The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 is currently doubling about every three weeks and could reach “quite scary numbers” if the trend continues.

But with Freedom Day on Monday, won’t the trend accelerate? We haven’t reached “herd immunity” yet- Owl

Max Channon www.devonlive.com

The UK is “not out of the woods yet” and the public should approach the end of coronavirus restrictions next Monday with caution, Professor Chris Whitty has said.

England’s chief medical officer warned that the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 is currently doubling about every three weeks and could reach “quite scary numbers” if the trend continues.

Speaking at a webinar hosted by the Science Museum on Thursday evening, Prof Whitty said: “I don’t think we should underestimate the fact that we could get into trouble again surprisingly fast.”

He added: “We are not by any means out of the woods yet on this, we are in much better shape due to the vaccine programme, and drugs and a variety of other things.

“But this has got a long way to run in the UK, and it’s got even further to run globally.”

The Government’s decision not to mandate the wearing of masks in indoor public spaces in legislation from Monday has caused a lot of controversy.

But Prof Whitty said the key on July 19 was “to take things incredibly slowly”, adding that he fully expected most people to continue to take precautions.

“If you look over what people have done, and in fact if you look at what people intend to do now, people have been incredibly good at saying, ‘I may be a relatively low risk, but people around me are at high risk, and I’m going to modify my behaviours’,” he said.

He added that people should not be “mesmerised” by the anti-vaxx and anti-lockdown movements.

“Although people who think this is not a big problem and make a lot of noise and get on quite a lot of news channels, actually they are a very, very small minority of the population,” he said.

Many businesses and transport networks have said they will enforce mask-wearing after June 19.

Prof Whitty said that in the medium term, the virus could mutate into a “vaccine escape variant” that could take the UK “some of the way backwards” into the worst days of the pandemic.

“The further out in time we go, the more tools we have at our disposal from science, the less likely that is but you can never take that possibility completely off the table,” he said.

“But you know, science has done a phenomenal job so far and it will continue to do so.”

“The yeast that lifts the whole mattress of dough, the magic sauce, the ketchup of catch-up” (Johnson on strong leadership)

Wiff waff, wiffle waffle – did we expect more? – Owl

Heather Stewart www.theguardian.com

Boris Johnson’s flagship “levelling up” speech has been criticised by experts for containing scant new policy as concern grows among Conservative MPs that the guiding principle of his premiership risks becoming little more than a soundbite.

Two years after first committing to levelling up, the prime minister travelled to Coventry to deliver a freewheeling speech heavy on rhetorical flourishes but light on detail, and urged local leaders to send in their own suggestions.

Thinktanks including the Institute for Fiscal Studies and IPPR North said it contained nothing new and that it was time for “deeds not words”.

Despite Johnson’s levelling up adviser, the Harborough MP Neil O’Brien, being well liked, some MPs are beginning to worry about whether the plans have any substance.

The Conservative MP Laura Farris told the BBC on Thursday that levelling up was an ambiguous phrase that “means whatever anyone wants it to mean”, and a former cabinet minister said of the speech: “He seems to be throwing the kitchen sink at it, which suggests there isn’t much of a coherent idea behind it.”

Johnson said in his speech that strong leadership was “the yeast that lifts the whole mattress of dough, the magic sauce, the ketchup of catch-up” and suggested he would like to see more local mayors, perhaps at the county level. He then appeared to say he would not want to devolve too much power in case the “loony left” took charge.

“Of course, you can see the risk and the catch in all this. We have to learn lessons of the last 50 years. Ken Livingstone of the 2000s was a very different creature from Ken Livingstone of the 1980s, but the loony left remains pretty loony and we need accountability,” he said.

He called for more “county deals” to devolve power to local areas, which he said would not be “one size fits all”. Several county devolution deals already exist. The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, separately announced 15 more town deals on Thursday to fund high street regeneration.

Johnson also reiterated a string of existing government policies, many of which apply across the UK, including hiring new nurses and boosting the science budget, and he sought to reassure southern MPs anxious that their voters are being forgotten that levelling up applies across the country.

More policies for levelling up are expected in a white paper on the subject in the autumn, but experts criticised the speech for failing to address the problems of inequality and economic imbalances that Johnson set out, and for contradicting other government policies.

Erica Roscoe, a senior research fellow at IPPR North, said: “Boris Johnson promised to ‘level up’ the country in his first speech as prime minister. It was welcome rhetoric, but two years on our deep divides between and within regions are growing, and places like the north are still waiting for the powers, resources, and transparency they need to see from government to level up for themselves.

