“THERE is … no credible route to a zero-Covid Britain or indeed a zero-Covid world,” Boris Johnson told the House of Commons on February 22.
“We cannot persist indefinitely with restrictions that debilitate our economy, our physical and mental wellbeing, and the life chances of our children.”
To confirm, a zero-Covid strategy aims for the total elimination of Covid. Many people may be confused, thinking: “Isn’t this exactly what the government has been trying to do since the start of the pandemic?”
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Britain has followed what science writer Laura Spinney recently described in the Guardian as “a mitigation and suppression strategy, according to which we will have to live with Covid-19 and therefore we must learn to manage it aiming for herd immunity by the most painless route possible.”
Mel Giedroyc is taking part in the Cambridge Literary Festival.
- Credit: Laurie Fletcher
An innovative literary festival has announced its lockdown line-up for its spring return next month.
A year ago, Cambridge Literary Festival had to close its doors to live events due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Last April it delivered a scaled down online alternative,
The Listening Festival, and in November a full-scale virtual event.
With a new CLF website and two festivals delivered, organisers are ready to do it again from April 21 to April 25, with the line-up featuring award-winning authors, politicians and well-known TV personalities.
Douglas Stuart s debut novel Shuggie Bain was awarded the 2020 Brooker Prize.
MPs have demanded an end to a controversial UK immigration rule that allows for the deportation of immigrants sleeping rough on Britain’s streets. Labour MP, Claudia Webb, led fresh calls for the government to scrap its policy that sanctions a person’s deportation if they are homeless.
Under UK immigration rules that came into force on 1 December 2020, sleeping rough can be grounds for the Home Office to refuse or cancel a person’s permission to be in Britain. The Home Office has insisted that it will apply the rule ‘sparingly’.
However, a motion tabled by Ms Webbe has raised concerns over the ‘very broad scope of grounds’ that can be used to refuse or cut short someone’s stay in the UK. The Labour MP’s motion has been backed by a wide range of cross-party MPs, including Tim Farron, the former Liberal Democrat leader.
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