the times | Saturday August 1 2020 2GM 9News
The government was criticised over its
announcements on weddings, schools
and shielding yesterday.
Brides and grooms with weddings
planned over the next fortnight were
left distraught when the government
changed its mind with fewer than 24
hours’ notice and said that receptions
would no longer be allowed to go ahead
from today.
Jamie Podesta, 21, and her fiancé, Ed,
were set to marry today with a wedding
reception for 30 guests planned at a golf
club in north Kent. The venue and food
had been paid for and guests had
booked hotels.
Miss Podesta’s father, Graham, said:
“She’s just sitting here in floods of tears.
It was only a couple of weeks ago thatBrides in tears as wedding reception plans are ripped up again
Boris Johnson said you could have up to
30 people at a reception from August 1.”
He criticised the “lack of compas-
sion” shown by the government in mak-
ing the last-minute changes. He said
that both the bride and groom lived
with their parents and were set to move
in after their wedding. They were still
waiting to hear yesterday whether their
church wedding would go ahead.
Farrah Allarakha, 30, and Abubaker
Mohammed, 29, had been due to marry
on August 9 in Derby with 200 guests at
their reception. They are hoping to go
ahead with the ceremony but have had
to cancel a reception rearranged for 30
people. “I just had that sinking feeling,”
Ms Allarakha said yesterday.
Some of those affected have already
had to postpone their weddings once,
with one writing on Twitter: “So I haveable to the virus, such as blood cancer,
were told to isolate as the UK headed
towards the peak of the outbreak.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director
at Age UK, said: “Many older workers
are extremely keen to return to their
workplace but they can ‘smell the
coffee’ about the rise in infections.
“It would be pragmatic and humane
for shielding workers to continue to be
supported financially through some
kind of government funded scheme.”
Her calls are echoed in a letter in The
Times today from prominent blood
cancer specialists, who write: “As doc-
tors we cannot advise the people we
care for to go back to busy workplaces
when they have compromised immune
systems that put them at very high risk
from the virus.”
Letters, page 28still lacks a plan B in the event that this
does not prove possible because of in-
fection rates, or if there is a second
national shutdown. Its guidance envis-
ages only a scenario in which schools
close on a local basis in response to
infection spikes, and instructs them to
have contingency plans in place.
“It would surely be prudent, however,
for the government to have an alter-
native strategy if there is a second
national shutdown, or otherwise we
will be back to square one again.”
Meanwhile, charities and doctors
working with vulnerable people have
said that they are concerned about Mr
Johnson’s announcement that shield-
ing will pause from today even as cases
of Covid-19 appear to be rising. Some
2.2 million people with health condi-
tions making them particularly vulner-to cancel my wedding for a second
time?” Some guests had to turn back
yesterday en route to wedding recep-
tions planned for today.
The government was also criticised
by head teachers yesterday for having
no “plan B” after Mr Johnson said that
getting pupils back to school at the start
of term was a “national priority”. Indi-
vidual schools will close on a local basis
if infections rise sharply and have been
told to have contingency plans in place.
Heads say ministers should be draw-
ing up nationwide strategies rather
than leaving it to schools.
Julie McCulloch, director of policy at
the Association of School and College
Leaders, said the union welcomed Mr
Johnson’s comments on reopening at
the start of term. But she added: “We
remain concerned that the governmentKaya Burgess, Nicola Woolcock, Kat LayNews
and keep resurgent virus at bay
Quentin Letts
Liberty faded to the sound
of another irksome slogan
A
nother slogan. As if
officialdom was not already
making life miserable, Boris
Johnson produced another of
his maddening mnemonics:
“Hands, face, space,” he kept saying,
pleased with his new toy, pleased with
himself. “You know what my message is
gonna be — hands, face, space, hands,
face, space. I hope that was pretty
punchy. Everyone can just about
remember that. Hands, face, space.
Hands.. .” At which point I smashed my
tea mug against my study wall and the
dog went and fetched its crash helmet
before re-entering the room with two
worried eyebrows.
We had to wash our hands. We had to
shroud our faces. We had to keep apart
from fellow human beings. Hands, face,
shoulders, knees and toes, knees and
toes. Illiberalism as a nursery rhyme.
What rhymes with repressive, children?
What rhymes with “actually, you can
stuff your gaily minted regulations”?
The prime minister was speaking at a
hurriedly announced No 10 press
conference on an inglorious summer’s
most glorious day. Outside on Whitehall
it was over 90 degrees in the shade.
Nearby Westminster was becalmed,
parliament being nearly empty for its
recess. Yet Mr Johnson was able to say,
casually, as if his word alone was statute,
that new laws would be triggered next
week to force us to comply. He urged us
all to join a national effort. “We’re
gonna beat this together!”
What if we chose not to subscribe to
this vision of socialist solidarity? We
could be arrested. “This will become
enforceable in law from August 8,” said
Mr Johnson with pleasure. He was
taking “swift and decisive action”.
Political leaders love saying things like
that. Anything that martinet Sturgeon
can do, strutting around in her tartan-
jackdaw mask, I can do better.The public must now wear masks in
churches and mosques, at galleries and
museums and cinemas, he said. Trial
admission of limited crowds to sporting
events was being scrapped. Wedding
receptions planned for the first two
weeks of August were cancelled. Just
like that. They could still have a tiny
ceremony but no celebration afterwards.
One brisk sentence from the No 10
lectern and thousands of young women
will have been in tears. Mr Johnson may
be used to that but he should beware the
thousands of mothers-in-law who will
now find they bought that apricot
handbag and matching fascinator for no
reason. Fascinators can be put to
alternative uses, ladies. Sharp, jabbing,
vengeful prongs.
Theatre reopenings, which were going
to have been permissible from today,
were now off. Casinos, skittle alleys,
skating rinks: it was the red light for
them too. Skating seemed an odd
pastime to consider on this hottest of
days. Would the ice not melt? But one
way or another it all meant more
economic damage, more territory
grabbed back from the Treasury by
Public Health England and the chief
medical adviser for England, Chris
Whitty, who was standing next to Mr
Johnson. Dr Whitty now attends these
press conferences with the prim
superiority of a driving-test examiner.
He seems likely at any moment to slap
the dashboard and demand an
emergency halt. We had pushed our
luck as far as it would go. “We have now
reached the near-limits of what we can
do in opening up society,” he said tightly.
“We’re at the outer edge of what we can
do.” Plenty of us are certainly at the
edge of our patience.
For Mr Johnson, it was all a chance for
this one-time champion of liberty to
shrug and say: “We must keep our
discipline and our focus, we must not be
complacent.” The police, having
previously been allowed leeway, were
now exhorted to leap on any people who
did not comply with the tighter rules on
masks. Nibble by nibble, soundbite by
soundbite, freedom vanishes. Enjoy
suffocation safely.Political Sketch
ANDREW PARSONS/10 DOWNING ST