Coronavirus
The virus is spreading, says the Telegraph.
Parents were urged to stay calm and follow recommended hygiene procedures after a staff member at Willow Bank Infant School, in Reading, Berkshire, tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, health officials are trying to establish how a Surrey man contracted coronavirus amid mounting concern a contagious person is unaware they are infectious. The patient became the first person to catch the illness within the UK, prompting claims it represented a new phase in the spread of the disease.
And the Mail reports advice that people over 60 should avoid crowds.
Health chiefs have urged people aged over 60 to avoid crowds amid wide-spread coronavirus panic as an infant school worker is revealed as one of three new UK patients.
The World Health Organisation issued the drastic warning which also urged people in this age group to skip routine appointments at doctors’ surgeries and hospitals.
It comes as a worker at an infant school in Berkshire was one of three further patients from England who tested positive for coronavirus yesterday bringing the total number of UK cases to 23.
Other cases are appearing in the UK, says the Sun.
AN employee at a Reading school is one of three new coronavirus cases confirmed in England today.
The other two cases were in the Cotswolds and Hertfordshire and took the total UK toll to 23.
Parents and staff at the Willow Bank Infant School on Duffield Road, Woodley this evening received an e-mail from head teacher Mrs Michelle Masters informing them of the diagnosis.
If it gets really bad, Parliament could be suspended, reports the Express.
BORIS JOHNSON may use emergency powers to suspend Parliament and run the country in a worst case scenario over coronavirus.
The plans are believed to have been discussed between Downing Street and House of Commons authorities. According to the Mail on Sunday, one MP expressed fears Mr Johnson will have “martial law” style control of the United Kingdom. A Cabinet Minister hit back warning the travel MPs undertake from constituencies to Westminster made them potential super spreaders.
The Government vowed to do “everything possible” to tackle the virus.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have tweeted advice on tackling the virus, which has claimed the life of one Briton previously quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise liner.
And the Times reports on the search for ‘patient zero’.
Health officials scrambling to identify a mystery coronavirus spreader in the UK are investigating a link to Italy, the worst-affected country in Europe, as three more Britons were told they are infected.
They are urgently tracing everyone who has been in contact with a man in Surrey who became the first to catch the illness within Britain.
Officials need to track down the mystery person, known as Patient Zero, who passed the virus to him. They have established that the man’s partner, who has also now developed symptoms, works with at least one person who recently returned to the UK from Italy.
The WHO has raised its risk assessment, reports Yahoo News.
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases across 61 countries hit 86,000 Saturday with nearly 3,000 deaths to date, the profile of those most at risk of dying is coming into focus, experts told AFP.
But the overall mortality rate remains uncertain, they said.
The World Health Organization raised its global risk assessment to its top level Friday, with the global health crisis edging closer to a pandemic.
Among those infected with the virus, older adults with pre-existing heart conditions or hypertension face a sharply higher risk, according to preliminary statistics, including from a study covering more than 72,000 patients in China.
The Times suggests workers could be told to stay at home.
Millions of workers could be told to work from home as ministers draw up a “battle plan” to prevent a coronavirus epidemic in Britain.
Companies may also be ordered to halt all “unnecessary travel” in a “social distancing” strategy being considered by the government. Worst-case scenario plans show 80% of the population may get the virus, with up to 500,000 deaths.
Last night, US officials said a “medically high-risk” patient in their fifties had died in Washington state — the first fatality in America.
And BBC News says doctors and nurses could be brought out of retirement.
Newly-retired doctors and nurses could be asked to return to the NHS as part of a UK “battle plan” to combat a possible further spread of coronavirus.
If the outbreak worsens, people could also be urged to work from home, under the government contingency proposals.
It comes as a minister in every department will be focused on tackling the outbreak and a “war room” set up to drive a new public health campaign.
The UK has 23 confirmed cases but there are warnings more will follow.
Trade talks
Defence is highlighted in the Guardian.
Boris Johnson has been accused of playing politics with the safety of Europeans after rejecting an EU proposal for future defence and foreign policy coordination.
