the times | Monday February 21 2022 29
Leading articles
antibody therapy in the most serious cases,
improving the prospects of those unlucky enough
to be admitted to hospital. Though the arrival of
the Omicron variant did cause a significant wave
of new cases last month, the spike in deaths was
not nearly so sharp as in previous waves. In fact,
according to government data, fewer people are
now dying than normally do at this time of year.
The risks of lifting restrictions are therefore
lower than once they were. Keeping the curbs, on
the other hand, carries a heavy price. Even in these
extraordinary times, the sheer affront to personal
liberty that the restrictions represent should not
be forgotten. Self-isolation can also be hugely
disruptive to children’s education, and the current
rules create persistent, yet unpredictable, staffing
problems for businesses and public services.
When it comes to ending self-isolation rules, the
inescapable question is: if not now, then when?
The truth is that there is no longer any convincing
answer. The government’s plan to ditch self-
isolation rules from this week is a welcome step
towards normality.
This does not mean that the pandemic is over.
News that the Queen has tested positive for
Covid-19 is a stark reminder of that, if any were
needed. The prime minister is right to urgecaution even as legal restrictions disappear. There
should still be guidance, albeit not criminal laws,
on how to behave safely, and ministers should
ensure that there are sufficient rapid tests available
to enable people to follow it. There must remain
spaces, too, where the clinically vulnerable feel
able to connect with the fabric of society. The end
of self-isolation rules will, inevitably, come as
unwelcome news for some of those most at risk.
Ministers should also be alert to new risks.
Immunity has made these changes possible, but it
wanes over time and may need to be renewed with
further vaccine doses. Nor can the government
ignore the bleak prospect of new variants which
evade the vaccines. It should continue, therefore,
to fund randomised testing, which helps to keep
tabs on case numbers in the population and the
genetic profile of the virus.
Cynics may wonder whether the prime minister’s
decision was prompted more by a need to appease
truculent Conservative backbenchers than by
sound public health reasoning. Given Boris
Johnson’s political difficulties, that would hardly
be surprising. Nevertheless, there are good reasons
to take this step, whether they are the ones in the
prime minister’s mind or not. It is not March 2020
any more, and thank goodness for that.has three times had to be taken back into public
operation, while the Southeastern operator has
been replaced for fiddling the figures.
A ruthless investigation was commissioned in
2018 into the rising cost of subsidising Britain’s
railways, falling outcomes and much derided
absurdities of a ticketing system with at least 200
different fare structures that left operators bemused
and passengers furious. Britain now has the
highest rail fares in Europe, the wildest variations
in prices charged per mile and tickets that cost
2.7 times more than they did in the days of British
Rail. With rail fares due to rise a further 3.8 per cent
next month, the chance of wooing back passengers
will be slim unless there is radical change.
The investigation was a damning indictment of
the mess that the old franchise system created.
The government accepted the conclusions and
published a white paper outlining a wholesale
transformation of the railway structure in Britain
(though not in Northern Ireland). Apart from the
boastful name of the proposed new government-
run structure, Great British Railways is a sensible
and workable reform. It brings the whole networkunder one roof, uniting track and train operations,
taking control of national timetables, setting and
collecting fares and replacing the wasteful and
unreliable franchising system with contracts for
operators obliged to work closely with local
authorities in five distinct railway districts. The
multiplicity of fares will be simplified, refunds will
be easier to obtain and decision-making will be
swifter. Best of all, the structure has run into little
political opposition: Labour tacitly accepts that
this is as near to nationalisation as a Conservative
government will come, while free marketeers are
pleased that the contract system still leaves room
for private investment and local initiative.
All that now remains is to translate the reforms
into law. This must be done now if the new
structure is to be in place by next summer as the
white paper envisages. There are signs that things
are slipping. No time has yet been allotted to the
bill. Much else is being pressed into a crowded
parliamentary timetable. Unless the government
focuses soon on the reforms, the struggling
railways will limp on in limbo, losing money,
passengers and public confidence.which the curlers were responsible for Team GB’s
two and only medals. The achievement of the
women’s curling team, ably captained to a gold
medal by Eve Muirhead, was particularly impres-
sive, culminating in a commanding 10-3 victory
against Japan. The men’s team managed a valiant
silver, pipped to the post for gold by their more
experienced Swedish adversaries (captained by a
curler widely thought to be the greatest ever).
The medals were sorely needed in these
tarnished Games. Britain’s other medal hopes,
including women’s snowboard cross and men’s
slalom events, ended in disappointment. Team GBleaves Beijing short of its five-medal tallies in
Sochi and Pyeongchang. The Games will have
been more disappointing still for the organisers,
plagued as they were by unsavoury controversies
— from doping scandals and calls to toughen the
ban on Russian participation, to the high-handed
approach of the Chinese authorities to enforcing
Covid-19 curbs and policing athletes’ speech.
Yet that depressing context cannot be allowed
to obscure the curlers’ achievements, nor their
service to the nation. Britain can withstand a
bottom-table position in some contests — but nul
points at the Olympics would be hard to take.Towards Normality
The government has made a reasonable judgment that the social and
economic costs of mandatory self-isolation can no longer be justified
It has been nearly two years since the prime
minister announced the first national lockdown.
In March 2020, as European hospitals overflowed
with Covid-19 cases, shortages of medical equip-
ment intensified and fears grew that the NHS
would be unable to cope with a massive influx of
seriously ill patients, legal restrictions on social
mixing seemed the only viable means of preventing
catastrophe. Successive waves of the pandemic
then threatened to batter the health service
further, and endanger the lives of the elderly and
those with underlying health conditions. There
was little choice, in those circumstances, but to
keep some restrictions in place, including a
requirement to self-isolate after a positive test.
