The Times - UK (2020-06-29)

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2 2GM Monday June 29 2020 | the times


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vehicles. The vast majority of vans are
diesel-powered. NOx causes breathing
difficulties and long-term exposure can
lead to chronic lung disease.
The DfT provides a grant of £8,000 to
reduce the cost of an electric van in an
attempt to clean up the fleet. A spokes-
woman said: “Cutting congestion and
vehicle emissions in our towns and
cities is absolutely key to improving
air quality and building a greener
transport network. We continue to
work closely with experts on the best
ways to achieve that and to meet our
ambitious 2050 net-zero target.”
The DfT’s science advisory council
was commissioned last year to investi-
gate “last-mile logistics”, including how
the government should “respond to the
way this market is developing”. The
group’s report, published this month,
acknowledged the benefits of internet

shopping, such as fewer people driving
to shops, but it said: “A mandatory
charge, similar to that implemented by
the government to discourage plastic
carrier bag use, could be applied to all
consumer deliveries and returns to
encourage consumers to recognise
their true business, societal and
environmental cost.”
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC
Foundation, said: “Making consumers
pay the true cost of delivery could make
people more selective in what they
order, and what they return. But if the
cost is too high then shoppers might
decide the cheaper option is to browse
the shops in person, which is potentially
good for the high street but less so for
traffic volumes.”
The DfT said that it was not obliged
to follow the independent advice of the
report but would “fully consider and
engage with it”, including the recom-
mendation to consult on reducing the
impact of deliveries.

continued from page 1
Delivery charges Robo-dogs do the leg work

Battery-powered “robo-dogs” could
be used to deliver goods under
plans to phase out diesel vans.
A study commissioned by the
Department for Transport said that
autonomous “dog-like” systems
were being developed that could
carry goods up and down stairs.
They would be used alongside
wheeled vehicles to carry goods the
last few metres to the front door.
Starship Technologies of
California has tested small robotic
self-driving carts in Milton Keynes,
which use cameras, ultrasound
sensors, radar and GPS to navigate
their environment and make
deliveries in a four-mile radius.
Amazon is pioneering the use of
drones and electric cargo bikes are
also being used across the UK.

COMMENT 21
LEADING ARTICLES 25
WORLD 26

REGISTER 43
NIGHT SKY 45
WEATHER 47

Global
confirmed cases

UK confirmed
cases

CORONAVIRUS SUMMARY


SPORT 48
CROSSWORD 54
TV & RADIO TIMES

Apology over GP course


The Royal College of GPs has
apologised over an online
conference that referred to
coronavirus as “a lifestyle disease”.
It was titled: “Covid-19: A lifestyle
disease and the vital role GPs have
in beating it.” Stephanie deGiorgio,
a GP, wrote: “Covid is a virus, it’s
not a lifestyle disease. I am
horrified that you are encouraging
this agenda.” Martin Marshall,
RCGP chairman, said: “We
reiterate how sorry we are for the
distress that the inappropriate title
of this course has caused.” Page 8

More infections feared


The coronavirus outbreak in
Britain is “on a knife edge” and
cases are likely to increase, a
senior government adviser has
said. Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of
the Wellcome Trust and a member
of the Scientific Advisory Group
for Emergencies (Sage), said that
he was worried about a rise in
infections even before the further
easing of restrictions next
weekend. He told the BBC: “I
would anticipate we would see an
increase in new cases over the
coming weeks.” Page 9

10,225,651 503,

311,151 43,

Plea by head teachers


Head teachers have urged the
government to allow a “period of
grace” before fining parents
if they refuse to send their
children back to school
when they reopen fully
in September. Boris
Johnson has said it will
be compulsory for all
children in England to
go to school when they
reopen after the summer
holidays. Penalties for
non-attendance, which include
fines, were suspended in March,
before schools were closed. Page 11

Spain secures beaches


Thousands of miles of Spain’s
coastline, from the Costa Brava to
the Costa del Sol, are having a
makeover designed to prevent the
kind of uncontrolled saturation of
beaches that has occurred at
English resorts. Drones, cameras
providing live feeds and lots of
security tape are the ingredients in
the effort to maintain Spain’s
position as northern Europe’s
favourite playground in the time
of coronavirus. Page 13

Holidays in the balance


Holidaymakers have been warned
that it will take time to agree “air
bridges” with other countries
after travel websites were
inundated with demand
for foreign breaks. Priti
Patel, the home
secretary, said that
more talks were needed
before countries let
Britons travel. Permission
for holidaymakers to visit
selected destinations without
having to quarantine for 14 days
on their return were expected to
come into force on July 6. Page 10

London left behind


The recovery of London’s stock
market from the coronavirus
sell-off in March is the weakest
among its peers, as New York,
Frankfurt and Tokyo surge
ahead. With two days of trading
to go, the FTSE 100 has risen by
8.6 per cent for the quarter,
compared with a 21.7 per cent
jump for Germany’s Dax 30, a
19 per cent climb for Japan’s Nikkei
225 and a 16.4 per cent rally for
America’s S&P 500. Page 31

Global deaths

UK deaths

COMMENT


Debrett’s guidance for a pandemic will feed


the British anxiety about ‘right’ behaviour
LIBBY PURVES, PAGE 23

Wimbledon loses cover


Wimbledon organisers have
admitted they will not be able to
secure pandemic insurance for
next year’s event after making a
claim for potentially more than
£100 million to cover the losses
from this year’s cancellation. The
tournament, which had been due
to start today, was the only major
sports event in Britain that had
pandemic cover. The US Open is
planning to take place behind
closed doors in August. Page 54

