduct irreversibly? Lord I hope not.”
She said it was difficult to stop a determined two year old from planting a kiss on your face when he wanted to.
“The glad tidings are promising. On Monday next this green and pleasant land should be a kissing free-for-all. If you’re looking for a columnist presaging gloom and ranting how un-British hugging is, I am not she. I’m so starved of a kiss, cuddle and a squeeze I would uproariously embrace every one of you.”
The Guardian
Simon Jenkins said the Prime Minister ‘bitten by Covid’s big spending bug’ was announcing a new campaign to “stop the brain drain” from northern cities.
“His mayoral obsession with office towers and foreign-owned luxury flats, prodded by his property consultant aide, Eddie Lister, has left London littered with empty skyscrapers,” he said. “Huge numbers of office workers will simply vanish to home working. “
He said t he age of home working and home shopping now requires a deep reappraisal of the city of the future.
“Dispersal from London may be in the national interest. Johnson’s mere dispersal of housing across the English landscape is not. It means more cars, more roads, more infrastructure and more fragmented, less diverse communities.
“At the very least, the essential re-urbanisation of the north needs thought, not political gimmicks.”
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