Blocking sick pay at a paltry £95.85 a week for travellers ordered by the Government to quarantine without wages illustrates just how out of touch Boris Johnson continues to be.
What does a privileged Prime Minister expect them to live on: thin air?
Many holidaymakers who saved up and spent their money on a summer trip to Spain don’t have Johnson’s riches.
So when he’s instructing them to stay at home, surely the PM’s under a moral as well as a practical obligation to give financial support?
Folk may feel pressured into flouting the rules by heading to work, putting others at risk.
The sudden imposition on travellers returning from Spain, including the Balearics and Canary Islands with low virus rates, is itself questionable when the UK’s own policy is local not national lockdowns.
Without compensation, the pain from Spain will be ignored in Britain by the penniless.
Tax the giants
Imposing an online sales tax could force the Amazons, Facebooks and Googles of footloose international capitalism to play nice and raise funds for vital public services.
Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak must reel in big corporations without imposing extra costs on small businesses – a 2% rate that might extract a handy £2billion from US corporations contributing relatively little to the country in which they ring up vast profits.
Tilting the balance back in favour of high streets, as absent shoppers do their utmost to avoid the virus, must be a priority or the heart will be ripped out of communities.
We want an online sales tax that is fair.
Plenty of pluck
Nando's plan to feed its chickens on algae and insect-based bird feed to lower carbon emissions is a feather in its cap.
Should the switch ruffle customers’ feathers, an extra dollop of the chain’s famous spicy sauce will make them peri unlikely to moan.
