the times | Wednesday January 19 2022 27
Leading articles
that right must also be balanced against other
freedoms, including people’s freedom to pursue
their lives and livelihoods without disruption.
A series of recent protests have shown that the
current law is failing to secure this balance in a way
that commands public support. Movements such
as Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain have
succeeded in bringing parts of the country to a
standstill for days and weeks, causing widespread
disruption to businesses, not by bringing large
crowds onto the streets but through small bands of
protesters blocking vital infrastructure. Insulate
Britain protesters last year lay down on and glued
themselves to motorways, while Extinction
Rebellion protesters handcuffed themselves to
trains and blocked roads and bridges. In 2020,
Extinction Rebellion blockaded three presses that
print The Times and other newspapers. The police
found themselves unable to intervene as those
claiming to be exercising their right to protest
undermined the right to a free press.
Nonetheless, there is no question that some of
the powers that the government proposed hand-
ing the police were poorly defined and too open-
ended. As things stand, if the police want to restrict
a protest, they have to show it may result in “seri-
ous public disorder, serious damage to property orserious disruption to the life of the community”.
Some of the measures rejected by the Lords would
have given the police welcome new powers to
protect key infrastructure. But as this newspaper
has previously argued, proposed new powers to
allow the police to halt protests that cause “serious
annoyance” were too broad and subjective.
Similarly, amendments that would have allowed
the police to stop and search people at a protest
without suspicion and allow people with a history
of causing serious disruption to be banned by the
courts from attending certain protests were an
unnecessary restriction on individual liberty.
Just as damaging as the measures themselves is
the way that many of the most contentious were
introduced. Eighteen pages were added to the bill
in the Lords in November without having been
previously considered by the Commons. A Con-
servative government, many of whose parlia-
mentary supporters regard wearing a mask in a
public place as a gross infringement on civil
liberties, should hardly need reminding of the
need to tread carefully on issues of personal free-
dom. The danger is that the government’s cavalier
approach to due process, in this as in so much else,
has undermined public confidence in what were
for the most part perfectly sensible reforms.The risks of vaccination are small, and the risks
of Covid considerably greater. While advising
vaccination for their members, both the Royal
College of Midwives and the Royal College of
Nursing have asked Sajid Javid, the health secre-
tary, to delay mandatory jabs. The Trades Union
Congress has done the same, with its general
secretary Frances O’Grady suggesting that “we
are in the middle of an NHS staffing crisis” that
will only worsen. Yet a major reason for current
NHS staff shortages is, of course, that so many
employees are themselves sick with the virus.
Shortly after new year, 39,142 NHS workers
were off work thanks either to Covid or isolation
on a single day. In care homes, vaccination has
been mandatory since November. Here, it does
seem regrettably likely that the new rule has
affected staffing. Yet with Omicron having risen
since then, we may never know how many lives
the new rules have saved.
On a tour of a London hospital this month, Mr
Javid was confronted by Steve James, a consultant
anaesthetist who, himself unvaccinated, strongly
disapproves of mandatory vaccination for staff. DrJames is entitled to a fringe view when it comes to
his own wellbeing, but that does not entail that he
should be entitled to inflict it on his patients, too.
Many would be alarmed at the thought that they
or their loved ones could be treated in hospital by
staff with so little regard for mainstream medical
science, or who have chosen to eschew the most
straightforward protection against Covid that is
available.
For the vast majority of NHS workers at all
levels, it should be noted, all of this is both unnec-
essary and uncontroversial. Most are passionate
advocates of Covid vaccination, and not only
because they have seen the terrible costs to those
who don’t bother. Many healthcare workers are
already expected to be vaccinated against
hepatitis B, and others are required to prove that
they are not infectious with other diseases, such as
HIV, before dealing with patients. The battle
against Covid is being doggedly won, largely
thanks to vaccination. NHS workers, at the front
line now for two years, deserve much better than
to face a daily risk of infection from a small
minority of their colleagues. So do their patients.person must acknowledge that England’s cricket-
ers had extenuation. They had, after all, just lost
the series 4-0, and only narrowly escaped with a
draw in the remaining match. Losing a wicket to
the first ball of the first Test, they started as they
meant to go on. In not a single innings did they
reach 300, the first time this had happened since- Their experience recalls the tortures re-
counted by the poet AE Housman in A Shropshire
Lad: “Now in Maytime to the wicket / Out I march
with bat and pad: / See the son of grief at cricket /
Trying to be glad.”
The case is surely made. Who, in dark times, can
begrudge Root and his comrades a spot of solace
where they may find it, or fail to be touched by
their camaraderie with the victors?
Naysayers should know that this type of
carousing has a long cricketing history. The York-
shire and England spinner Bobby Peel reputedly
played his last first-class game, in 1897, after uncer-
tainly bowling a ball towards the sightscreen and
then watering the wicket in unorthodox fashion.
Root and his team have shown, by contrast, single-
minded strength and endurance. Perhaps — who
can tell? — a time will come when they also
demonstrate such qualities on the field of play.Killing the Bill
The government’s cavalier approach to due process has undermined public
confidence in what were largely sensible reforms to the policing of protests
The government suffered a string of defeats in the
House of Lords on Monday night on amendments
to its Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.
