the times | Saturday June 11 2022 29
Leading articles
particularly now that the government has adopted
its proposed windfall tax on energy companies. In
a focus group for Times Radio in Wakefield, the
red-wall seat where a by-election will be held this
month, disgruntled 2019 first-time Conservative
voters described Sir Keir as “weak”, “a slippery
slime ball” and a barrier to voting Labour.
That is in part due to Labour’s reluctance to take
clear positions on pressing issues. A case in point is
the confusion over its position on the nationwide
strikes that threaten to paralyse the rail network
this summer. First, Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling
up secretary, said she was on the rail workers’ side,
then Sir Keir’s office insisted Labour’s position was
that the strikes should not go ahead, only for Wes
Streeting, the shadow health secretary, to say that
if he were a railway worker, he would join them. At
a time of acute economic strain, the idea that
Labour could take the side of rail workers over rail
users, who face severe disruption to their lives, will
seem bizarre to most people.
Nor are strikes the only subject on which Labour
appears confused. The party has struggled to set
out any distinctive strategy for how it would
address the cost-of-living crisis. That has
prompted the former Labour business secretary
Lord Mandelson to warn this week that Sir Keirwill struggle to win the next election unless he
overhauls the party’s economic policy. Meanwhile
the government is preparing next week to intro-
duce a bill that would rip up its own Brexit deal,
almost certainly breaking international law. Yet
despite spending two days in Northern Ireland
this week, Sir Keir has not stated clearly what he
would do differently to resolve the Northern Irish
border problem. Perhaps most damagingly,
Labour has got itself into a tangle over trans issues,
with Sir Keir unable to give a clear answer to the
question “what is a woman?”
The danger for Sir Keir and Labour is that the
public perception of slipperiness and indecisive-
ness risks becoming embedded. Even Angela
Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, has acknowledged
that Sir Keir needs to “put some more welly” into
his public appearances. Labour cannot expect to
ride the wave of public disapproval at the prime
minister’s lockdown antics and doubts over his
integrity all the way into government. If Sir Keir is
serious about seeking a majority at the next
election, he needs to start providing answers as to
what he would do differently. Above all, Labour
needs to reassure the public that it has a plan to
halt Britain’s seemingly inevitable slide back to the
1970s, rather than accelerate it.some hospitals, visitors are expected to book a slot
days in advance, or provide a written summary of
their reasons for coming. Patients can be asked to
choose which of their spouse, siblings or children
is to be their sole designated visitor. This is not
only insensitive but counterproductive. The
television presenter Kirstie Allsopp has been
visiting her father, who is in hospital after a triple
heart-bypass operation; she sensibly observes that
patients may find it easier to recover if they have
access to their loved ones.
Hospital access during a pandemic, which has
far from run its course, is a question of fine
judgments, and the public understands this. They
overwhelmingly complied with legal require-
ments during lockdowns, despite the heartbreak
this caused for many. The political damage that
Boris Johnson’s administration has sustained for
failing to rigorously observe the same rules,
despite having drawn them up, is testament to an
innate sense of fairness among the British public.
But that was then, and this is now. In the early
stages of the pandemic, there were reasonable
fears of the devastation that could be caused by anoutbreak of Covid-19 within hospitals themselves.
This happened at a hospital in South Africa, where
a single unsuspected case of Covid infected
80 members of staff and 39 patients, 15 of whom
died. To mitigate such risks and keep the NHS
functioning, it was essential to keep visitors away.
To continue with draconian restrictions now,
however, in defiance of advice from the top of the
health service that hospitals should be moving
back to pre-pandemic arrangements or better, is
callous and has real victims.
Such restrictions also have a social cost. There
will be other pandemics. This one has been coun-
tered by scientific ingenuity, in rapidly developing
vaccines, and the dedication of health workers, but
also by the willingness of the public to observe a
vital social contract. The wellbeing of vulnerable
people has been preserved by the willingness of
the wider population to accept privations
unknown in modern Britain outside wartime.
