England may be moving to Plan B Covid restrictions following Wednesday’s announcement, but according to Telegraph columnists and hosts of the weekly Planet Normal podcast, Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan, it may be in name only.
Referring to the Chief Medical Officer’s recent comments at a Local Government Association discussion panel last week, Halligan says “Chris Whitty questioned in public if having an extended taste of freedom since July, the public is prepared to give up on our liberties once more.”
“And I do think the leaked film, and the government’s response, will have compounded that. It literally is one rule for them and one rule for the rest of us,” Halligan tells this week’s podcast, which you can listen to using the audio player above. “The social contract has been broken pretty badly with these signs of shenanigans and rule breaking.”
Pearson questions if the Wednesday night press conference, in which the Prime Minister announced people will have to work from home from Monday, is more about “resetting the Johnson government after bad polling over sleaze and corruption” than the Omicron variant.
Joining Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan on this week’s podcast, which you can listen to using the audio player above, is breast cancer specialist Professor Gordon Wishart. Professor Wishart, Chief Medical Officer at Check4Cancer and Visiting Professor of Cancer Surgery at Anglia Ruskin University, tells listeners that there’s no point returning to pre-pandemic “normal” when it comes to cancer services, as they were failing before the pandemic – we must aim for “super normal”. Plus he reveals that for many years cancer waiting time targets were met due to the goodwill of staff doing extra clinics – and that the goodwill has now run out.
Listen to Planet Normal, a weekly Telegraph podcast featuring news and views from beyond the bubble, using the audio player above or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast app.
