Top story: bumper £300m week for hospitality sector
Morning everyone. I’m Martin Farrer and the daily briefing is open for business.
Boris Johnson is urging people to “behave responsibly” as England takes a major step towards the resumption of normal life with the partial reopening today of pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops after an almost four-month lockdown. As the UK reported its lowest daily death toll from Covid-19 since September, the prime minister declared the easing of restrictions would be “a major step” but he warned people to “continue to behave responsibly and remember “hands, face, space and fresh air” to suppress Covid. Drinking in pub beer gardens and alfresco dining in restaurants and cafes is permitted from today, along with trips to hairdressers, nail salons, department stores, zoos and theme parks. The hospitality industry is forecast to see £314m spent in venues this week alone as consumers release pent-up demand for what Johnson called the “thing we love and have missed”. Some rules are also set to be relaxed in Wales from today, although pubs stay shut, while the “stay at home” order in Northern Ireland will also be partially lifted.
Despite the UK administering nearly 40m doses of Covid vaccines so far, one of Johnson’s predecessors, Gordon Brown, has warned that the G7 group of rich nations must intervene to prevent poor countries suffering vaccine “apartheid”. In a comment piece for the Guardian, Brown says the UK must push for a £22bn global immunisation drive when it hosts the G7 summit in June.
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Cameron breaks silence – David Cameron has accepted that he should have acted differently and used only the “most formal” channels when he lobbied ministers for government help to save the now collapsed financial firm Greensill Capital. The former prime minister, who was on the Greensill board, said he had acted within the code of conduct but conceded that sending text messages to chancellor Rushi Sunak left his actions open to “misinterpretation”. Cameron would have benefited financially if the firm had avoided bankruptcy.
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Minneapolis protests – Protests have broken out near Minneapolis after a black man was shot dead by police at a traffic stop. Relatives said Daunte Wright was shot in Brooklyn Center on the outskirts of the Minnesota city on Sunday afternoon before he got back into his car and drove away, crashing a few blocks later. Tensions are running high amid the trial of former policeman Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd in the city last year.
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Terror inquest – The inquests into the stabbing of two people in the 2019 London Bridge terrorist attack will open today with security forces facing questions over how they failed to stop a convicted terrorist out on licence with an electronic tag. Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were killed by Usman Khan as they hosted a prisoner rehabilitation conference at Fishmongers Hall in November 2019.
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Bafta Nomads – Nomadland scooped four big prizes at last night’s Baftas in a pointer to possible Oscar success for Chloé Zhao’s film about ageing van-dwellers cast adrift in the US. In a night marked by sporadic in-person appearances and a glut of virtual ones, Zhao popped up on a screen to accept her gong for best director, and Frances McDormand won best actress for her role in the film’s lead. It also won best film. Anthony Hopkins led the British winners with best actor for The Father while first-time writer/director Emerald Fennell won original screenplay for Promising Young Woman. Here is the full list of winners, while Peter Bradshaw celebrates the success of women directors.
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Black jobs crisis – The black youth unemployment rate was the same in the last quarter of 2020 as around the time of the Brixton riots in the early 1980s, according to analysis of official figures, as the community was hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic-driven recession. More than 40% of young black people were out of work, a figure three times worse than for white workers of the same age (12.4%).
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Royal ‘void’ – Prince Harry has arrived back in the UK from his home in Los Angeles and will quarantine for five days so that he can attend the funeral of Prince Philip on Saturday, according to unconfirmed newspaper reports. As Harry reportedly landed back at Heathrow on Sunday afternoon, Prince Andrew revealed that his father’s death has left a “huge void” in the Queen’s life. MPs have been recalled to Westminster and the devolved assemblies to pay tribute to the duke today, but the BBC has been forced to take down an online form about its coverage after complaints hit a peak.
Today in Focus podcast
In April 1981, a simmering tension between the police and Brixton’s black community erupted in violence. Forty years on, Aamna Modhin revisits that weekend with those who witnessed the events unfolding.
Lunchtime read: Moby: ‘I was an out-of-control addict’
After the PR disaster of his second memoir, Moby vowed to disappear from public view for a while. But now he’s back with a no-holds-barred documentary on his tumultuous upbringing, as well as a new album. There’s certainly lots to ponder, including sleeping through his mother’s funeral because he was drunk (“a therapist might find something they could work on there”). And that’s before interviewer Tim Jonze asks him about the Natalie Portman controversy …
Sport
Hideki Matsuyama held his nerve to become the first Asian player to don a Green Jacket and the only male Japanese golfer to win a major. José Mourinho diverted attention from Tottenham’s diminishing hopes of Champions League qualification after their 3-1 home defeat by Manchester United by attacking Ole Gunnar Solskjær over claims that Son Heung-min had conned the referee into disallowing a goal. Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Sheffield United was certainly welcome for Mikel Arteta, while the most relieved boss was probably Newcastle’s Steve Bruce after his team’s 2-1 win over Burnley was their first since February.
On a weekend when a female jockey made history at Aintree, England moved a few more lengths clear in the two-horse race that is the Women’s Six Nations, beating Italy 67-3 in Parma to stay on course to meet France on Saturday week in a play-off for the 2021 championship. Scotland’s defensive mastermind Steve Tandy has emerged as a leading candidate to join the British & Irish Lions coaching staff with Warren Gatland forced into a late rethink for the tour to South Africa. Bordeaux-Bègles are through to the Champions Cup semi-finals for the first time after the kicking of Matthieu Jalibert secured them a dramatic 24-21 victory against Racing 92 at Stade Chaban-Delmas.
Business
London has displaced New York and Hong Kong as the number one destination for buyers of “super-prime” luxury homes. Knight Frank says 201 properties costing more than $10m (£7.3m) were sold in the capital last year, a rise of 3%. The FTSE100 is set to open down 0.3% this morning, while the pound is down at $1.367 and €1.150.
The papers
Most papers focus on the royal family’s mourning of Prince Philip. The Telegraph splashes on “Queen says Duke’s death has left a huge void in her life”, which is a line also favoured by the Express – “Stoic Queen: huge void in my life” – and the Times: “Philip’s death ‘has left a huge void’ in Queen’s life”. The Sun is interested in Prince Harry’s return to the UK for the funeral: “Dash Harry”. The Mail uses Sophie, Countess of Wessex’s description of the duke’s last moments as its main headline: “It was so gentle, like someone took him by the hand and off he went”. The Mirror also likes that line although it splashes on the easing of lockdown rules: “Open day”. The i says “Caution urged as shutters come up”.
The Guardian leads with “Young black people three times as likely to be jobless as white peers”, and also features an exclusive interview with Nicola Sturgeon in which she claims the British government won’t block another independence referendum if the SNP sweeps the board at next month’s elections. The Scotsman also focuses on that issue – “Union at risk from Whitehall ‘complacency’ to devolution” – as does the National: “Top Tories want Indyref during pandemic in bid to beat yes”. The FT has “China to mix and match jabs after worries over homegrown vaccines”.
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