At No 10’s insistence, the issue has been left out of negotiations starting in Brussels on Monday on the post-Brexit relationship.
EU sources accused the UK of trying to create leverage in the talks by rejecting Brussels’s suggestion in its negotiating mandate of an “ambitious, close and lasting cooperation on external action to protect citizens from external threats”.
And the Express reiterates that we will not continue as a member of the ECHR.
BORIS JOHNSON will reject any EU demands that it remains a member of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) once the Brexit transition period is over, reports claim.
The ECHR was founded in the 1950s and is separate to the EU and the European Court of Justice, but as the general basis of the ECHR has been used for the EU’s charter of fundamental rights, membership of the ECHR is required to join the European Union. Several non EU nations are ECHR members like Russia and Turkey and it has 47 members, all members of the Council of Europe.
Mr Johnson’s chief advisor Dominic Cummings wrote in 2018: “If I get involved in politics again, then a referendum on the ECHR should be high on the agenda — and bear in mind most people probably think we’re already leaving it because of the 2016 referendum, so imagine how mad they’ll be when they realise we’re still in it.”
An ex Tory leader claims the EU is in panic mode, says Breitbart.
Former Conservative Party leader and Cabinet minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith believes the European Union is “panicking” as the “transition” period Brexit talks get underway, and that Britain holds “the whip hand”.
The United Kingdom finally left the bloc on January 31st, after a three-year effort to sabotage the Brexit process by Remainers finally petered out — but only in a legal sense.
Britain remains an EU member, subject to EU law, EU judges, and the EU migration regime, for all practical purposes until at least the end of 2020 — a so-called “transition” or “implementation” period in which negotiations on a future trade deal between the island nation and the supranational union are to be conducted.
EU
The Telegraph reports that the bloc is adding to its demands again.
First it was the treasures of empire, now it is the emperor himself campaigners want back.
Diplomatic debate has long raged over returning alleged historic plunder like the Elgin Marbles.
A clause covering these supposed imperial spoils has even appeared in negotiations between the UK and EU.
Now French historians have demanded the repatriation of Napoleon III whose remains are in a tomb in a church in Hampshire.
France’s final monarch died in exile and was laid to rest in Farnborough 147 years ago.
In the Express, chairman of the ERG Mark Francois says the PM has ‘played a blinder’.
AS PART of the Withdrawal Agreement that we made with the EU prior to Brexit we signed a Political Declaration which committed both sides to negotiating a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of 2020.
As the Chairman of the European Research Group (ERG), I am quietly confident that we will succeed in negotiating a deal which will allow us to trade equitably with the EU by the end of the year. I take this view for four reasons. Firstly, because the Political Declaration – which lays down the tramlines, as it were, within which the negotiations must take place – has already specified an FTA as the desired outcome.
Home office
The row over the resignation of a senior civil serpent is covered in the Telegraph.
Civil servants have turned on Sir Mark Sedwill, the Government’s most senior official, after the resignation of an embattled mandarin over a series of rows with Priti Patel.
Officials claimed that Sir Mark, the Cabinet Secretary, had “gone native” having failed to publicly back Sir Philip Rutnam last week, after Boris Johnson declined to state that he had confidence in the Home Office’s permanent secretary.
Yesterday Sir Philip announced his resignation in an extraordinary statement to the BBC, in which he said he had been the subject of a “vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign” by ministers.
He didn’t ‘go quietly’ says the Sun.
A SENIOR Whitehall mandarin quit yesterday, accusing ministers of waging a “vicious and orchestrated campaign” against him.
Sir Philip Rutnam, Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, fired a parting broadside at his boss Priti Patel — branding her a liar and bully.
And he gave notice he will sue the Government for constructive and unfair dismissal.
The shock TV announcement followed a wave of furious bust-ups between the £180,000-a-year civil servant and his frustrated political master.
Sky News claims the Home Secretary will be asked to explain her actions.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is coming under pressure to explain explosive allegations levelled against her by Home Office boss Sir Philip Rutnam who quit on Saturday.
The Home Office’s permanent secretary accused Ms Patel of orchestrating a “vicious” campaign against him.