In future emergencies, public consent to draco-
nian rules will be essential. And it will be easier to
gain if there is a collective memory of the exercise
of compassion in today’s coronavirus crisis.15 years where the remains of the ship lie, 28 miles
off Great Yarmouth. Not the least remarkable
aspect of this fascinating tale, hailed as the most
significant maritime find since the Mary Rose in
1971, is the way insiders have managed to keep it
secret. Good for them. Indeed, the wreck’s precise
location remains undisclosed to confound
treasure hunters.
Special congratulations are due to the Barnwell
brothers, Julian and Lincoln, their late father,
Michael, and their friend James Little. This team
of dedicated hobbyists searched for four years for
HMS Gloucester before daring to hope they hadsucceeded in 2007. Confirming the vessel’s identity
had to wait for the discovery of its bell in 2012.
Shoes, navigation gear and wine bottles have also
been recovered. What remains of the hull, and in
what condition, is not yet known.
If enough of the structure is intact, efforts to
bring it ashore should be made. The logistical and
financial obstacles will be formidable. It took 11
years to raise the Mary Rose, and that lay just two
miles offshore. Since then, however, millions of
visitors have marvelled at its display in Ports-
mouth. The chance to view a salvaged HMS
Gloucester would prove similarly inspiring.Slippery Starmer
Labour’s inability to take a clear position on looming rail strikes will raise fears that
the party would accelerate rather than halt Britain’s slide back towards the 1970s
It is hard to think of more propitious conditions for
an opposition party. The Tories are in disarray.
More than 40 per cent of Conservative MPs, and
up to 75 per cent of backbenchers, think that Boris
Johnson should resign as prime minister. The
public appear to have turned even more decisively
against Mr Johnson. His personal approval rating
now stands at minus 45 and nearly 60 per cent of
voters think that he should go. The government
itself appears rudderless, with no coherent agenda.
Mr Johnson continues to spray around half-baked
policy announcements, such as Thursday’s
proposals on housing, amid uncertainty as to
whether, even with a working majority of 75, he
has sufficient authority over his own party to
deliver any of them. The public are clearly looking
for an alternative. But is Labour ready to offer it?
Since becoming party leader just over two years
ago, Sir Keir Starmer has one commendable
achievement to his credit. He has succeeded in
removing the stain of antisemitism that his prede-
cessor, Jeremy Corbyn, had shamefully allowed to
tarnish the reputation of the party. Yet beyond
this, he has made little progress in stamping his
own identity on the party. Labour may be eight
percentage points ahead of the Tories in the
polls, but few could name a single Labour policy,Covid Compassion
Some hospitals are maintaining unnecessarily harsh policies on social distancing
Since the discovery of a novel coronavirus in 2019,
there have been almost 180,000 deaths in the
United Kingdom owing to Covid-19. More than
22 million cases of infection have been recorded. It
is the greatest public health crisis for at least a
generation, and by some measures for a century.
And the threat remains potent. Covid cases in
Britain rose this week for the first time since the
peak of the Omicron variant at the end of March.
Yet efficiently managing a health crisis requires
adapting to changing conditions and assessments
of risk. The government’s decision to end all man-
datory Covid restrictions in February reflected a
reasonable assessment that public safety could
still be maintained. Hospitals, however, have in
many cases preserved restrictions on visiting that
were appropriate to the early stages of the crisis
but are causing needless anguish now.
We report today that in dozens of hospitals
visiting arrangements have still not been restored
to pre-pandemic levels, contrary to official
guidance. To patients and their families, these
restrictions will seem officious rather than
compassionate. It is past time they were eased. InRising from the Depths
The wreck of HMS Gloucester should be brought to the surface
Since it sank on a sandbank off the Norfolk coast
in 1682, the whereabouts of the ship carrying the
Duke of York at the time have been a mystery. The
duke survived to become King James II. About
200 passengers and crew drowned, many because
protocol prevented them from taking to lifeboats
before the duke, and he dithered over his departure.
