Letters: How the Government can turn its conflicted Covid strategy around

SIR – This week you published a series of important articles on the poor handling of the Covid-19 crisis. I am sure we all agree that we desperately need more transparency.

In the meantime, some facts might be helpful. For example, many Covid-19 sufferers are asymptomatic, so will never be tested under the current regime. But they will still be infectious.

Meanwhile, those who do get symptoms will have had the virus for several days before the onset of symptoms, so will be infectious during that prodromal phase.

Finally, the groups most likely to die are the elderly and those with severe co-morbidities. Clearly they should be sheltered.

Surely the Government can convene a cross-party team, perhaps chaired by Lord Darzi, to handle this and stop the constant scaremongering and changes of direction.

Tony Narula FRCS
Wargrave, Berkshire

SIR – Covid-19 restrictions are like extreme diets: they never work in the long run.

It looks as though the virus is here to stay, so we need to find a moderate approach that will allow us to live and not just exist.

Intrinsic to human existence are the enjoyment and nourishment gained from social interaction.

Samantha McGill
Crowle, Worcestershire

SIR – A second lockdown of two weeks has been suggested.

This could solve a number of problems if done sensibly. It would give the Government an exit strategy – something that was sadly missing from the first lockdown – and in so doing it would give people a sense of light at the end of the tunnel.

After two weeks, or whatever period is deemed appropriate, everyone should go back to work, and the old normal should resume. The uncoordinated approach that we have at the moment is likely to see the current situation continue for two years or more, with disastrous results.

David Lane
Birmingham

SIR – Here’s a thought. Instead of trying to turn England into a nation of sheep and snitches, why doesn’t Boris Johnson take a “glass half full” approach and look at the present situation as a reason for celebration?

After all, the initial lockdown objectives were achieved, the NHS was protected, and hospitalisation and death rates have continued to fall since April, despite large beach gatherings, protests, pub trips and holidays.

By stressing successes rather than fears, Mr Johnson can open up the road to normality while ending concerns about the abuse of state power that is now threatening the health and livelihoods of millions. The public would welcome some positivity and political courage after months of pessimism and risk avoidance.

Howard Gray
Malmesbury, Wiltshire

Hardworking GPs

SIR – It was with sadness that I read Dr Pamela Taor’s letter (September 13) about “barely functioning” GPs.

My practice has been running a near-full service since lockdown began. We cancelled leave, and many of the partners worked extra sessions to make time to think about how to change the way we provide care.

We run a full triage service. When an email comes through, we triage its content, either issuing what is requested, making a referral, phoning the patient or, for those who need it, arranging an appointment for that day. Prescriptions are turned around within 48 hours, and we have started running a drive-through flu jab clinic.

Housebound patients are seen by a specialist frailty team, and we have recruited a physiotherapy organisation to deal with patients through video consultations, only referring them if imaging is needed.

We do not provide ear syringing (Letters, September 13) or minor operations that are not immediately necessary. But do we really want to use hospitals for ear syringing, when other providers offer it?

Of course, we are not perfect, and to those who feel let down, I apologise. But, looking back, I am confident that we did all we humanly could.

Dr Donal Collins
Senior partner, The Highlands Practice
Fareham, Hampshire

Stand up to Sturgeon

SIR – Simon Heffer rightly argues that the Government should call Nicola Sturgeon’s bluff over Scottish independence, and emphasises the financial impracticality of Scotland going it alone without the support of England.

If Ms Sturgeon continues to demand a second referendum, Boris Johnson must stop payments under the Barnett formula, so that funding is distributed equally. This would bring home, to all Scottish voters, their dependence on English taxpayers. Ms Sturgeon will win an independence referendum unless Westminster plays tough.

It should also be made clear to the Shetland Islands that, should Scotland vote to leave the Union, we will be happy to ensure that they become a Crown Dependency like the successful and prosperous Channel Islands.

Michael Edwards
Haslemere, Surrey

BBC profligacy

SIR – What is surprising about Gary Lineker’s new BBC contract is not that he took a £400,000 pay cut, but that the BBC thought it acceptable to offer him £1.35 million in the first place.

If the BBC were serious about its public-service ethos and offering value for money, it would tell “stars” that the rate for their work was capped at, say, £350,000. With that kind of money on offer, there would still be a queue of willing and able presenters.

The BBC’s claims of hardship ring false. It needs to be brought to heel, and quickly.

