‘Super Saturday Fever’ spreads across nation
“Jubilant Britons last night blew off some steam after three months of lockdown measures as pubs lifted their shutters for the first time in 104 days on ‘Super Saturday’ – but large crowds gathered in some areas and many drinkers appeared to ignore social distancing rules in their excitement. Experts said Britons sank up to 15million pints yesterday, as revellers poured out of their homes and into pubs and bars to enjoy their first taste of a draught pint. But while much of the revelry passed peacefully, some large crowds gathered particularly in London’s Soho district and there were cases of disorder in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire that forced bars to close early.” – Mail on Sunday
- Social distancing ignored as venues reopen – Sunday Telegraph
- English pubs pour first pints for customers since lockdown began – Observer
- But Super Saturday proves to be more like a damp squib – Sunday Telegraph
- Ministers ‘missed warnings’ that staff could spread virus between care homes – Sunday Telegraph
- Destination list causes ‘utter confusion’ – Sunday Times
- Johnson senior denies breaking rules in Greece trip – Sunday Express
- UK records 67 new virus deaths – Mail on Sunday
Comment
- Take politics out of the virus and co‑operate on a cure, Editorial – Sunday Times
- British common sense is alive and well in the nation’s pubs, Benedict Spence – Sunday Telegraph
- We’ve all turned into muzzled masochists, Peter Hitchens – Mail on Sunday
>Today:
NHS chiefs in standoff with Treasury over emergency £10bn
“NHS bosses have accused the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, of breaking a pledge to give the health service “whatever it needs” after he refused to provide a £10bn cash injection needed to avoid it being crippled by a second wave of the coronavirus. They have warned ministers that without the money the NHS will be left perilously unprepared for next winter and the second spike in infections which doctors believe is inevitable. Nor will they be able to restart non-Covid services or treat the growing backlog in patients needing surgery. The row piles pressure on Sunak to find more money for the NHS ahead of his summer statement on Wednesday.” – Observer
- Sunak urged to stave off ‘jobs carnage’ – Sunday Times
- Watchdog’s warning as Sunak piles on the debt – Sunday Telegraph
- Chancellor to make ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ pledge – Mail on Sunday
Comment
- With facemask and bank card, we can kick-start the economy, Editorial – Sunday Times
>Today:
>Yesterday:
Hannan: Our public health institutions are failing
“The machinery of state is malfunctioning. Its pistons are rusty, its tubes and chambers leaky. Nannying, priggish and woke in normal times, government agencies turn out to be hopeless in a crisis. Last week, at Ditchley, Michael Gove made a beautifully crafted and intelligent speech about how to improve the performance of our bureaucracies. Although few took issue with his recommendations – better training, wider intellectual diversity, more transparency – many questioned why he was even talking about administrative overhauls during an epidemic. For an answer, consider how our executive bodies have acquitted themselves over the past three months. Look, for example, at the way they responded to the mass protests.” – Sunday Telegraph
- Yes, Gove, there is dysfunction in government. It starts with you, Matthew Syed – Sunday Times
Leicester mayor ‘ignored warnings about clothing factories’
“Leicester’s mayor and Labour councillors were warned three months ago that factories were operating in breach of Covid-19 rules but failed to act, a former minister has claimed. Conservative politicians wrote to members of the council in April warning that some manufacturing premises appeared to be operating in “shuttered premises”, risking the health of workers, as well as their families and the local population at large. Baroness Verma, who was a development minister under David Cameron and chairs the city’s Conservative federation, said she had been concerned that the factories were operating in breach of strict social distancing rules, which required workers to stay two metres apart and regularly wash their hands.” – Sunday Telegraph
- Fashion firm faces ‘slavery’ investigation – Sunday Times
Farage accused of flouting quarantine rules in trip to pub
