the times | Thursday October 15 2020 2GM 27
Leading articles
What purpose, beyond the temporary relief
offered by the slowing or suppression of the rate of
new infections, would his shutdown serve? And
although polling suggests the public support its
introduction, what criteria would have to be met
before they were freed from its restrictions?
Precise answers have not yet been forthcoming
and lockdowns, as should now be obvious from the
unhappy aftermath of the first, are not ends in
themselves. Yet the mere fact of Sir Keir’s inter-
vention ought to give Downing Street pause for
thought. Mr Johnson has offered a staunch
defence of the three tiers of regional restrictions
announced this week, in which London is about to
be raised to tier two. But Labour is moving to fill a
vacuum that ministers ought instead to have filled
with a coherent strategy for escaping the
seemingly endless cycle of imposing and easing
restrictions on personal liberty and economic
activity. Tories may decry Sir Keir as an opportun-
ist, but that there was an opportunity for his party
to seize is ultimately the fault of ministers and he
may yet have called it right with the circuit breaker.
They are not alone in their predicament.
Governments across Europe, among them admin-
istrations that appeared to have succeeded where
the British government initially failed, arestruggling to balance the competing imperatives
of preserving their economies with minimising
the human toll of an unchecked outbreak. Initial
optimism that a vaccine will be ready relatively
soon is fading, as evinced by the mixed results of
clinical trials. Mr Johnson has a narrow window of
opportunity to prove that Britain is not doomed to
an indefinite period of purgatory.
Doing so, however, will mean rising above the
temptation to engage in the petty party politics
that Sir Keir has invited. Arguably Mr Johnson
ought to have ensured that a Labour Party
desperate to distance itself from the sectarianism
of Jeremy Corbyn was a full and active participant
in meetings and discussions co-ordinating efforts
to defeat the virus from the first day of Sir Keir’s
leadership. In Westminster as in the country,
solidarity in the national interest is in short supply.
Yet the political classes came together in the two
world wars to present a united front.
Now the outlook is so grave that it demands
decisive, strategic thinking and co-operation from
Britain’s political parties. It is the time for the offer
to be made and for it to be accepted in the national
interest. For either side to defer it for the sake of
narrow partisan interest risks creating a crisis of
even greater magnitude in the new year.tee reported that there was “alarming evidence” of
Chinese encroachment on academic liberty in
Britain. While universities typically focus on
protecting intellectual property from theft, and
are aware of the risks in international partner-
ships, the threat extends wider. There is disturbing
evidence that Chinese dissidents studying in
Britain are under surveillance and their families
harassed at home.
The problem emerged this year at Warwick
University, which has one of the largest Chinese
student bodies, when a motion to support Hong
Kong’s pro-democracy movement was over-
whelmingly defeated. An organisation called the
Chinese Students and Scholars Association,
affiliated to the Chinese embassy, mobilised
against it. This is not simply a matter of student
politics. The foreign affairs committee found
evidence that the group was being used to watch
students and to stop academic discussion of issues
relevant to China.
This is prima facie evidence that students,
especially but not only from Hong Kong, need to
have their welfare protected. Quasi-independentstudent bodies that are affiliated with autocratic
states are not part of any normal educational
process. Requiring confidentiality in academic
discussions is a drastic step but universities need to
adopt it if they find students are deterred from
speaking up. The corollary is that the policy would
need to be enforced, with the exclusion of students
who violate it.
The issue of Chinese nationals’ access to British
universities is rendered sensitive by commercial
considerations. Chinese students contribute
about £1.7 billion to this country’s higher educa-
tion sector, or some 5 per cent of the total. This is
greater than for any other overseas nationality.
The need for Britain, outside the EU, to strike
trade deals makes the success of its universities, an
important source of export earnings, still more
vital. Yet commerce cannot be elevated over criti-
cal inquiry. As John Milton wrote in 1644: “Where
there is much desire to learn, there of necessity
will be much arguing, much writing, many opin-
ions.” That is the essential ethos of the academy. If
students do not feel safe in arguing, debating and
writing, then the university system is at risk.early. Others, such as John le Carré, keep going
with no discernible drop in standards. Indeed
some, among them Hilary Mantel and Philip
Roth, improve with age. Others, of whom Charles
Dickens is perhaps the best example, die in the
saddle, leaving unfinished texts behind.
Some, such as Agatha Christie, gradually reduce
the prodigious yield of their heyday. And sadly
some, as with EM Forster, who lived for 46 years
after his last novel was published in 1924, are
forced into premature retirement having decided
prevailing prejudices form an insuperable obstacle
to further artistic expression. Others, of course,naming no names, either through habit, ego,
financial necessity or contractual obligation,
continue to publish long after their creative
powers have waned.
Bryson thus actually joins a select and rather
admirable club of authors (they include Roth
again, Anne Tyler and recently Lee Child) who
decide simply that having had their time and their
say it is better to vacate the stage and allow others
a chance to shine. Any time he feels like making a
comeback performance here at the newspaper
where he honed his prose skills many decades ago,
Bryson will be more than welcome.Closed Circuit
Britain faces a long and difficult winter. Boris Johnson should rise
above Keir Starmer’s challenge and instead seek Labour’s co-operation
Sir Keir Starmer‘s demand for a “circuit-breaker”
lockdown in England for two to three weeks brings
to an end a period of cautious, constructive
opposition to the government’s handling of the
pandemic. It comes at a time when sober
reflection on how ministers might best deal with a
second wave is more important than ever. While
Boris Johnson will be tempted to respond in kind
to a transparently political manoeuvre, this risks
guaranteeing that the second wave of infections
inflicts even greater damage to public health and
the economy.