“The need for deeds, not words, has never been more urgent.”

Torsten Bell, the director of the Resolution Foundation, said: “The speech was light on new ‘levelling up’ policies, but much more of a problem is that the government already has a big levelling down policy – the £20 a week cut to universal credit. One in three households in the Midlands and the north will lose £1,000 a year, compared to one in five in the south-east.”

Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “There’s nothing new, either about the diagnosis or the fact that you need to do something about it, or about anything that’s been said.” Devolution may well be part of the solution to the UK’s imbalanced economy but “the fundamental issue is jobs and skills”, he said.

The Coventry South MP, Zarah Sultana, said: “Boris Johnson came to Coventry today to talk about ‘levelling-up’ but he’s not fooling anyone. It’s a meaningless soundbite, totally at odds with his record in office. His party has overseen 11 years of managed decline and levelling down“Johnson didn’t even bother to mention Coventry once in his speech.”

The prime minister’s hostile former adviser Dominic Cummings wrote on his blog that levelling up was “just a vacuous slogan” that Johnson had come up with “partly out of irritation with being told to focus on the core message in 2019 and partly because he was irritated with people calling him a puppet who repeats my slogans”.

Or how to crash the economy in one easy step.

Dido Harding’s “Track and Trace” was designed separately from the pre-existing system baked on local public health. How useful has it been? – Owl

www.dailymail.co.uk 

Britain’s ‘pingdemic’ lockdown: Record 500,000 Brits are sentenced to self-isolation as union warns factories are ‘on verge of shutting’ with 900 Nissan workers told to stay at home

• Latest NHS England figures show 520,000 alerts were sent last week
• Ministers have lost the appetite for updating the app over hospitalisation fears
• Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick today called on Britons to use the app
• He said officials were still ‘giving further thought’ on how to update it 

BORIS Johnson was left red-faced after snaps emerged of him posing with a rainbow-coloured monkey with a fake penis. 

(And a bunch of bananas. Graphic images and video on the sun website. Just how low can Boris Johnson sink? – Owl)

Jonathan Reilly www.thesun.co.uk

The PM stood next to the mischievous ape — which also bares its bum — during a photocall with the arts company that designed the crude outfit.

It caused outrage this week when it was used by a council to promote a children’s reading scheme.

Footage online showed performers running out of the library and the mock appendage being swung at passing vehicles.

Redbridge Council, in East London, has apologised for the “inappropriate” costume and has ordered an investigation.

Its leader, Jas Athwal, said immediate action has been taken.

He reassured residents an investigation has been launched “to ensure something like this can’t happen again”.

Mandinga Arts provide street performers for events based on European, Latin American and African traditions. They said they “apologise for the offence caused” on Twitter.

Mr Johnson was snapped with the crude critter in 2008 while he was Mayor of London.

The government gave “VIP treatment” to a firm offering Covid testing facilities which had entered the system “informally” because Matt Hancock was “a good friend” of somebody working with the company, according to internal emails seen by the Guardian.

David Conn www.theguardian.com 

The Animal Health Trust (AHT) had a laboratory based in Newmarket, in the then health secretary’s West Suffolk constituency, and much of its work focused on medical care for horses, including for the horse racing industry with which Hancock has close ties.

The emails between officials within the Department of Health and Social Care appear to contradict denials from that department and the Cabinet Office of the existence of a VIP or “fast track” process for firms with political connections seeking government contracts for Covid testing. Hancock resigned from the cabinet last month after being caught kissing his aide.

In an email on 23 April 2020 to health department officials working on the operation to scale up testing, a civil servant wrote: “AHT came in direct to SofS [secretary of state] office – someone who works with them is a good friend of his and so they entered the system informally that way … They must have fallen through the records gap if we’ve not got trace of them – they’ve definitely been in touch with us and had VIP treatment.”

Apparently addressing the lack of clear records documenting the discussions with AHT, the next morning a senior civil servant wrote: “We definitely need to capture them in the system somehow, so they receive future comms and offers. Owner [sic] is a friend of SofS, lab is in his constituency/area – so he will get direct feedback on our processes!”

A reply was sent to that email by Simon Greaves, a consultant who has described his role for the health department as working “to lead VIP stakeholder engagement” alongside Lord Bethell, the minister brought in by Hancock who oversaw the awarding of Covid contracts.

A government source told the Guardian last month that “VIP” in Greaves’s role description meant leading figures in the testing industry, not people with political connections, as it did in relation to the “VIP/high priority lane” that the government operated when awarding contracts for personal protective equipment (PPE).