Brian Peel
Sutton Coldfield

Shovel-unready

SIR – I was delighted to read Bunny Guinness’s article about avoiding digging in order to protect important aerobic bacteria higher up in the soil.

I have been gardening organically, without digging, for the past 50 years. At last, I am no longer an oddity. Thank you, Bunny.

Eva Lipman
Maidenhead, Berkshire

A nuclear future

SIR – There is no need for Britain to choose between large nuclear power stations and small modular reactors (Letters, September 12 and Comment, September 4). We should have both.

Rolls-Royce’s small modular reactor design represents very promising technology that could bring significant export opportunities to UK plc in the years ahead. However, at this stage it remains in development.

EDF’s large European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), by contrast, is already tested and in service: units one and two at Taishan in southern China are today delivering a huge consistent flow of 3.2 gigawatts of electrical power. Hinkley Point C, and potentially also Sizewell C, are likewise twin-EPR designs.

After years in the planning, Sizewell C is “shovel-ready”. The Government should give it the green light later this month. With national daytime electricity demand forecast to double from 40 to 80 gigawatts by 2050, as the key sectors of heating and transport electrify in order to decarbonise, there is plenty of room for a diverse range of sources in our future clean energy mix.

Dr John Law
Founder, cleanenergyrevolution.org
London W2

Travel torments

SIR – Last Sunday, we cancelled our holiday in Madeira, due to begin the next day, because nobody – here or in Madeira – would take responsibility for giving us information.

We could not get a Covid test in the UK as we didn’t meet any of the criteria – so, we reasoned, most or all of the other passengers would be untested. The Madeirans would have tested us on arrival, but nobody would say whether we would be quarantined if we had merely sat next to a passenger who tested positive.

The location, duration and terms under which we might have been held were not specified; nor were the terms under which we might have been repatriated. With so many vague arrangements, we preferred to lose well over £1,000 than risk this fate.

Dorian Wood
Castle Cary, Somerset

SIR – I phoned the passport office to ask if they could email me an application form.

They said they could not email it to me but offered instead to post me an information pack, including the form. Then, as well as asking for my address and phone number, they asked for my email address. Work that one out.

Ron Kirby
Dorchester, Dorset

A literary landmark in need of some love

SIR – Last week my husband and I, on holiday in west Wales, visited the Boathouse at Laugharne, where Dylan Thomas briefly lived.

The route there was clearly signposted from the main road and through the village. We arrived early to find a crowd of visitors already gathered.

However, we were shocked at the state of the site: it looked abandoned. Some of the steep steps down to it were chipped, plants and weeds were overgrown, and the house itself looked forlorn. There wasn’t an explanation, nor a telephone number to ring to report the situation.

Dylan Thomas died almost 70 years ago, yet people still travel from far and wide to see his home. Who is responsible for its upkeep? Should the National Trust take over?

Finally, we walked back to the village to visit the poet’s favourite watering hole – and it was closed.

Carol Partridge
Stamford, Lincolnshire

Dashcams make better drivers of us all

SIR – Mike Wells (Letters, September 13) suggests that cars should be fitted with dashcams for the protection of cyclists.

A few years ago I was nearly run off the road by a dangerous driver. I managed to speak to him when he stopped at his place of work further along the route. He denied anything to do with the incident until I informed him that it would be circulated on social media in a couple of hours.

He did not know that I did not actually have a dashcam, but immediately confessed, apologised and told me he would drive more safely in the future.

I bought a dashcam a few days later and am now more aware of the standard of my own driving, as the dashcam “spies” on me too. It has recorded a number of incidents involving other motorists, and on two occasions has supported their version of events. Only once have I been told (quite forcefully) to turn it off – while attending a drive-through Covid-19 testing centre.

Dr Michael A Fopp
Soulbury, Buckinghamshire

SIR – If the Government were to follow Mr Wells’s suggestion, surely it would be fair to require cyclists to hold a licence and have a minimum of third party insurance, so that, if the driver was shown not to be at fault, the cyclist could face a penalty.

After all, who has not seen cyclists breaching the Highway Code with apparent impunity? Drivers are likely to come out of any collision in better shape than the cyclist, but it doesn’t always mean that they are to blame.

A “licence fee” for cyclists could also be used to fund better facilities for them.

John Hinton
East Bergholt, Suffolk