99
DAYS OF UK
LOCKDOWN

More than 10m cases


The number of worldwide
confirmed coronavirus infections
has passed ten million, with
half a million deaths. Although
the rate of new infections has
receded in east Asia and Europe,
the first regions to be affected,
cases are multiplying rapidly in
south Asia, Africa and
particularly Latin America where
Brazil, the second most affected
country, reported 38,693 new
cases on Saturday. Page 12

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Waiting times for knee and hip replace-
ments will be as long as a year because
of NHS measures to prevent the spread
of coronavirus, doctors’ leaders have
warned.
Those on waiting lists for routine
operations may end up being pres-
cribed opioid painkillers that can be
addictive, experts fear.
NHS waiting times are expected to
increase substantially as hospitals
impose strict infection control meas-
ures. It means that fewer operations
will take place because limited numbers
of patients will be allowed to attend
clinics or stay on wards overnight.
Professor Philip Turner, the immedi-
ate past president of the British Ortho-
paedic Association, told the Daily Mail
that hospitals were “re-prioritising”
patients waiting for operations to ident-
ify the most urgent cases.
“It may seem unfair to those who
have been on the list the longest and
who thought they were just about to
come in,” he said.
Professor Turner said that many
would be waiting for more than six
months, adding: “I think it could be up
to a year.”

6 Thousands of Britons could go blind
because of treatment delays caused by
the pandemic, eye doctors have
warned. Specialist eye units saw falls in
referrals of up to 87 per cent in the first
month of the outbreak, compared with
the same period last year. Professor An-
drew Lotery, co-chairman of the Royal
College of Ophthalmologists academic
committee, said: “There are estimates
that over the last few months more than
1,000 extra people have gone blind that,
had they got treatment they wouldn’t
have gone blind.” The main condition
of concern is wet age-related macular
degeneration.

English region has an Institute of Tech-
nology, the latest effort to encourage
technical skills training.
Mr Sunak is expected to lay out more
details of efforts to retrain millions
left unemployed as coronavirus accel-
erates changes to the labour market.
Without action, economists warn that
the young are most at risk of “scarring”
from the recession.
Four super-size prisons are to be built
in England over the next six years as
part of the government’s promise to
provide an extra 10,000 places. The
Ministry of Justice is looking for two
sites in the southeast and one in the
northwest for jails that will each hold
almost 1,700 inmates. A prison holding
1,440 is to be built alongside the existing
Full Sutton jail near York.
It is expected that prison numbers
will increase as a result of the
pledge to recruit 20,000 more police
officers to reverse the fall that
took place after 2010, when the
Conservatives came to power. The
Ministry of Justice said yesterday
that the new jails would be built
by 2025, and that one would be
operated by the public sector. The
announcement made no mention
of the further places that would be
needed for the government to reach its
overall target.

The number of people falling behind
with their bills rose again last month as
the coronavirus pandemic continued to
squeeze household finances.
Homeowners are struggling to keep
up with mortgages and repayments are
14 per cent lower than would have been
expected before the pandemic, accord-
ing to a study by the Institute for Fiscal
Studies. Rent payments have fallen
11 per cent below forecast and the num-
ber of people paying council tax is 9 per
cent below pre-crisis forecasts.
“This represents a further deteriora-
tion since April, suggesting that some
households were increasingly strug-
gling to make ends meet,” the IFS said.
The number of jobs in the UK last
month was 4 per cent below expecta-
tions and average household income
was 8 per cent lower, equivalent to a
monthly loss in income of about £160.
The Resolution Foundation think
tank warns today that drastic action is

Britons fall behind on the bills


as lockdown keeps squeezing


Tom Howard, Louisa Clarence-Smith needed to prevent the worst unemploy-
ment in a generation. It urges the gov-
ernment to create a scheme to protect
workers in the hospitality industry.
Those in hospitality, non-food retail
and arts, leisure and entertainment
have been more than twice as likely as
other workers to have had job changes,
the foundation said. Nye Cominetti,
senior economist at the foundation,
said: “A second wave of unemployment
later this year, following the phasing
out of the job retention scheme, could
leave Britain with the highest unem-
ployment levels in a generation.”
The foundation urged the govern-
ment to adopt a “Full Monty policy
response” including the “biggest job
creation programme in peacetime”.
Undersupplied areas such as social
care and retrofitting homes could take
workers from shrinking sectors and the
foundation called for job and training
guarantees for young people, who are
more likely to work in hard-hit sectors.
Employment fell by 430,000 in

March and April and the Office for
Budget Responsibility has forecast that
unemployment will hit 10 per cent this
year. The shutdown has affected Brit-
ain’s poorest households most, the IFS
said. They are more likely to have
missed council tax and utility bills, al-
though non-payment of mortgages has
been “more evenly spread”.
Among those who paid their bills in
January but not in May, the average
mortgage repayment was £1,660, the
average rent £650, and the average
council tax bill worked out at £170.
Many people have been given payment
holidays but the IFS warned that the
“substantial additional household debt”
to be repaid over the coming months
would drag out the impact of the virus.
Isaac Delestre, a research economist
at the IFS, said: “Earnings have been hit
very hard for those who came into the
crisis with the fewest resources.
“All this underlines the importance
of securing a labour market recovery
that is as swift as possible.”

continued from page 1
Johnson’s school-building plan

Reports and analysis, pages 8-
Leading article, page 25

Patients face waiting a year


for knee and hip operations


Greg Wilford The latest NHS figures show that
11,042 patients had been waiting a year
or more for operations or other proce-
dures, up from 1,047 in April last year.
Professor Turner said he was “very
concerned” that patients waiting for
operations were being put on opioid
painkillers and that they would need
help to be weaned off them.
An NHS spokesman said: “Now that
the NHS has managed the first wave of
coronavirus, there is an important
job to do to help people whose planned
care, such as knee and hip surgery,
was postponed to protect their own
safety.”
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