Greaves’s newly revealed email asked if AHT could be logged as a VIP “based on the below” – the email from the civil servant who said the AHT “owner” was a friend of Hancock’s. “We have a stakeholder log in which we capture VIP stakeholders relevant to pillar five [building testing capacity],” Greaves wrote. “Can we capture animal health group [sic] based on the below?”

Addressing one NHS England staff member in the group, Greaves added: “We should also speak about how to ensure our Vip [sic] processes are aligned to minimise duplication.”

Despite the VIP treatment, AHT does not appear to have been given a government testing contract. A royal charter company and registered charity with annual funding of approximately £700,000 from horse racing, AHT was already experiencing financial difficulties in March 2020. In July of that year, it went into liquidation.

The health department’s denial last month that it operated a VIP process for testing followed the emergence of an email in a legal challenge brought against the government by the Good Law Project regarding three PPE contracts. Max Cairnduff, a Cabinet Office procurement director, wrote in that email that if offers to supply testing kits came via a minister, officials should “put FASTTRACK at the beginning of the subject line”.

However, a government spokesperson said: “There was no high-priority lane for testing suppliers. All offers of testing went through the same robust assurance checks and there was no separate ‘fast track process’.”

Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, said of the latest emails: “It’s just so explicit: civil servants were giving special treatment to friends of the minister. The government flatly denied that there was a VIP process for testing, so what are we supposed to make of all the other denials the government has issued?”

Angela Rayner, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, called for a “fully independent investigation” into whether there was a VIP fast track process for the Covid test-and-trace operation, which had a £37bn budget. “This is yet more evidence that we can’t trust a word that Conservative ministers say,” Rayner said.

The health department, Hancock and Greaves were contacted for comment.

Lots of messaging, guidance, encouragement and expectations, not much in the way of legal backing. 

This is not surprising. None of this is designed to help business. It’s all to do with trying to nuance the various factions in Boris’ flakey 80 majority in the face of exponential growth in infections. – Owl

Henry Zeffman, Chief Political Correspondent | Graeme Paton, Transport Correspondent www.thetimes.co.uk

Facemasks are expected to be worn in shops and at work and table service should remain in bars, the government said yesterday in a move that provoked a backlash.

The guidance issued by ministers was stronger than expected by businesses, which said they were being left in legal limbo. They have five days to decide how to implement the rules, which were described as “mixed messages” and a “real mess”.

Sainsbury’s became the biggest retailer to ask customers to keep wearing masks. Signs and announcements in its branches will reinforce the message. The bookshop chain Waterstones, which has more than 280 shops across Britain, also said it would ask customers to keep wearing masks.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said masks would be required on the area’s tram services. Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, backed a move by Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, to require masks on the Tube and buses in the capital.

The official advice issued yesterday told shops that “the government expects and recommends that people continue to wear a face covering in crowded, enclosed spaces”. It asked retailers to “consider encouraging, for example through signage, the use of face coverings by workers, particularly in indoor areas where they may come into contact with people they do not normally meet”. Similar advice applies in other workplaces.

Restaurants, pubs and bars are also encouraged to keep many of their Covid adaptations. They are told to consider asking customers to order through an app from their table, to prefer contactless payments, to discourage self-service of food and provide only disposable condiments. Venues should “encourage the use of outside space where practical”, especially for “higher-risk activity, such as exercise or when people are singing”.

Businesses in all settings are told that even though they are no longer legally required to tell customers to “check in” or collect contact details, continuing to do so is among the most important things they can do to curb Covid.

Every sector has been told to ensure adequate ventilation, with ministers recommending that carbon dioxide monitors be used to verify this. Despite the lifting of guidance to work from home, the government says it expects and recommends a gradual return to offices.

Simon Roberts, the chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said the supermarket’s decision to promote mask wearing was because staff and shoppers had said they would “feel more comfortable” if coverings stayed in place.

Roger Barker, policy director at the Institute of Directors, said: “Like everybody else, businesses across the country having been awaiting ‘freedom day’ with bated breath, but instead we have had a series of mixed messages and patchwork requirements from government that have dampened that enthusiasm.”

Usdaw, the retail trade union, called the guidance “a real mess”. Paddy Lillis, the general secretary, said: “Protection for retail workers through wearing face coverings and maintaining social distancing in busy public areas like shops should be backed up by the law.”

Hannah Essex, co-executive director of the British Chambers of Commerce, said the guidance had left companies unclear “whether they will be held liable should they make changes to the way they operate” from next week. She said: “Companies now have just five days to make this judgment call and effectively communicate it to staff and customers.”

