the times | Monday July 27 2020 1GM 31
Leading articles
arriving in Britain depends on the risk of contract-
ing Covid-19 in the country they are coming from.
More than 50 countries are judged to have taken
sufficient measures to pose a reduced risk of infec-
tion, and thus to be exempt from quarantine
requirements. These countries with “air bridges”
to the UK include many popular destinations for
British holidaymakers.
Spain was removed from that list of exempt
countries because of a significant increase in the
number of Covid-19 cases and the pace of change.
Almost 1,000 new cases in Spain were reported
over two days at the end of last week. Dominic
Raab, the foreign secretary, declined yesterday to
apologise to travellers who will be affected by the
new rule. Perhaps it would have been politically
convenient to do so but it would have been a poor
precedent.
The coronavirus crisis is a global emergency
affecting countries across all income levels, and
there is a real risk of under-reacting to it. The
number of confirmed cases worldwide now
exceeds 9 million, and the World Health Organi-
sation estimates that it will reach 10 million this
week. The number of confirmed cases in the
United States exceeded 4 million last week, rising
from 3 million a fortnight previously. When a pan-demic spreads at the rate of roughly a million new
cases a week, then unprecedented policies are
required to contend with the threat. Holiday-
makers did not expect the quarantine policy to be
implemented and deserve sympathy but that is
not the same as an apology, let alone restitution.
This is what may happen in a health emergency.
There is reasonable hope for the development
of a vaccine but these are still early stages for
health trials. Public life will be different for months
to come, if not years. Encouragingly, preventive
measures of lockdown and social distancing have
helped to stem the spread of infection in Britain.
Many people have made sacrifices, both in their
living standards and in the quality of their family
lives. Their pain will only be prolonged if the coro-
navirus cannot be effectively contained. Flare-ups
locally, as has happened in Leicester, and in other
countries will require immediate measures of
quarantine if public safety is to be preserved.
It is a widespread view, which any future public
inquiry will need to examine, that the government
needlessly delayed lockdown and that lives were
thereby lost. It would be culpable if, in light of that
experience, it failed to act quickly on data showing
a resurgence of infections. The government has
done the right thing in this case.renting high-value properties in prime locations
are disadvantaged relative to online retailers.
The crisis has altered the shape of household
consumption. The volume of all retail sales
(including fuel) fell by 11.6 per cent in June com-
pared with the level of a year earlier. The greatest
hit has been sustained by non-food stores, where
the volume of sales fell by 36.2 per cent in June
from the level of the previous year. The average
weekly value of online sales in June, at £2.3 billion,
was up 73.4 per cent on the level of a year earlier.
This amounted to 31.2 per cent of all retail sales.
It is likely that the crisis will have permanently
boosted online shopping relative to more tradi-
tional purchasing. The proportion of online sales
within total retail sales has grown briskly over the
past 15 years, though it appeared to be levelling off
at around 20 per cent. Now, quite suddenly, it has
exceeded 30 per cent since April.
Mr Sunak has put in place unprecedented levels
of public support to help retailers, along with other
businesses, weather the crisis. Huge levels of sub-
sidy to enable businesses to pay their bills, espe-
cially for wages and salaries, are needed to helpcontain the damage to the economy’s long-term
productive capacity.
Retailers need to get through the crisis and then
find a way of doing business that is compatible
with social distancing requirements so long as
they are needed. A high-street electronics or fash-
ion retailer had no hope of insuring itself against
a global pandemic. If shops can devise ways to run
profitably as lockdown lifts, they should be al-
lowed breathing space in the interests of consum-
er choice and maintaining employment. Support
measures must be time-limited, however.
Retailers must adapt to the way customers want
to shop. Even as online sales rose, some types of
shops thrived. Personal services like barbers’
shops or nail bars expanded. Consumers value
high levels of personal service; these retailers met
the demand. Public money for retailers is necessa-
ry in this emergency, but in normal times subsidy
deters innovation, as businesses no longer have to
compete to win and retain customer loyalty. The
crisis is an immense shock to the retail sector. The
government cannot ultimately determine which
businesses will gain and which will be superseded.while ashore in the city of Canton, now known as
Guangzhou, in 1810. Using powers of diplomacy,
and benefiting from his reputation as a man of
honour, Francis Austen managed to persuade
Chinese officials to allow the fleet to depart, on the
understanding that he would ensure the suspects
were tried on their return to British shores.
History does not record the fate of the suspects.
Even so, Captain Austen’s talent for meticulous
and discreet inquiry might have been the model
for the modern genre of detective fiction that
enthusiasts often date from Sergeant Cuff in
Wilkie Collins’s The Moonstone, published in 1868.Baroness James’s observation is vindicated by
the discovery. Jane Austen has been described as
the author of mysteries without murder. Her nov-
els, which are only superficially about manners,
mores and marriages, provide a complete expla-
nation of phenomena that are set out to the reader
yet make sense only in light of the eventual
denouement. Emma Woodhouse, Elinor Dash-
wood and other protagonists who find love arrive
at that destination by penetrating a social façade
and uncovering its deeper meaning. An author of
peerless insight into human nature was a solver of
secrets. We now know it was a family trait.Back to Isolation
Reimposing quarantine requirements on travellers entering the UK from Spain will
cause inconvenience but is the right course in dealing with flare-ups of Covid-19
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, began a
holiday in Spain at the weekend. When he returns,
he will be required to self-isolate for 14 days. So will
all other travellers arriving from Spain. British
holidaymakers had no notion that the govern-
ment would take this snap decision in response to
a spike in reported cases of Covid-19 infection
across Spain. The policy was announced on Satur-
day, with only a few hours’ notice before it was put
into effect.