In a tearful resignation statement, which will rock Whitehall, Sir Philip confirmed widespread reports of a bitter feud with the home secretary.
Sir Philip revealed he had received allegations of Ms Patel “shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands”, and argued her behaviour had “created fear”.
He also said he did not believe her claim that she was not involved in the campaign against him.
The Home Office has refused to comment.
BBC News also reports the pressure on her.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is facing pressure to respond to bullying allegations made by the former top civil servant in her department.
Sir Philip Rutnam, the Home Office’s most senior official, resigned on Saturday citing a “vicious and orchestrated” campaign against him.
Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer said Ms Patel must come to Parliament to “explain”.
Ms Patel, who has not publicly responded to Sir Philip’s claims, previously denied she mistreated staff.
The PM is also under pressure, reports the Independent.
Boris Johnson is facing escalating pressure to launch an urgent investigation into bullying allegations against Priti Patel after the unprecedented resignation of the top civil servant at the Home Office.
In an explosive statement to cameras, Sir Philip Rutnam effectively accused the home secretary of lying, claimed she had created an atmosphere of “fear” and said he would sue the government for constructive dismissal.
The Home Office permanent secretary insisted he had been the “target of a vicious and orchestrated briefing campaign” that had left him with no alternative but to resign from government after a career spanning 33 years.
But will the Home Secretary keep her job? The Guardian speculates.
Priti Patel’s future as the home secretary is being called into question this weekend after the most senior civil servant in her department resigned in a row over her alleged bullying of staff – and then announced he would sue the government for constructive dismissal.
In a move described as “unprecedented” and “extraordinary” by two former heads of the home civil service, Sir Philip Rutnam accused Patel of orchestrating a “vicious” campaign against him and of “shouting and swearing, belittling people, making unreasonable and repeated demands – behaviour that created fear and that needed some bravery to call out.”
Rutnam said: “One of my duties as permanent secretary was to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our 35,000 people. This created tension with the home secretary and I have encouraged her to change her behaviours.” He said he had been accused of briefing the press against Patel, a claim he said was completely untrue.
And other areas of the Home Office could also be examined, says the Times.
Boris Johnson has been warned that his Brexit immigration plans risk being derailed by chaos at the Home Office after the top official in the department quit yesterday and announced he was suing the government.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, is now facing the prospect of an inquiry after Sir Philip Rutnam accused the home secretary of orchestrating a “vicious” briefing operation against him and leaving officials in “fear”.
Last night, a complaint was lodged with the prime minister that accuses Patel of breaching the ministerial code of conduct by bullying civil servants.
The Mail reports a leaked memo from a Treasury advisor.
One of the Government’s most senior officials has made the incendiary suggestion that Britain does not need its own farming industry.
In leaked emails obtained by The Mail on Sunday, powerful Treasury adviser Tim Leunig argues that the food sector is not ‘critically important’ to the economy – and that agriculture and fishery production ‘certainly isn’t’.
In his astonishing remarks – which comes as the UK prepares to enter crunch post-Brexit trade talks with Donald Trump – Dr Leunig implies that the UK could follow the example of Singapore ‘which is rich without having its own agricultural sector’.
ITV News also has the story.
One of the most senior Government advisers has said the UK does not need its farming or fishing industries, according to reports.
In comments seen by the Mail on Sunday, Dr Tim Leunig is understood to have said the food sector was “not critically important” to the country’s economy – and that agriculture and fisheries “certainly isn’t”.
The economic adviser to the Chancellor, in his leaked emails, is reported to have said ministers could follow the example of Singapore which is “rich without having its own agricultural sector”.
The published opinions are likely to propel industry fears that ministers could discard safeguards for farmers and fishermen in the forthcoming post-Brexit trade talks with the US and the European Union.
Immigration
The Telegraph reports on the situation between Turkey and Greece.
Thousands of migrants were trapped on Saturday in a squalid no-man’s-land beyond Turkey’s border with Greece, as the realisation dawned on them that they had become pawns in a political stunt hatched by the Turkish government.
Huddled crowds from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Syria gathered on a narrow road that sits between Turkish and Greek territory, their path to Europe blocked by razor wire and armed EU border guards.
