You can forget about the recent Government omnishambles. Yesterday was a remarkable sight: Tens of thousands of Britons waited for five hours in line to beat the terrible coronavirus.
It was an incredible start to the nation’s booster mission.
Yes. It started out inauspiciously. Unfortunately, the site for ordering third Covid jabs went down. This was a temporary problem due to overwhelming demand.
Boris Johnson deserves nothing but high praise for turbocharging the rollout – he could, after all, have caved in to professional pessimists demanding tighter restrictions.
Therefore, we encourage our readers to take up his request for a “booster brigade” of volunteers to assist in the delivery of vaccinations.
Yesterday was a remarkable sight: Tens of thousands of Britons waited for five hours in line to beat the horrible coronavirus.
And yet…
Doesn’t it feel like there is a deep rooted unease regarding the wider reaction to Omicron? It is very contagious. But jabs do offer protection and there is scant evidence – yet – of it being deadlier than Delta.
The Prime Minister, despite all this, refuses to allow for tougher controls.
However, these are not free.
The Plan B rules already are in full swing, as a flood of cancellations and lost orders has led to business being robbed of billions.
The NHS wait lists are expected to increase by 12million… there will be no face-toface appointments with GPs for many months… and elective surgery is delayed… Imagine waiting for months to have a hip replacement, only to find out that they’ll return next year.
Think about the effects on education and mental well-being of your children.
Johnson should delay implementing additional curbs in the event of Omicron’s worsening effects.
One vaccine was all that would work. Two were then added. Then came the booster. It is also being considered to offer annual vaccines.
Is this the end of the nightmare? Are we willing to put our freedoms and lives on the line indefinitely?
Free speech victory
The Online Safety Bill, in its initial form, contained serious threats to freedom expression.
Even though they were well intended, it is possible that powers to ban any content which falls within the narrow and vague definition of “legal but hazardous” could have been used as an evil weapon against debate.
Therefore, the Mail applauds the Cross-Party ‘Super Committee’ that was established to review the Bill to eliminate those threats. However, it preserves the original intention to clamp down on social media companies that permit criminal content to be posted to their websites.
The Online Safety Bill, in its initial form, contained serious threats to freedom expression.
The exemptions granted to bona fide news media publishers have been strengthened, and the definitions of illegal material are tightened. However, tech giants now face tougher obligations to combat online fraud and stop children from seeing pornography.
The legislation still has a long way to go before being made law. This review has laid the foundation for international standards.
Balance the scales
The number of times Tory Ministers have pledged to fix the Human Rights Act has almost been lost on us. What if it was different this time around?
Dominic Raab is the Justice Secretary and he certainly seems determined to bring ‘commonsense’ back into discredit system.
The act is often manipulated in crucial areas such as the deportation and repatriation of foreign criminals. By replacing it with a Bill of Rights, he hopes to redress the balance between rights and responsibilities – and prevent judges trampling over free speech by concocting privacy laws on the hoof.
The House of Lords, the opposition parties and legal establishment will all fight for him. He has his supporters. We wish him all the best.
Dominic Raab Justice Secretary certainly seems determined to bring ‘commonsense’ back into discredited system