That is what inevitably happens from time to time
when a government does not have a majority in
the upper chamber. But that is also what happens
when a government tries to push through signifi-
cant changes to the law without due process and
sufficient consultation. It is also what happens
when a government has lost the benefit of the
doubt. Opposition to aspects of the bill was drawn
from across the political spectrum with prominent
Conservative peers and crossbenchers among
those who succeeded in defeating the government
in 14 divisions. That reflects the breadth and depth
of concern at measures to hand new powers to the
police to restrict the right to protest.
Yet this bill is not the draconian assault on
British democracy that some of its more excitable
opponents have claimed. Still less would it turn
Britain into Belarus. The contentious clauses were
an attempt to address what has become the in-
creasingly evident inadequacy of existing laws on
the policing of protests. The right to peaceful pro-
test is of course a cornerstone of democracy. The
law must always preserve and protect the freedom
of citizens to express their views collectively. ButTake Your Medicine
Healthcare workers must be vaccinated against Covid
No employer can force you to believe that
vaccines work, although they do. Whatever you
believe, however, a healthcare employer is justi-
fied in demanding that you have one anyway.
From April, vaccination against Covid-19 will be
mandatory for healthcare employees who have
direct patient contact. In practice, this means that
unvaccinated medical staff will need to receive
their first dose within roughly a fortnight, by
February 3. The government must not blink
It is undeniable at this stage that vaccines are
effective. Only around a tenth of British adults are
completely unvaccinated, yet they make up
almost half of Covid hospital admissions and a
clear majority of those in intensive care. As of the
end of December, the unvaccinated were eight
times more likely to be hospitalised than those
who have had the jab. It would be preferable if
those who treat them could unfailingly draw the
obvious moral conclusion themselves, and yet
over 80,000 NHS staff are, as yet, unjabbed. Their
choice endangers not only themselves, but their
patients and their colleagues. There is absolutely
no reason for hospitals to put up with it.Flannelled Flâneurs
England’s vanquished cricketers fully deserved to enjoy an all-night party
Though the Ashes Test series may be over, and its
rigours for the players were intense, no one can
doubt the stamina of England’s cricketers in ad-
versity. Footage released yesterday shows police
gently breaking up an all-night drinking session
comprising England and Australia players, still in
their whites, at 6am on Monday after complaints
about the noise. The teams were staying at the
same hotel in Hobart and contingents from both,
including the England captain, Joe Root, appear to
have made a heavy night of it on the balcony.
Though we sympathise with hotel guests who
had their slumber disrupted, any reasonableUK: The Office for National Statistics
publishes the latest consumer prices index
and retail prices index data.
Now is the time
when the ghost
ponds rise from the
dead. In the last
hundred years it is
estimated we have
lost a million ponds
in Britain. Drained and filled in, or just left
to be dried out by encroaching vegetation,
the modest-sized meres that once watered
plough horses, powered mills and stocked
fish have slipped away from the landscape.
During periods of prolonged winter rain,
however, they live again, albeit briefly, as
their shells fill. Conservationists have begun
to take an interest in these lost wetlands. It
would not be difficult to permanently
resurrect them and give us back much of our
squandered inheritance of biodiversity.
jonathan tulloch
In 2017 the US announced the extradition
and arraignment of the Mexican drug lord
El Chapo. He was jailed for life in 2019.
Michael Crawford,
pictured, actor, Some
Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em
(1973-78), and singer, 80;
Julian Barnes, author,
The Sense of an Ending
(2011, Man Booker
prizewinner), 76; Murray
Beauclerk, Duke of St Albans, 83; Rob
Behrens, parliamentary and health service
ombudsman, 70; John Bercow, Speaker of
the House of Commons (2009-19), MP for
Buckingham (1997-2019), 59; Euan Blair,
co-founder of education and recruitment
start-up Multiverse, 38; Anthony Browne,
Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire,
55; Jenson Button, British Formula One
world champion (2009), 42; Damien
Chazelle, film-maker, La La Land (2017), 37;
Larry Clark, film director, Kids (1995), 79;
Tim Foster, rower, Olympic gold medallist
(2000), 52; Josephine Gauld, diplomat,
deputy British high commissioner to Kenya,
UK ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire
(2016-20), 49; Lady (Kate) Gavron,
chairwoman, Carcanet Press, 67; Tippi
Hedren, actress, The Birds (1963), 92; Wayne
Hemingway, fashion designer and
co-founder (1982), Red or Dead, 61; Dame
Patricia Hodgson, chairwoman, Ofcom
(2014-17), 75; Rt Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin,
bishop of Dover, chaplain to the Queen
(2008-19), 61; Trevor Kavanagh, political
editor (1983-2006), now columnist, The Sun,
79; Svetlana Khorkina, Russian gymnast,
two-time Olympic champion (1996, 2000)
and nine-time world champion, 43; Richard
Lester, film director, The Beatles: A Hard
Day’s Night (1964), 90; Dolly Parton,
country music singer and actress, 9 to 5
(1980), 76; Sir Simon Rattle, OM, music
director, London Symphony Orchestra, chief
conductor and artistic director, Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra (2002-18), 67;
Cindy Sherman, photographer and
film director, 68; Sir John Stanley,
Conservative MP (1974-2015), Northern
Ireland minister (1987-88), 80; Scott
Taunton, chief executive, News UK
Broadcasting (including Times Radio), 51;
Dennis Taylor, snooker player, world
champion (1985), 73.
“They who dream by day are cognizant of
many things which escape those who dream
only by night.” Edgar Allan Poe, American
writer, Eleonora (1841)
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