In recent months the facts have changed. Some
66 per cent of the UK population have now had
three doses of the vaccine, and 85 per cent have
had two doses. The government and the NHS
should still be trying to drive those numbers up
but, in combination with some natural immunity
due to previous infections, vaccination is protecting
people against serious disease with remarkable
success. Many who catch Covid-19 now experience
little more than a mild cold.
Treatments have improved too, with anti-
inflammatory and anti-viral drugs, coupled withRailroading Change
Parliament must start debating wholesale reform of Britain’s rail operations
The past two years have been punishing for the
railway system. The government kept the trains
running at vast cost during lockdown, in effect
nationalising the network by taking over all
services from the private franchises and bearing
the cost. Now traffic patterns have changed, many
former commuters will work from home, and
the fragmented operation of the railways is
unsustainable. Parliament needs to act fast to
approve the plans for an end to the botched
privatisation forced on the railways in 1994 by the
Major government.
Even before the pandemic, it was clear that the
system was not working. The attempt to add extra
rail services with a new timetable in 2018 led to
chaos, as the different train operators could not
co-ordinate their timetables. Apportioning blame
for delays became a profitable industry for lawyers,
punctuality was poor and refunds were complicated
to obtain. The vaunted franchise system worked
well when demand for rail travel was rising, but
when train operators overbid, passenger numbers
fell and services worsened, public anger forced the
government to step in. The east coast main lineCold Comfort
Team GB’s curling success was the saving grace of a miserable Winter Games
Curling lacks some of the grandiose spectacle of
other Olympic sports. Competitors do not travel
at the hair-raising speeds of those in the luge,
skeleton or bobsleigh. The sport does not invite
the displays of audacious athleticism typical in
freestyle skiing or slopestyle snowboarding, nor
does it reward viewers with the panoramic
splendour of a mountainous backdrop. It is in no
way to throw stones at curling to acknowledge
that the core elements of the event are rather
more prosaic. That is its very appeal.
Never has the sport appeared quite so appealing
as after the dismal Beijing Winter Olympics, atBelgium: Liz Truss, the foreign secretary,
and Maros Sefcovic, the vice-president of
the European Commission, lead negotiations
on the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
Trees, like people,
become more
resilient through
adversity. Those
that grow in the
open, exposed to
more air movement
than those in clumps or stands, become
stronger, their wood denser and better able
to withstand stress — like Dartmoor’s tough,
wizened hawthorns, raked by frequent gales.
Leaf-fall protects trees before winter storms,
reducing their resistance to wind, but strong
gusts can still fell them, especially shallow-
rooted species like beech. A surprising
number of overblown trees can regenerate,
given time, particularly birches and willows;
those that do not contribute vital structure
and nutrients to a woodland habitat if left to
decay in place. melissa harrison
In 1965 Malcolm X, the advocate of Black
Power, was assassinated in New York by
men linked to the Nation of Islam group.
Jilly Cooper, pictured,
author, the Rutshire
Chronicles, Riders (1985),
85; Eniola Aluko,
footballer, England
(2004-16), 35; William
Baldwin, actor, Backdraft
(1991), 59; Abhijit
Banerjee, economist, Sveriges Riksbank
prize in economic sciences in memory of
Alfred Nobel (2019), 61; James Jean-Jacques
Burnel, musician, the Stranglers, Golden
Brown (1982), 70; Tyne Daly, actress, Cagney
& Lacey (1982-88), 76; Anthony Daniels,
actor, C-3PO in the Star Wars film series
(since 1977), 76; Daniel Ek, co-founder and
chief executive, music service Spotify, 39;
Vanessa Feltz, chat show host, 60; Jonathan
Safran Foer, author, Everything Is
Illuminated (2002), 45; Baroness (Janet)
Fookes, Conservative MP (1970-97), deputy
speaker (Lords), 86; Lord (David) Frost,
Cabinet Office minister (2021), chief
negotiator of Task Force Europe (2020-21),
57; Hannah Fry, mathematician, writer and
broadcaster, The Curious Cases of Rutherford
& Fry (BBC Radio 4), 38; Dame Helen
Ghosh, master of Balliol College, Oxford, 66;
Prof Usha Goswami, director of the Centre
for Neuroscience in Education, University of
Cambridge, 62; Kelsey Grammer, actor,
Cheers (1984-93), 67; Magnus Linklater,
Scotland editor, The Times (2007-12), 80;
Michael McIntyre, comedian, 46; Francis
Baring, Lord Northbrook, Conservative
politician, 68; King Harald V of Norway, 85;
Neil Oliver, archaeologist, broadcaster and
president of the National Trust for Scotland
(2017-20), 55; Elliot Page (formerly Ellen
Page), actress, Inception (2010), 35; Chuck
Palahniuk, writer, Fight Club (1996), 60; Gen
Sir Robert Pascoe, president, The Veterans
Charity, general officer commanding,
Northern Ireland (1985-88), adjutant-
general (1988-90), 90; Jordan Peele,
screenwriter, Get Out (2017); Christina Rees,
Labour MP for Neath, shadow secretary of
state for Wales (2017-20), 68; John Rishton,
chief executive, Rolls-Royce (2011-15), 64;
David Wood, actor, co-founder (1979),
Whirligig Theatre, 78.
“If one cannot have success, the next most
agreeable thing is failure.” Jean Ingelow,
English poet and novelist, John Jerome,
His Thoughts and Ways (1886)
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