Civic leaders are supporting the continued wearing of masks on public transport. Shapps said he backed Khan’s decision to keep the masks rule on the London Tube and buses even though the government was scrapping the legal public transport requirement. “We said people should wear masks in crowded areas,” he told Times Radio.

Honiton and Seaton are now hotspots

Colleen Smith www.devonlive.com

Coronavirus cases are rising fast across Devon with new figures showing numbers rising rapidly in the week up to July 9.

The worst trouble spots are now in parts of Newton Abbot, Torquay, Plymouth, Honiton, Seaton and Braunton – all with case rates above 400 per 100,000 people.

In Braunton, the numbers over the seven days up to July 9 shot up by a shocking 500 per cent.

Wednesday’s figures saw 1,046 new coronavirus cases confirmed in Devon and Cornwall with 276 in Plymouth, 111 in Torbay, 96 in Teignbridge, 90 in East Devon, 64 in Exeter, 37 in Mid Devon, 64 in North Devon, , 43 in South Hams, , 27 in Torridge, 13 in West Devon and 225 in Cornwall.

The highest case rate area across Devon and Cornwall is now in Newton Abbot where 44 new cases have been reported.

The Newton Abbot, Broadlands & Wolborough area saw a rise of 193.3%, giving it a case rate of 762.8 per 100,000 people.

Torquay’s Chelston area is the second worst hit with a case rate of 749.2 after another 49 new cases taking the total with covid to 82 (up 148.5 per cent).

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Torbay as a whole local authority area is now just below 400 cases per 100,000 people – numbers are still lower across Paignton and Brixham.

Torbay had a total of 538 cases in the week up to July 9 (with 242 new cases in the seven days) which is an increase of 81.8 per cent, and a case rate per 100,000 people of 394.8.

These are the other places across the county with case rates of more than 400 in the week up to July 9.

• Braunton has 42 cases (35 new cases) which is a rise of 500 per cent this week – a case rate per 100,000 people of 445.1.
• Bradninch, Silverton & Thorverton – 42 (up 31) 281.8% increase and a case rate per 100,000 people of 502.3.
• Honiton South & West – 23 (up 17) 283.3% increase and a case rate per 100,000 people of 418.1.
• Seaton – 41 (up 28) 215.4% increase and a case rate per 100,000 people of 544.1.
• Chelston, Cockington & Livermead has 82 (up 49) increase of 148.5% and a case rate per 100,000 people of 749.2.
• Ellacombe 39 cases (up 14) 56per cent increase at 668.6 case rate.
• Torquay Central has 49 cases (up 32) increase of 188.2) and a case rate per 100,000 people of 644.0.
• Upton & Hele – 37 (up 11) 42.3% increase to 577 case rate.
• Babbacombe & Plainmoor- 27 cases ( up 19) 237.5%increase to 480.4 case rate.
• St Marychurch & Maidencombe – 27 cases (up 17) 170 increase to 467.1 rate.
• Watcombe – 32 cases (up 14) 77.8 per cent increase to 443 rate.
• Kingsteignton – 60 cases up 51, 566.7 per cent increase to 673.6 case rate.
• Newton Abbot Highweek – 41 cases up 30, 272.7 per cent increase to 666.7 rate.
• Kingskerswell – 28 cases (up 16) 133.3 per cent increase to 455.7 case rate.
• Newton Abbot, Milber & Buckland – 26 cases (up 21) 420 increase to 464 case rate.
• Ogwell, Mile End & Teigngrace – 43 cases up 24 (126.3 increase) 512.6 case rate.
• Newton Abbot town centre – 30 cases, up 23 (328.6 per cent increase to 479.6 case rate).
• In Exeter, St James’s Park & Hoopern had 41 cases, down 14 (-25.5 per cent) and a case rate per 100,000 people of 427.8.
• Plymouth – 1115 cases, up 657 (143.4 per cent increase and Case rate per 100,000 people pf 425.4.

More than 40 members of the House of Lords may be in breach of transparency rules, for failing to declare details of private companies that they run. This would make it one of the most wide-scale breaches of transparency rules ever reported in Westminster.

(Demonstrating, once again, that rules only apply to the “little” people – Owl)

Martin Williams www.opendemocracy.net 

The peers include Eric Pickles, the chair of Westminster’s lobbying watchdog, who owns a consultancy business with his wife.

Rules say that, if a lord is a company director, then they should “give a broad indication of the company’s business, where this is not self-evident from its name”. But apart from stating that his business, Oakworth Services Ltd, is a “consultancy”, Pickles has not disclosed what area of work the firm is involved with.

