Local author Philip Algar  15^th book has just been published. It is a collection of short stories which, hopefully, can remind readers what our world and lives used to be before the damaging and cruel challenges of Covid.

He has ignored Covid-related restrictions to travel back in time and abroad to write a collection of short stories. He reveals what happens to a cabinet minister to whom truth is an alien concept. How did three schoolboys play a surprising role in the Second World War? What happened to the young man and the girl with a suede coat? How did following his newspaper’s advice change a sausage maker’s life and what did an employee tell senior management at his retirement function?

Some tales poke fun at big business, the media and politics and all offer an imaginative escape from today’s news.

The book is available from The Curious Otter Bookshop in Mill Street, Ottery and from Amazon.

Contact: Philip Algar on 01404 814157 or philipalgar@btinternet.com

Javid advised to take ‘stringent’ Covid measures within a week, leak reveals

Britain’s top public health officials have advised ministers that “stringent national measures” need to be imposed by 18 December to avoid Covid hospitalisations surpassing last winter’s peak, according to documents leaked to the Guardian.

Rowena Mason www.theguardian.com 

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, received a presentation from the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) on Tuesday warning that even if the new Omicron variant leads to less serious disease than Delta, it risks overwhelming the NHS with 5,000 people admitted to hospital a day.

In an interview with the Guardian, the epidemiologist Prof Neil Ferguson said the total could be double that number.

No 10 insisted there were no imminent plans to bring in more measures after plan B measures were announced for England this week but cabinet minister Michael Gove, who chaired a Cobra meeting on Friday, said the government had been presented with some “very challenging information” about the speed of the spread.

The Guardian has seen leaked advice from UKHSA for Javid marked “official, sensitive” saying: “The key point is that under a range of plausible scenarios, stringent action is needed on or before 18 December 2021 if doubling times stay at 2.5 days. Even if doubling times rise to around 5 days, stringent action is likely still needed in December.”

It adds: “The rapid spread of Omicron means that action to limit pressures on the health system might have to come earlier than intuition suggests.” Its calculations suggest that even if Omicron causes a less severe hospitalisation rate of 1% or 0.5% compared with Delta’s 1.5%, then “stringent national measures’” would be needed by 18 December at the latest.

On the current trajectory of 2.5 days doubling time, and without any further restrictions, the document warns that Omicron cases could be at 248,000 cases a day by 19 December. It also stresses that the figures are not a projection but an estimate of Omicron prevalence and doubling times seen in the UK so far.

The document does not detail what the necessary curbs would be but defines “stringent national measures” as those that bring the R (reproduction) number below 1.

Boris Johnson triggered plan B this week including more wide-ranging mask mandates, asking people to work from home and Covid passports for big venues but a senior Whitehall source said few inside UKHSA believe this will have much effect on slowing the spread of the variant.

Further measures, now being referred to as plan C, could include stricter isolation requirements for contacts of Covid cases, masks in pubs, shutting hospitality entirely, more restrictions on visitors to care homes and hospitals or even the return of curbs on social contact.

As the ministers convened a Cobra meeting to discuss Omicron, the level of concern about the variant is rising among its scientific and public health advisers. There were more than 58,000 new confirmed UK daily cases of Covid on Friday – the highest level since January – with 120 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

Cobra, which involved the four nations of the UK, was chaired by Gove, the levelling up secretary, as Johnson spent time with his family after the birth of his second child with his wife, Carrie Johnson.

He warned that evidence suggests Omicron is “more likely” than past Covid-19 variants to “potentially” lead to hospital admissions among the fully vaccinated.

Sturgeon warned of a “potential tsunami” of Omicron infections as the new variant brings “the fastest exponential growth we have seen in this pandemic so far”. At an unscheduled televised Covid update on Friday, the first minister said that “frankness” with the public was necessary, as the Scottish government published an evidence paper suggesting Omicron is “rising exponentially”.

It came as the Welsh government hinted at new restrictions on visiting people in care homes and hospitals to counter the impact of Omicron. The first minister, Mark Drakeford, also suggested it would be wise for businesses and public sector leaders to plan for the possibility of further clampdowns and even a new lockdown.

