Andy Richardson: Rushing home? Should have gone to Scotland like Boris
The weekend is over and it’s been two days of chaos for holidaymakers.
New travel restrictions on Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago mean travellers have been rushing home before quarantine rules kick into place. They should have followed in Boris’s footsteps and booked themselves a camping trip to Scotland.
The number of Covid cases in France, Italy, South Korea and Spain is increasing to the highest levels since spring. It signposts what is in store for us should we miss the warning signs this time around.
There are those who say an effective track and trace system may help in the fight against Covid. Ha, what do they know? Our over-funded, catch-one-miss-one, over-promise-and-under-deliver-system is world beating. Isn’t it?
There is disappointment among office workers who rushed out last week to buy masks after Health Secretary Matt Hancock said they definitely would not be introduced to working environments. Expecting another U-turn, sales soared, but remarkably Hancock’s pronouncement has held true.
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Instead, it is the turn of university admissions tutors to fall into disarray as they struggle to put right the wrongs of Gavin Williamson’s Education Department. It now appears middle class kids, rather than working class kids, will miss out as youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds are prioritised for scarce university places. The idea of equality for all seems not to have arisen.
Homelessness is expected to follow joblessness with soaring numbers. A ban on evictions in England and Wales came to an end at the weekend and landlords who’ve been unable to move out non-paying tenants are heading to the courts. While we were able to fix the homeless problem during the worst months of Covid, it looks set to worsen just as summer turns to autumn. More than 170,000 people have been threatened with eviction since March.
A green revolution is one of the key hopes to get our economy started. Yet Environment Agency Chief Executive Sir James Bevan has suggested weakening rules driving the clean-up or rivers. Such high standards are water under the bridge now that we’ve left the EU.
The diplomatic row between the USA and New Zealand appears to have run out of steam. Donald ‘person, woman, man, camera, TV’ Trump had lambasted NZ’s failings. Which is funny, because Jacinda Ardern’s island nation has been the world’s best and Trump’s rudderless country the world’s worst.