“Nigel Farage has been reported to police amid claims he flouted quarantine rules by going to the pub while still meant to be self-isolating having returned recently from a President Trump rally in America. The Brexit Party leader boasted of being the first customer to buy a pint in his Kent local pub in a picture he posted on social media on July 4, so-called Super Saturday because the pubs opened for the first time in three months. Wearing his trademark wax jacket and checked shirt, he grinned as he was photographed holding a pint with the caption: “12 o’clock, first customer in. Love it.” However, Mr Farage was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Donald Trump’s rally on June 20 and was required to self-isolate for 14 days to help reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus.” – Sunday Telegraph
- Brexit Party leader ‘broke quarantine rules’ – Observer
- But Farage denies breaking rules – Mail on Sunday
Huawei ’faces 5G ban within months’
“Boris Johnson is poised to begin phasing out the use of Huawei technology in Britain’s 5G network as soon as this year, in a major about-turn, The Telegraph can disclose. GCHQ is understood to have revised its previous assurance that the risks posed by the Chinese technology giant can be safely managed. A report due to be presented to the Prime Minister this week is expected to conclude that new US sanctions on Huawei will force the company to use untrusted technology that could make the risk impossible to control. The report, by GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre, has concluded that the sanctions, which bar Huawei from using technology relying on American intellectual property, has had a “severe” impact on the firm that significantly changes their calculations.” – Sunday Telegraph
- Huawei frozen out by Xmas – Sunday Times
- Chinese firm could be cut out of 5G network this year – Observer
- Deal with Huawei to be axed – Mail on Sunday
- Johnson to block Huawei – Sunday Express
Liddle: Liberals are painting Dickens as a bigot. But if he is, then so is Luther King
“Thank God — at last they have come for Dickens. What took them so long? A former Green councillor has been daubing graffiti on buildings in Kent that commemorate the author, calling him a racist. Give it a few weeks and he’ll be off every English syllabus in the country, and there will be no 90-minute all-star version of A Christmas Carol as the BBC’s lone concession to traditional yuletide programming. Dickens was opposed to black suffrage, it seems, and the axe is about to fall. Can it also fall, please, on the Regency period’s Barbara Cartland, Jane Austen? Mimsy, mannered chicklit. At least one writer, the Palestinian Edward Said, has reported that Austen was a supporter of colonialism and slavery.” – Sunday Times
- Yet again, the hard-Left has infiltrated a protest movement, Janet Daley – Sunday Telegraph
Starmer accused of ‘spoiling for a fight’ with Labour’s Left
“The Labour party leader was told he had ‘no chance’ of becoming Prime Minister if he did not keep faith with Jeremy Corbyn’s legacy. Unite boss Len McCluskey last week warned that the Labour membership remained ‘wholeheartedly behind the radical nature of the policies’ developed under Sir Keir’s predecessor. And the union firebrand, who is understood to be furious at the party leader’s sacking of Left-wing frontbencher Rebecca Long Bailey, warned that Sir Keir ‘needs the Left’. ‘Without the Left of the party, he has no chance of becoming Prime Minister,’ he said. In an interview with Times Radio yesterday, Sir Keir said he agreed with the call for unity but then aimed a thinly-veiled swipe at the state of the party under Mr Corbyn.” – Mail on Sunday
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8490633/Keir-Starmer-accused-spoiling-fight-Labours-Left.html
Corbyn ‘made last-ditch bid’ for Bercow and Watson peerages – Mail on Sunday
- Polls show surge for SNP – Sunday Times
- Voters say yes to SNP handling of Covid crisis – Sunday Times
>Yesterday:
Lawson: Oh, Vienna: will you ever face up to your sins?
“A disgrace for Germany: that is how the collapse of the financial services company Wirecard has been portrayed. This was the firm which supposedly demonstrated that Germany could produce its own tech giant (a field dominated by the Americans) — and in the financial sphere hitherto led by London. Wirecard, an electronic payments processor, began its meteoric ascent acting for pornography and online gambling sites shunned by more established companies, and by 2018 had reached a market worth of €24bn. This was even more than Deutsche Bank, and it replaced the venerable Commerzbank on the benchmark German stock index (DAX).” – Sunday Times
- UK executed most EU arrest warrants – Sunday Telegraph