Less than 24 hours ago, many believed their prayers had been answered when the Turkish government announced it was opening its side of the border and laid on a fleet of unmarked, white buses to ferry migrants to its frontier with Greece.
The Times says it’s the Turkish president’s fault.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened yesterday to unleash a flood of refugees on Europe as tens of thousands of migrants hurried to take advantage of his vow to throw open his country’s western borders.
On a day of chaotic scenes at Turkey’s frontier with Greece, whose border guards fired tear gas to drive back the refugees, Erdogan claimed in a speech to party faithful in Istanbul that his country had “opened its border gates” and that about 18,000 people had already left.
Education
The Times reports a potential teachers’ strike.
Teachers at a private school will go on strike this week over changes to their pensions in a row that threatens to spread across the country.
Colfe’s, one of the oldest schools in London, will be hit on Wednesday, with others set to follow in a row over staff losing their gold-plated schemes.
Teachers at private and state schools are members of the same generous pension scheme — but many private schools are axeing it after a jump in the amount of money they must contribute.
Flooding
And still the rains come, says the Times.
A fourth weekend of storms saw the UK break records for February rain and create a giant lake where floodwaters spread across parts of East Yorkshire.
The Met Office said there had been nearly 8in of rain in February, compared with the previous February record of just over 7½in in 2015. The February average is under 2½in.
The rain — much of it from the month’s three named storms, Ciara, Dennis and Jorge — is causing record flows in rivers, many of which have burst their banks, causing extensive floods.
ITV News confirms what some of us already knew.
The UK has weathered its wettest February on record after three successive storms brought heavy downpours and flooding.
A UK average of 202.1mm has fallen this month, surpassing February 1990 when 193.4mm fell, the Met Office said.
Some areas were deluged by more than a month’s worth in just 24 hours, as heavy rain which started with Storm Ciara continued with Storm Dennis and now Storm Jorge contributed to record river levels which have seen safety teams put in “Herculean efforts” to erect flood defences to protect homes and businesses.
County lines
The Telegraph has a story about car theft.
Car theft gangs are using county lines recruitment tactics to groom youngsters into stealing high-value vehicles, a police chief has said.
Dave Thompson, Chief Constable for West Midlands Police, said cars are now easier than ever to steal because keyless technology has led to a “dramatic” increase in vehicle crime.
Criminals are turning to “exactly the same” strategies as those employed by county lines gangs to encourage children and teenagers to work for them, such as offering to buy food for their family, said Mr Thompson.
“In vehicle crime, we’re seeing a phenomenon like county lines where young people are being commissioned to steal vehicles of certain types,” he told The Telegraph.
Oh I do hope Corona virus doesn’t kill me. Draining the Civil Serpent Swamp is getting quite exciting now. And the EU UK war of words. Shame to miss it all.
“we will not continue as a member of the ECHR”. That meddling menace Soros appears to have also nobbled ECHR judges ; this has led to unwilling conservative countries having forced on them eg same sex marriage, gender fluidity garbage, light sentences for serious criminals and other things attacking conservative values..
https://unitynewsnetwork.co.uk/independence-and-impartiality-of-the-european-court-of-human-rights-called-into-question/
Will BoJo keep to this promise, leading to Britain returning to commonsense conservative values? Or will he be “thwarted ? “
We should all be aware of pandemics. – We have suffered them before, even in my own lifetime ! – Fast and reasonably easy travel, gives speed to such covering the whole world. – Maybe the first, and as a high percentage of death to the known world, was what happened back in the 1300s and had to be faced without much knowledge of medical matters. ….. This Coronavirus is a nasty one, as it can lay dormant for a number of days in a person, and multi contact with others can be innocently made ! – However, the use of common sense, with sensible National action will prevail with good medical science available throughout the world. – Fear by people should be kept in check, as that is an unwanted extra right now !