He also caused the grounding, having overruled
the pilot on the ship’s course. James’s conduct
suggests his deposition in the Glorious Revolution
of 1688 was no great loss to his ex-kingdom.
Now, it turns out, a small band of divers,
academics and maritime experts have known forDame Beryl Grey,
pictured, prima ballerina,
president, English
National Ballet, artistic
director, London Festival
Ballet (1968-79), 95; Sir
Geoffrey Adams, UK
ambassador to Egypt
(2018-21) the Netherlands (2013-17), 65; Jean
Alesi, racing driver, winner of the 1995
Formula One Canadian Grand Prix, 58;
Diana Armfield, figurative painter, 102; Lord
(Steven) Bassam of Brighton, shadow chief
whip, House of Lords (2010-18), 69; Dany
Cotton, firefighter, QFSM, commissioner of
the London Fire Brigade (2017-19), 53;
Caroline Criado-Perez, writer and
campaigner, Invisible Women: Exposing Data
Bias in a World Designed for Men (2019), 38;
Athol Fugard, playwright and novelist,
Tsotsi (1980), 90; Jill Gallard, UK
ambassador to Germany, 54; Shia LaBeouf,
actor, the Transformers film series (2007-11),
36; Hugh Laurie, actor, House (2004-12), and
comedian, Jeeves and Wooster (1990-93), 63;
Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder (1980) and
president of Peta (People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals), 73; Sir Jackie
Stewart, racing driver, Formula One
champion (1969, 1971, 1973), 83; Kate Varah,
executive director, National Theatre, The
Old Vic theatre, London (2015-22), 46; Ben
Watson, para-cyclist, two-time Paralympic
gold medallist (2020, Tokyo), 33.
In 1975 the first oil was pumped ashore from
British oilfields in the North Sea, at Sullom
Voe oil terminal in Shetland.
Lewis Moody, pictured,
rugby union player,
England captain (2010-
11), 44; Rt Rev John
Arnold, Roman Catholic
bishop of Salford, 69;
Neil Basu, QPM,
assistant commissioner
Metropolitan Police, and former head of UK
counterterrorism policing, 54; John Copley,
theatre and opera producer, 89; Michael
Downey, chief executive, Lawn Tennis
Association (2013-17), 65; Michael Fabricant,
Conservative MP for Lichfield, vice-
chairman, Conservative Party (2012-14), 72;
Sir Paul Kennedy, lord justice of appeal
(1992-2005), interception of communications
commissioner (2006-12), 87; Lord (Spencer)
Livermore, opposition whip (Lords, 2020),
partner and director, Britain Thinks
consultancy (2016-18), 47; Christopher
McQuarrie, film-maker, The Usual Suspects
(1995), the Mission: Impossible film series
(2015, 2018), Top Gun: Maverick (2022,
screenwriter), 54; Javed Miandad, cricketer,
Pakistan (1976-93), 65; Robert Noel,
chairman, Hammerson (retail property),
chief executive, Land Securities Group
(2012-20), 58; Neil Oatley, chief designer,
McLaren Formula One team (1986-2002,
now design and development director), 68;
Ian Partridge, classical tenor, 84; Richard M
Sherman, songwriter, Mary Poppins (1964),
The Jungle Book (1967), Chitty Chitty Bang
Bang (1968), 94; Cathy Tyson, actress, Mona
Lisa (1986), Band of Gold (1995-96), 57.
Birthdays today
Birthdays tomorrow
On this day
Daily Universal Register
UK and Ireland: Ireland host Scotland in
Dublin, Wales take on Belgium in Cardiff,
and England face Italy in Wolverhampton in
the Uefa Nations League.
“I don’t think that we are a species or a people
that can exist without making mistakes
somewhere along the line.”
Harry Belafonte, interview for the news
programme Democracy Now! (1986)
The last word