What the papers said in the week ended 28 November 2020
As this week comes to an end there is news that some aspects of Christmas will be spared from Covid-19 restrictions. While there are some anxieties about this and how it will be interpreted, people of faith can find comfort and inspiration in togetherness. Representatives of other faiths who have been denied freedom for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Diwali are generously supportive: Non-Christian faiths welcome Christmas easing of Covid rules | Coronavirus | The Guardian
Karen Armstrong, a former nun, was less generous in her critique of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s decision to hold to his planned sabbatical during 2021, feeling that he should stay actively in post through the stressful time of the pandemic.
- Dear archbishop, now is not the time to take a sabbatical | Justin Welby | The Guardian
- People rightly rounded on her, pointing out that Jesus and other faith leaders knew the need for time alone in prayer, and took it. Justin Welby is leader of a large team. He will be working in a different way during his sabbatical and the team is there to be trusted. Even archbishops need a break from time to time | Justin Welby | The Guardian
Generosity and care for others is at a premium during times of testing and deprivation. The UK government’s decision to reduce its support of Foreign Aid as one component of cost savings, has been identified throughout the week as shameful and not to be owned.
- MPs from seven parties urge government not to cut overseas aid | Aid | The Guardian
- A terrible time for the UK to cut foreign aid | Aid | The Guardian
- Slashing overseas aid reflects badly on Britain | Aid | The Guardian
- Foreign Office minister resigns as Sunak cuts aid budget | Politics | The Guardian
Similar shame remains smeared across all aspects of the Windrush scandal. Individual stories of wrongs emerge weekly:
- Windrush victim refused British citizenship despite wrongful passport confiscation | Windrush scandal | The Guardian
- It is clear that the administration has cocked a snook at the law and decency. We have to hope and pray that matters will soon be set to right. Home Office broke equalities law with hostile environment measures | Immigration and asylum | The Guardian
There is encouraging news from programmes to counter Covid-19 by the creation of effective vaccines. Three breakthroughs have been announced during the week. Extraordinary plans are being discussed to make approved vaccines available to huge numbers of people. For now we remain cautiously optimistic
- Is this the beginning of an mRNA vaccine revolution? | Coronavirus | The Guardian
- Vaccine results bring us a step closer to ending Covid, says Oxford scientist | World news | The Guardian
Restrictions of activities through 2020 have produced an economic recession of a magnitude not experienced for centuries:
- Deadly frost and war with the French: Britain’s recession of the 1700s | Recession | The Guardian
- While the impact has been great amongst people of all ages, older people are most likely to have lost their working roles and may find it difficult to regain these: Number of unemployed people in UK over 50 rises by third, figures suggest | Unemployment | The Guardian
- Councils, already threadbare because of ‘austerity’ cuts, are verging on bankruptcy – finding themselves struggling to provide basic humane services: Croydon council outlines drastic cuts to jobs and services | Local government | The Guardian
- Disabled ex-service personnel, amongst others, find the benefits system less than easy and friendly to negotiate: Disabled veterans being let down by benefits system – Royal British Legion | Benefits | The Guardian
- Some of the financial difficult is traced to reckless use of funds in the heat of the crisis: UK’s ‘chaotic’ PPE procurement cost billions extra | Coronavirus | The Guardian
- Chaos within necessities leads to persisting with practices which carry hazard for staff and residents of care homes: Inspectors moving between Covid-hit England care homes without tests | Society | The Guardian
In the relative quiet of other lives:
A family album, stored but not consulted for many years, has yielded examples of Constable’s art as a very young man: Unknown Constables found hidden for 200 years in family scrapbook | John Constable | The Guardian
People are turning to fish as well as to other creatures for gentle, and approved, fellowship: Going for gold: pet firm reports resurgence in fish-keeping | Pets at Home | The Guardian
Quietly and with smallish headlines, blood tests which can identify vulnerability to cancers ahead of symptoms, are being checked within NHS practice. This could make for a different world. NHS to trial blood test to detect more than 50 forms of cancer | Cancer research | The Guardian
The strength and durability of individuals is celebrated in the story of Joy Andrew, a woman of Jewish Russian background who has lived to be 100,, having experienced cancer, a Nazi attempt upon her life, and Covid-19. After Nazi plot, plane crash, cancer and Covid, York woman reaches 100 | York | The Guardian
And Carla Bozzini died, safe in the memory that her husband found a way to serenade her in her last days, despite the rules which banned him from visiting her in hospital Italian serenaded by husband outside hospital dies – BBC News
David Jolley