In the Commons yesterday Sir Keir insisted
that he was genuine in his belief that the short,
sharp shock of another lockdown, albeit tempo-
rary and incorporating an extended October half-
term for schools, was in the national interest. That
remains to be seen. Yes, the devolved adminis-
trations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
have all decided to impose forms of circuit-
breakers of their own. Indeed in the last case, pubs
and restaurants will be shut for four weeks and
schools for initially a fortnight.
One might ask, as Mr Johnson did, what Sir
Keir’s bold plan for England means in practice.
Will children, as he put it, be “yanked” from the
schools to which they have only just returned?Safeguarding Scholarship
Universities need to protect themselves from hostile foreign interference
Argument is integral to education. Accumulating
evidence suggests that the interference of foreign
autocracies, especially China, in this country’s
university system is stifling debate and endanger-
ing academic liberty. To combat this threat
Universities UK, the umbrella body for 139 insti-
tutes of higher education, today issues guidelines
to its members on how to preserve the free flow of
ideas in the face of hostile foreign activity.
It is a notable intervention both for the fact that
Universities UK believes it was necessary and for
the extraordinary measures it advises. The
guidance on international engagement covers the
protection of reputation, staff and students,
premises, and academic partnerships. Among the
options it suggests as means of protecting students
are to introduce Chatham House rules of
confidentiality to seminars and to allow course-
work to be submitted anonymously. These are
unprecedented recommendations but the
evidence is that they are needed and Universities
UK is right to take the threat seriously.
Nor is it before time. Almost a year ago the
House of Commons foreign affairs select commit-Written Out
Bill Bryson’s prospective retirement will come as a blow to his legions of fans
At the tender age of 68, in good form and good
health, Bill Bryson is hanging up his keyboard. An
American Midwesterner by birth, Bryson is an
ardent Anglophile who made his name as a witty
observer of British foibles before latterly leverag-
ing his success to produce several highly readable
volumes of popular science. While his oeuvre will
continue to be enjoyed, the news that he has typed
his final full stop is to be lamented. Bryson says he
has been busy “enjoying not doing anything at all”
beyond playing with his grandchildren. It is hard
to argue with that.
A few writers, such as JD Salinger, retire tooBelgium: European Council meeting of the
EU heads of government begins. Boris
Johnson had made it the deadline for the
EU and UK to agree in principle a trade deal.
Jays are beautiful,
with their salmon-
pink body, white
rump, black tail and
wing panels of
kingfisher blue.
Their streaked crestrises when the bird is displaying. Small
wonder that the nature writer WH Hudson
nominated them Britain’s bird of paradise.
Jays are also tree planters extraordinaire.
Each autumn individual birds bury
thousands of acorns, billions collectively.
Throughout winter this intelligent member
of the crow family visits these caches,
recalling their position by landmarks in the
vegetation. Even so, many acorns are not
eaten, and grow. In this way, jays replanted
the oaks after the last ice age had turned
Britain into a treeless tundra. They could do
the same for us now. jonathan tulloch
In 1940 Charlie Chaplin’s film The Great
Dictator was released in New York. He had
received death threats during the making of
the film, which tackled the rise of Hitler.
Dame Laura Lee,
pictured, chief executive,
Maggie Keswick Jencks
Cancer Caring Centres
Trust, 54; Dr Harry
Brünjes, chairman,
English National Opera,
founder (1995) andchairman, Premier Medical Group, 66;
David Burbidge, chairman, Coventry City of
Culture Trust (2021 UK city of culture), City
of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, 77;
Richard Carpenter, singer, the Carpenters,
Top of the World (1972), 74; Andrew Cole,
footballer, Manchester United (1995-2001)
and England (1995-2002), 49; Gerry Cott,
guitarist and songwriter, the Boomtown
Rats, I Don’t Like Mondays (1979), 66; Chris
de Burgh, singer, Lady in Red (1986), 72; Ali
Fazal, actor, Victoria & Abdul (2017), 34; Sir
Nicholas Green, lord justice of appeal,
chairman, Law Commission, 62; Tito
Jackson, pop singer, the Jackson 5 and the
Jacksons, 67; Anthony Joshua, boxer, holder
of the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight
titles, Olympic gold medallist (2012), 31;
Siobhan Kenny, chief executive,
RadioCentre (the commercial radio trade
body), 61; Lady (Tessa) Keswick, deputy
chairwoman, Centre for Policy Studies
(2004-17), 78; Brian McBride, chairman, the
ticketing platform Trainline, Asos, the
fashion retailer (2012-18), chief executive,
Amazon.co.uk (2006-11), 65; Lord (James)
McGhie, chairman, Scottish Land Court
(1996-2014), 76; Baroness (Pauline) Perry of
Southwark, president, Lucy Cavendish
College, Cambridge (1994-2001), 89; Peter
Phillips, founder and director (since 1973),
Tallis Scholars, 67; Peter Richardson, actor,
comedian and writer, founder of the Comic
Strip troupe, 69; Nigel Stein, chairman,
Inchcape, chief executive, GKN (2012-17),
65; Stephen Tompkinson, actor, Brassed Off
(1996), 55; Lord (David) Trimble, first
minister of Northern Ireland (1998-2002),
leader, Ulster Unionist Party (1995-2005),
Nobel peace prize (1998), 76; Sarah, Duchess
of York, 61.
“I am of course notoriously hooked on
cigarettes. I keep hoping the things will kill me.
A fire at one end and a fool at the other.”
Kurt Vonnegut, writer, Cold Turkey (2004)
Nature notes
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