Obey your rules, Boris
Shameless Boris Johnson has built a career on flouting rules so alarm bells go off when he, two political aides and six Tory MPs have to self-isolate.
It raises questions about social distancing in his Downing Street meeting, particularly when the PM didn’t appear to be two metres from virus-infected Ashfield MP Lee Anderson.
Should the meeting have been held in the first place?
We’re not all in this together when Britain’s workers and ethnic minority communities are more likely to die from Covid-19. But we must all obey the rules to slow its spread.
On the upside the ordering of five million doses of the Moderna vaccine, judged to be 95% effective, is encouraging light in the gloom, reinforcing hopes the virus can be beaten so normal life resumes.
If only Britain was led by a competent, responsible Prime Minister.
Roads to ruin
Charging drivers to use roads, whether per mile or with vast extension of tolls, would hit those on lower and middle incomes hardest.
It would also puncture the Tory’s own myth that they are low taxers.
The Treasury already takes plenty.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak will collect £27.5billion in fuel duty this year and another £5.7bn in VAT on petrol and diesel.
And that’s before other charges, including road tax.
Any Chancellor raising taxes fairly would put them up for the highest earners, not drivers already watching decent living standards vanish in their rear view mirrors.
Corrie on Ken
Coronation Street’s sole surviving resident from 60 years ago is Ken Barlow, played by Bill Roache.
For oldies among us it feels the blink of an eye since Annie Walker ran The Rovers Return and the likes of Elsie Tanner and Ena Sharples walked the cobbles with a then young Barlow.
We grew up in Weatherfield, too.
