The Week - UK (2021-02-06)

Best articles: Britain NEWS^15

6February 2021 THE WEEK

It takes more

than bricks to

build ahospital

Susanna Rustin

The Guardian

So much forthe celebratedNightingalehospitals, saysSusanna

Rustin .Wespent more than halfabillion poundsonthe seven

pop-up centresin En gland,yetthey’ve barely beenused: thosein

Birmingham and Sunderland haven’t treatedasingle patient. Why?

Not enough skilled staff. Creating thousands of intensive care beds

isn’t much useif you don’thave people tooperatethem. “The

doctorsand nurses whoworkinhospital ICUsare professionals

with years ofexperience... ininst itutionswith distinctcult ures and

approaches.” Youcan’t magic them out of thinair. Some 10%of

nursepositions arevacant asit is –asituationbound to getworse

after thepasttraumatic year. The lesson of the empty hospitalsis

simple: politicians need to place morevalueonpreserving and

developingthe humancapital withinthe NHS, rather thantrying

to winheadlines with shiny newbuildings. Ultimatelyit’s people

that makeahospitalwork. “Themantraof ‘Buildbackbetter’is

empt ywithoutaparallel commitment to ‘Train for tomorrow’.”

High streets are

dying, long live

the high street

Harry Wallop

The Times

“Volcanoeruptsunderthehighstreet.”That’s justoneofmany

headlineswarningofadarkfuture fortowncentres.And forthe

25,000 workersin the118Debenhams and444Arcadia-owned

stores thatareshuttingupshopthat’s bad news,saysHarry

Wallop. The rest ofus, however,shouldn’tbetoo concerned.For

thepast decadepeople have foretoldthe death ofthehighstreet,

yetinthattimethenumberofretailoutletsinthe UKhasactually

increased by7%.Basically,therearenow toomanyshops;and

with thehugeriseinthe share ofgoods boughtonline(under 7%

adecadeago;30%today),changeisinevitable.Yetthehighstreet

willadapt; italways has.When mypennilessLithuaniangreat-

grandfather setup BurtonMenswear –oneofthe disappearing

Arcadiabrands–morethanacenturyago,heopened billiards

hallson thefirst floorsofhisshopsto induceyoungmen tobuya

suit while waitingforagame.Thehighstreetwasalways“aplace

to beentertained,meetfriends,mingle,danceand flirt asmuch as

to buystuff.Fingerscrossed,those days willsoonreturn.”

The rainbow

in the Tory

firmament

Bagehot

The Economist

BorisJohnsonis“suchavivid embodimentof white privilege”,

says Bagehot,it’s easy toforget howethnicallydiverse hisparty is

thesedays. In 2005, theConservatives hadjusttwo minorityMPs.

Today, blackandminorityethni c(Bame)Torieshold manytop

positions.TheTreasury is runby Rishi Sunak, whoreplaced Sajid

Javid; the Home Office is runby Priti Patel; Kwasi Kwarteng has

succeededAlokSharmaas Secret aryofState for Business;talents

such as KemiBadenoch, Claire Coutinho andBim Afolami

are rising up theranks .Onthis fr ontthe party is doingfar better

than the restoft he establishment. There are precious few minority

candidates in toproles in theArmy, civil service andbusiness

(corporate Britain’sidea of diversity,says aleading Bame Tory,

is giving “posh women jobs”). The same is true of Republicansin

the US: in sharp contrastto the Tories,they haveonlyahandful

of prominent Bamepolit iciansand are increasinglybecoming

“a party ofwhite reaction” against America’s rising multicultural

majority. That the British Right is quietly followingaquite

differentpath is something “worth both noticingand celebrating”.

Playing politics

with alife-and-

death issue

Sonia Sodha

The Observer

Abinmanhasbeensacked

afterkungfu-kickingthe

headoffasnowman.

HerefordshireCouncilsaidit

was“disappointed”inCallum

Woodhouse,afterhewas

caughtonCCTVattackinga

6ftsnowmanbuiltbythree-

year-oldJosephTaylor,who

burstintotears.Thousands

latersignedapetitioncalling

fortheexpectantfathertobe

reinstated.Woodhouse,19,

explainedthatthesnowman

hadbeen“obstructingmy

pathway”,adding:“Itwas

goingtomeltanyway.”

Afitnessinstructor

unwittinglycaptured the

earlystagesofMyanmar’s

militarycoupasshe filmed

anexerciseclassin front

of thecountry’sparliament

thisweek. KhingHninWai

gyratedto thesoundofan

upbeatdancetrackona

roundaboutinthecapital,

Naypyidaw,asaseriesof

black armoured carspushed

throughabarricadebehind

her,en route todetaininga

number ofMPsand seizing

controlof thecount ry.The

footage was likened tothe

dystopian TVshowBlack

Mirror–but Hnin Wai

herself said thatthe “back-

groundscenery”madefor

an “unforgettable” workout.

Awoman has written to

The Sun’s agony aunt, Dear

Deidre, to complain about

her boyfriend’s worrying

obsession with pandemic-

related news. The unnamed

24-year-old said that her

partner had started to put on

theBBC News At Tenmusic

to get in the mood for sex.

“I went along with it once,

hoping it would beapassing

phase,” she wrote. “But now

he has suggestedIintroduce

myself asFionaBruce. I’m no

prude but I’m not keen on

dressing up as Fiona.”

ITMUSTBETRUE...

Ireaditinthetabloids

At atime when officialsshouldbedoing theirutmost to preserve

publ ic co nfidencein th evacci ne programme,says SoniaSodha,

it’s shocking to seesome people shredding it for their owncynical

ends. Labourleader KeirStarmerfor one. His callforteachersto

be movedup thevaccinationqueueand givenajab in half-term

may have populistappeal, but itflies in thefaceofadvicegiven

by the expertson theJoint Committee on Vaccination and

Immunisation,who have devisedanorder of prioritiesthey think

willsave themostlives. On whatbasis is Starmer rejecting their

calculus?Then there’sthe BritishMedicalAssociation, whichhas

slammed the Government forallowing thegap between thePfizer

vaccine’s twodoses to be extended from three to12 weeks.Again,

the Government didsoonexpertadvi ce,sowhere is theBMA’s

compellingevidence this is the wrongpath? Theworst offender,

though, is France’s PresidentMacron,who falsely claimed that

the AstraZeneca vaccinewas“quasi-i neffective”for th eover-65s.

“This is nothingless than thepresident of the most vaccine-

scepticalnationinEurope spreadingdisinformation.” These

peopleshould know better than to play politicswith this issue.