He said: “We will be issuing new guidance for visiting in care homes and hospitals. We want to do all we can to support visiting where it is safe to do so but, if we see a new wave of cases, some strengthened measures to protect patients and residents may be needed.”

A government spokesperson said: “There are no plans for further restrictions. Plan B is the proportionate approach given what we know at this stage about the Omicron variant.

“The government will continue to look closely at all the emerging data and we’ll keep our measures under review as we learn more about this variant.”

Conservative councillors just sitting on their bums, doing nothing? – Owl

Councillors should be paid less because they’re working from home, an East Devon District Councillor has claimed, leading to condemnation from his colleagues.

Joe Ives, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

‘We’re working harder than ever’ other councillors claim

Councillor Colin Brown (Dunkeswell and Otterhead) leader of the Conservative Group at East Devon District Council (EDDC), told a full council meeting that councillors are “taking taxpayers money for sitting at home rather than being held to account in public.”

He argued that councillors’ allowances should be cut, and that special responsibility allowances, an extra sum paid to senior councillors who have more work, be entirely withdrawn.

The comments, during a debate over continuing with virtual council meetings, drew the ire of many of his colleagues who say they have been working long hours throughout the pandemic. 

Councillor Geoff Jung said that it was a “no brainer” to continue to meet virtually, adding he was very upset “by the grotesque insinuation” that members were not earning their allowances simply because they were working from home.

He explained: “The covid emergency has meant that I and all cabinet members’ workload has actually increased dramatically.”

Cllr Jung told councillors he had been working six days a week with no holiday for two years. He added: “Rather than handing back any money I think we deserve a thank you from members of the public and other councillors.”

Councillor Jack Rowland (Independent East Devon Alliance, Democratic Alliance Group, Seaton) described Cllr Brown’s proposal to remove special responsibility allowances as “utter garbage” because, he said, the members receiving them are continuing to do extra hours, despite not meeting in person. 

Councillor Sarah Jackson (Independent East Devon Alliance, Democratic Alliance Group, Axminster) also criticised the Tory councillor’s arguments. “The implication of what he says seems to be that those members are not doing additional work above that of a basic level of councillor and that simply untrue,” she said.

“Meetings have continued and work has continued to go on by members of the cabinet, chairs of committees and officers. I don’t think what’s suggested [by Cllr Brown] is fair, reasonable or transparent because it gives the wrong impression of the work that councillors are doing.” 

Cllr Jackson said virtual meetings allow some members who are suffering from  long covid to carry out their council roles where they might otherwise have been unable to do so if obliged to meet in person.

All East Devon council meetings are currently streamed live on YouTube, arguably making meetings more accessible and thus easier for residents to scrutinise elected local politicians.

Cllr Jack Rowland said: “I actually think our democracy has been improved by what we’ve been doing because we’ve got a greater attendance through Zoom meetings. 

“It doesn’t detract from the public getting involved at all. In fact, I understand the public viewings of recordings of council meetings are higher than if we had face-to-face meetings in Blackdown House with the public attending.

Councillors did express an interest in creating hybrid meetings, where councillors can choose to meet in person or virtually. Plans for this are expected to be developed in the coming months. 

Councillor Steve Gazzard (Liberal Democrats, Democratic Alliance Group, Exmouth Withycombe Raleigh) said that although he had wished the council would meet in person again, it had to continue to prioritise safety. 

He said: “Not only must we think of ourselves. We’ve got to think of our families, our loved ones – and we have to think of all the staff that we employ. 

“It’s still a very dangerous situation that we find ourselves in at the moment.” 

in the face of rising covid cases and concerns over the Omicron variant, the councillors did eventually agree to continue with virtual meetings until at least 10 May next year. 

The decision was passed with 32 votes in favour, one against and seven abstentions.

Following a High Court ruling, most local councils have been meeting in person since 7 May. 

However, following an ‘extraordinary’ council meeting in July, East Devon councillors agreed to ‘consultative’ meetings until at least 17 January 2022 because of the pandemic.

This format will continue, with the council holding virtual meetings over Zoom that reach ‘indicative decisions’ which are then rubber-stamped by the chief executive or senior officers.

The only exception is the budget meeting in February 2022, for which EDDC is legally obliged to meet in person.