SIR – Annabel Heseltine’s article (“‘I’m fed up with anti-vaxxers taking up hospital beds’”, Features, October 25) raises some important issues about how well our “free” healthcare system has managed Covid, and the rights and responsibilities of those who have access to it.
A Joint Committee of Parliament set up to scrutinise the UK’s Online Safety Bill has set out its stall this week by asking the public for their views on the draft legislation. The Bill, published by the government in draft form in May 2021, is designed to establish a new regulatory framework to tackle harmful content online.
The Committee will be chaired by Damian Collins MP, the former chair of House of Commons DCMS Select Committee, whose seminal inquiry on Disinformation and ‘fake news’ recommended tougher action on online hate speech and greater regulation of social media companies, including Facebook.
8 July 2021 • 12:02am
Bangladeshi people sit waiting for free food provided by Dhaka Metropolitan Police during the hard lockdown
Credit: MONIRUL ALAM/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
SIR – Television reporters constantly interview members of the public who claim that they don’t want lockdown to end. Where do they find these people?
If their lives have not been blighted by the lockdowns of the last 16 months, I can only assume that they don’t work or run a business; they don’t go shopping; they never eat out; they don’t have school-age children or students in their family; they don’t know anyone in hospital or a care home; they don’t have health problems or ever need to see a GP; they never go on holiday; they never go to the theatre, a cinema or to a concert; they don’t support a charity; they neither attend nor support nor try to organise a local club or organisation; they don’t go to public talks or meetings; they don’t have or want any social contact; their family n
SIR – We were told that the intervals between each stage of easing the lockdown allowed for an analysis of the effects, and so far there have been no problems.