Britons need ‘bit of hope’ from government about return to normality, says Tory MP
Last night Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt
Some members believe the lockdown needs to be relaxed after the first week of May.
“If we don’t do that we really will see thousands of businesses go under,” one 3084 member told BBC Newsnight.
As a first step, gardening centers and DIY stores should open immediately. they suggested.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown , treasurer of the committee, made the same argument in an interview on the Today program this morning. Stressing that he was speaking in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of the committee, he said:
We need to start this discussion about how we get back to normality.
Whatever we do needs to be done gradually, but I think that we could, when the figures start to stabilize a bit more … we could begin to think about what are the next steps on a step- by-step basis to begin to get back to normality.
We’ve got to think about the number of businesses, particularly small businesses, that unless they get some form of indication when they might be able to get back into business, that they are actually likely to cease trading . Every business that ceases trading is a job or more than one lost.
We have to, on behalf of the businesses of this country, begin to give them a little bit of hope as to when we might be able to get back to normality.
Ben Quinn
Decades of “systematic discrimination” and “racial segregation” has left BME healthcare workers with less autonomy and bearing a disproportionate burden of the risk from Covid – a senior NHS nurse and diversity champion has said.
Carol Cooper, head of equality, diversity and human rights at Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS, said:
The failure to address stark inequities in the workforce and racial segregation is what has put those workers at the front lines with less autonomy than others and literally having to be there at the cliff face.
Speaking to the Nursing Times last week, she spotlighted how BME nurses and healthcare assistants felt they were being picked to work on coronavirus wards more so than their white colleagues.
BME staff feel that they are being put on Covid wards and exposed to patients with Covid over and above their colleagues.
She told the Guardian she spoke up because while people felt it needed to be said, they are often fearful or raising these issues. She said there was also a fear of a “well, everybody is dying” response.
Cooper, who comes from a public health background, called for a ‘center for BME health’ – a model which exists in the US – that would look at variances and make sure communities were represented in the treatments and research.
While accepting that there were co-morbidities in certain communities, she described recent conversations about the role of vitamin D deficiency
in BME healthcare workers’ deaths as a “red herring.” She said:
You cannot, as has been the case, adopt a color neutral approach and then, when people are dying pull it out and say: ‘oh it’s because of your Vitamin D’.
If it’s because of our Vitamin D then there has been negligence in not ensuring that people were prescribed adequate doses before. It’s a red herring. The fact is that systemic discrimination over a period decades is that puts us in the position we are in.
As for the government failure to record and publish real-time data on the ethnicity of Covid – 37 patients , Cooper said it was clear that Public Health England and the ONS had decided in the past that race was not an issue.
We are now in a position where they are scrambling backwards to try to marry the ethnicity data to the mortality and morbidity data.
Tony Lloyd, the Labor MP and shadow Northern Ireland secretary, is out of intensive care, he announced last night. Lloyd, who is , was admitted to Manchester Royal Infirmary three weeks ago after falling ill with coronavirus. Faisal Rana , a councillor in Lloyd’s Rochdale constituency, posted this on Twitter.
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(am) (BST) : A Greater Manchester police officer made it to the birth of his second child after his coronavirus test results were fast-tracked. Neighborhood Officer Joe Burrows was sent for testing by the force after showing Covid – symptoms. The next day his wife Gemma went into early labor and restrictions meant he couldn’t join her. His superintendent managed to get his results fast-tracked, Joe received his negative result just eight hours later (rather than Greater Manchester Police #StayHomeSaveLives (@ gmpolice) GMP Neighborhood Officer Joe Burrows made it to the birth of his second child just in time thanks to COVID testing 👶 (See more details here ➡️ (https://t.co/yEj) M8Uct pic.twitter.com/2it6kalp5u April , 29. am BST : Alok Sharma, the business secretary , has told the Commons business committee this morning that he will soon introduce measures to protect firms that are facing “undue pressure” from commercial landlords. He said: I do think the majority of landlords and tenants are working well, they are reaching agreements on debt obligations but I am certainly aware that certain landlords are putting undue financial pressure with aggressive debt recovery tactics. What I’m very happy to say to you is I will look to introduce temporary measures on this particular issue which will ease commercial rent demand and protect the UK high street … that is something I will be doing very very shortly. Updated (at . am BST Will Quince, a welfare minister , told the work and pensions committee this morning that there were 1.5m applications for universal credit in the six weeks to 32 April. He said that there had been a “significant slowdown” since then, but he said applications were still three times the normal level. The surge in applications, and an increase in the value of universal credit, will take the annual amount spent on working-age benefits to more than £ bn for the first time, Quince said. The chief constable for Northamptonshire police I want to thank you for helping Northamptonshire police keeping people safe by keeping quiet when mum or dad have calls to make; by washing your hands properly, by doing your school work or by taking one walk a day. They may seem like small things but these make it possible for your mum or dad to work and this makes your part of our team. The full letter, complete with a smiley sign-off, is here: 
Inspector Gadget (@ InspGadgetBlogs) (Letter from) @ NorthantsChief to the children of his police officers.
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