Many other peers have included no description at all of the private companies they run – including Conservative donor Lord Bamford, the entrepreneur Baroness Mone, and Labour peer Lord Carter of Coles.

Carter runs an offshore company called Primary Group Limited, based in the tax haven of Bermuda.

Although he has declared his directorship, he has not said what the company does. Primary Group Limited was named in the Paradise Papers leak, relating to secretive offshore investments, although there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing.

Another peer, Lord Brennan, is chairman of a private business development firm which offers to “develop and maintain our clients’ relations with governments, both in the UK and overseas”, according to its website. But the register of interest gives no details about the nature of the firm’s work.

Lord Polak is said to have run “the most effective lobbying operation at Westminster”, and claimed he has an “encyclopedic knowledge” of Conservative donors. He is the director of a firm called Morpheus III Limited, but does not give any indication of what it does.

Several major political donors, such as Lord Bamford, also face questions about the way they have declared their financial interests.

Bamford owns the digger firm JCB and has given millions to the Conservative Party, personally and through his company. But his register of interests also lists a directorship in a company called Editallied Limited, without providing any further details.

Meanwhile, Margaret Thatcher’s former adviser, Lord Powell of Bayswater, now sits on the board of directors for the Paris-based Financière Agache which owns the luxury fashion house, Christian Dior. He provides no description of the company on the official Register of Interests.

‘Utterly unaccountable’

In total, openDemocracy has identified 54 financial interests from 42 peers that may be in breach of the rules.

They also include the Conservative hereditary peer Viscount Trenchard, who says he is chairman and director of a firm called Stratton Street PCC Limited. He gives no further information, although it appears to be an investment firm based offshore in the tax haven of Guernsey.

But the companies of other peers have very little online presence, and it is impossible to tell what work they do.

For instance, Conservative Baroness Mone lists a directorship at a firm called MMI Global Unlimited. But as well as her register of interests not providing any description, there also seems to be very little information online. According to Companies House, it is based in London and describes its work as “other business support service activities not elsewhere classified”.

Margaret Hodge, the former chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “The rules state clearly that if a peer is a director of a company, they are expected to explain what that company does.

“Failure to do so is of course not itself an indicator of wrongdoing, but the sheer scale of the problem shows that there is a problematic lack of transparency in the Lords. It’s especially concerning to see major Tory party donors or close pals of the PM on this list. The whole thing leaves a bad taste in the mouth.”

The Labour MP added: “This important investigation by openDemocracy raises serious questions over the veracity of some entries in the register of interests in the Lords.”

Tommy Sheppard, the SNP’s Constitutional Affairs spokesperson, said peers’ failure to properly declare their financial interests highlights how “undemocratic” and “utterly unaccountable” the House of Lords is.

“These latest findings on the shocking lack of transparency around financial interests adds to the growing list of reasons for why this outdated institution needs to be scrapped,” he said.

Sanctions for peers

A recent ruling by the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards has confirmed that failure to provide details of private companies can be a breach of the rules. An investigation into Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington last year said that he “did not indicate the nature of the consultancy or advice given as required” in relation to a consultancy business. The peer did not contest the allegations and issued a “formal and wholehearted apology”.

Sue Hawley, senior director at Spotlight on Corruption, said that parliamentarians should be leading by example with standards and integrity.

“The constant drip-feed of scandals about politicians breaching rules is seriously corroding trust in politics and government,” she said.

“Meeting basic transparency rules in financial interest declarations is a fundamental aspect of a healthy democracy, and there need to be much stronger sanctions for those that consistently fail to do so.”

‘Adequate information’

Responding to openDemocracy’s investigation, Lord Pickles said his company, Oakworth Services Ltd, has not received any income since he started chairing Westminster’s lobbying watchdog, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, and that he has given up all paid outside interests.

Lord Powell of Bayswater claimed there was “adequate information” available online about the company he directs. “It is simply an intermediate financial holding company in the control chain between the Arnault family and LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet-Hennessy) on whose board I also sit, and similarly declare in my interests,” he said.

Lord Polak said: “Morpheus III ltd was formed to look after future possible collaborations in professional, scientific and technical services. It has never traded and is a dormant company.”

A spokesperson for Baroness Mone said she was not aware that details of her company were omitted from the register of Interests. She said her declarations had now been updated as a result of openDemocracy’s inquiry and explained that the company in question is “an app fully funded by Baroness Mone to help start-up entrepreneurs”.

Viscount Trenchard also said he would update his Register of Interests to reflect his company’s investment work.

The other peers named in this article were also approached for comment.