The suddenness of the quarantine requirement
will inconvenience tourists and business travellers
and inflict further damage on the revenues of air-
lines and hotels. Some will be tempted to take
satisfaction in Mr Shapps’s predicament and many
will sympathise with Labour’s criticism of the gov-
ernment’s reversal as “shambolic”. Those respon-
ses would be unfair. The government has sus-
tained criticism in the coronavirus crisis for acting
too late. This time it acted decisively on being pre-
sented with evidence that it was necessary. In
overcoming a once-in-a-generation threat to
public health, extraordinary measures are neces-
sary. The government should be prepared to enact
them, the opposition to support them, and the
public to adhere to them.
The requirement for quarantine for travellersHigh Street Blues
Government help for the retail sector is needed but must be temporary
Even before the coronavirus crisis, commerce on
Britain’s high streets was suffering a sustained
squeeze on profitability. The lockdown has inten-
sified and compressed this long-term trend. Many
high-street retailers are facing crisis and perhaps
closure. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is consider-
ing plans for new taxes on goods sold online, along
with other measures, to help redress the balance
between traditional retailers and online sellers.
Mr Sunak should go ahead. There are good rea-
sons for immediate measures of support for the re-
tailers, not least to help plug the gaps in the public
finances. But these need to be time-limited. Retail-
ers can reasonably expect support from the tax-
payer in a historic crisis. In the longer term, how-
ever, an efficient economy relies on business serv-
ing the consumer, not the other way round.
The measures being considered include a levy
on all online sales, probably of the order 2 per cent,
which is projected to raise around £2 billion a year.
Other courses under discussion are a charge on
consumer deliveries and an extension of the busi-
ness rates holiday introduced by the chancellor
during the crisis, given concerns that retailersNovel Mystery
Jane Austen’s brother is revealed as an investigator of a murder case
PD James, among the greatest practitioners of the
crime novel, once wrote: “I think if Jane Austen
were writing today, she might very well be our
greatest mystery novelist.” It emerges that Austen
may have had real-life inspiration in her talent for
observing the idiosyncrasies of human nature and
its capacity for ill. Archivists have uncovered
letters to the Admiralty showing that Austen’s
brother, Francis, an outstanding naval officer who
went on to become Admiral of the Fleet, once in-
vestigated a murder case
The case involved three sailors who were ac-
cused of killing a Chinese shoemaker in a brawlUK: All four Tate galleries (Tate Modern,
Tate Britain, Tate St Ives and Tate
Liverpool) reopen following their temporary
closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Common knotgrass,
a widespread
annual of waste
ground, roadsides
and arable fields, is
a plant of two
distinct habits.
Among dense crops it grows upright and
bears narrow leaves; on bare ground it is
prostrate with broader leaves, sometimes
forming radial mats resembling city road
maps. Also known as irongrass due to its
tough stems and long tap root which makes
it hard to eradicate, it is not in fact a grass
but a member of the dock family. Tiny pink
and white flowers appear at the leaf nodes
and develop into three-cornered nutlets
which are an important food for small birds
in autumn — hence its other country name
of birdweed. melissa harrison
In 1694 the Bank of England’s royal charter
was signed by William III, and a few days
later the bank opened for business.
Emily Thornberry,
pictured, Labour MP for
Islington South and
Finsbury, shadow
international trade
secretary, 60; Allan
Border, Australian
cricketer and sports
commentator, 65; Roseanna Cunningham,
SNP MSP for Perthshire South and Kinross-
shire, environment, climate change and land
reform minister, 69; Dehenna Davison,
Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland, 27;
Christopher Dean, ice skater, Olympic gold
medallist (1984), 62; Jo Durie, tennis player,
seven-time British national singles
champion, 60; Bobbie Gentry (Roberta Lee
Streeter), singer, Ode to Billie Joe (1967), 78;
Sir Jeremy Greenstock, diplomat, UK
ambassador to the UN (1998-2003), UK
special envoy for Iraq (2003-04), 77; Jack
Higgins (Harry Patterson), novelist, The
Eagle Has Landed (1975), 91; Sir Michael
Hintze, founder and chief executive of asset
management firm CQS, 67; Cressida Hogg,
chairwoman, Land Securities, 51; John
Howell, Conservative MP for Henley, 65;
Simon Jones, actor, Arthur Dent in The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1981), 70;
Tom Kerridge, chef, 47; Michael Longley,
poet, The Weather in Japan (2000), 81;
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, actor, Vikings
(2017-19), 43; Sir James Munby, president of
the family division and head of family justice
(2013-18), lord justice of appeal (2009-13), 72;
Rob Owen, chief executive, prison charity
St Giles Trust, 55; Robert Rankin, novelist,
Snuff Fiction (1999), 71; Lieutenant-
Commander Peter Reed, rower, three-time
Olympic gold medallist (2008, 2012, 2016),
39; Jonty Rhodes, cricketer, South Africa
(1992-2000), 51; Jordan Spieth, golfer,
winner of the Open (2017), 27; Barbara
Thompson, saxophonist and composer,
Heavenly Bodies (1986), 76; Air Chief
Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, chief of the air
staff (2006-09), 67; Joy Whitby, pioneer of
children’s television, Play School (1964),
Jackanory (1965), 90; Baroness (Shirley)
Williams of Crosby, co-founder, Social
Democratic Party (1981), 90.
“Success is dangerous. One begins to copy
oneself and to copy oneself is more dangerous
than to copy others.”
Pablo Picasso, The Artist (1978)
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