Silly me! I thought for years that the BBC was a Public Broadcasting Service. This virus is clearly a threat not only to ‘the public’ this country, but it would seem the world – yet generally all we have heard from the BBC on the subject have been harrowing stories of what is happening in the rest of the world – surely it is time for them to start broadcasting, on a regular basis. vital advice on how we in the U.K. should prepare ourselves and families in order to avoid contamination and many other areas of family and self-protection and so reduce the clear risks we are taking on a daily basis?
Ah, an update …..the BBC is now directing us to various on-line pieces of BBC information on ‘the virus’ – can’t they give the job to Fiona Bruce on a daily news basis – after all she has taken over most other, at one time watchable, programmes and imposes herself at the drop of an antique on almost everything she fronts – and we all shrink at her ‘breathless-schoolgirl’ presentations – (not!)
I understand that seaside towns are full of people on benefits. Could we put em on fishing boats. Together with resigned Civil servants.. Remember, there are half a million of em so it might take a while.
I watch very, very little TV. No licence yersee.
Now the cycle racing (sadly mainly time trialling) is on TV, ‘I got a seat’.
What’s with all the American politics? All the schedules and much of the news is absolutely coated.
And how can I vote for Trump?
Question to all commenters?
There is a note at the end of each “reply” either main subject or comment that reads
“Notify me of new posts via email”
Which I take it, is if anybody replies to an article I ha ve written or comment I have made in reply to another’s article – I am meant to get an email
I have never received this service.
Is it just me?
Roger Turner…….Nope! A complete blank……..but bearing in mind the kind of Posts I send……….who the Hell is surprised?
the problem is: if Sir Philip Rutnam were to win his case, (no idea) the taxpayers foot the bill not Ms Pritel and Co.
John Reid said the Home Office was “not fit for purpose” and I don’t think it wasn’t just the furniture.
Whether or not he fixed those problems whatever they were is not part of the present matter, but undoubtedly personel,strategy and professional capability would have been in the mix.
Since then the Home Office has had a number of occupants, notably May, Rudd and Javed
I do not recall any of them shouting the odds as Reid did, so one must assume they found advice and policy to their liking and the staff must have been pretty cooperative too
Could it be that the earlier fracas with Javed as the Chancellor had a cross reference to what he imbibed at the Home Office and the Remain Conspiracy of which I always believed Hammond was along with May a major player.
From what I can make out Pritti appears to have “blown the gaff” -perhaps on endemic Remainism at the Home Office which again is also not fit for purpose, but also exposed a similar failing in that office
I could go on and level the charge of Remainism at the whole of the civil service and this is not said maliciously, in that Cameron’s government were HEAVILY REMAIN and the Civil Service must reflect their wishes.
I may have got the wrong end of the stick, but I believe Boris’s greatest problem when he took office was that the body of the CS was not singing from the same song sheet as him, were completely unprepared for an 180 degree change and from their top dug in and doubled down.
Underlying this whole business is Brexit, the CS has never put the interests of this country first,just as our government took their orders from the EU, so, either by fact or implication did the CS, despite having spent more than three years when they should have been preparing for the full implications on them of freedom, they have tarried in the no man’s land of believing it wouldn’t really happen or at best it would have been in name only.
Bad luck, get used to it, go for ’em Pritti
Neither Priti Patel, nor anyone else in Government, make purely independent crucial or critical decisions or statements without the PM or Cabinet giving approval. Civil Servants should keep their mouths shut and just do as they are told, THAT is why they have jobs for life and fire-proof pensions. It is Preti clear that Patel has massive support within the country for her statements and opinions on immigration – which in any event is NOT her personal opinion but that of The Government. If it were otherwise, as when she, without permission visited Israel – and quite rightly so, was reprimanded. The Civil Service must be made to understand that THEY do not make Government Policy – they are fully expected to carry it out.
Home Office:
Sir Philip Rutnam should lose his (no doubt extravagant) pension. Such people have been working against us for too long, we need a Trump style draining of the swamp.
Sir Philip Rutham walks – a good start in draining the swamp. Let’s hope others follow.
Jake, I second that. He was patently not up to the job. What an idiotic thing for someone in his position to do by making his dispute public knowledge, and with a government minister. We have all had managers etc that we didn’t get on with for one reason or another, and just got on with it, and thats what he should have done.