- “Covid cases fall for the eleventh day in a row” – Covid cases have fallen for the eleventh day in a row (week on week), with a further 24,470 recorded in the U.K. today, according to MailOnline.
- “Rail stations test finds zero Covid: Analysis recorded no traces” – Researchers found no COVID-19 on any surfaces and there were no virus particles in the air at major train stations such as London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly, reports MailOnline.
- “Left-wing scientists are far from omniscient” – We should lay to rest the notion that science represents a neutral form of knowledge that is somehow distinct from the political melee, writes Freddy Sayers in the Telegraph.
- “Tyranny of the Covid experts” – Jonathan Sumption lets fly against Sir Jeremy Farrar in the Mail on Sunday.
- “It’s Time to End the Covid Mandates” – Randall G. Holcombe urges all U.S. states to end all the coronavirus restrictions in AIER.
- “Vaccine booster shots for 32m to begin next month” – Ministers aim to deliver average of almost 2.5m third doses a week, with a key role for pharmacies, reports the Telegraph.
- “Hundreds clash with police in Berlin anti-lockdown protests” – Berlin authorities banned several different protests due for this weekend, including one organised by the Stuttgart-based Querdenker movement, which had expected some 22,500 attendees, says MailOnline. See here for some footage of police brutality towards protestors.
- “There’s a new divide as bitter as Brexit between those happy to stay in Covid lockdown and the rest of us who want our old lives back” – Kirstie Allsopp in the Mail on Sunday says fear has made people paranoid in the U.K. and it’s time to get back to normal.
- “Seventeen countries could join the green list this week” – Among those places that U.K. travellers may be able to visit without having to quarantine on their return are Germany, Austria and Canada, according to the Telegraph.
- “Matt Hancock living alone as he battles to save ministerial career” – A month after his fall from grace, the former Health Secretary resurfaces at his family home in London and re-engages with backbench MPs, reports the Telegraph.
- “Jacob Rees-Mogg blasts plan to bring in Covid jab certification” – Enforcing vaccine passports is “not a British way to behave”, Jacob Rees-Mogg has warned the Government, reports the Daily Mail.
- “Johnson’s scapegoating the young over Covid jabs is not a wise tactic” – If the Conservatives want to win the hearts and minds of the under-25s they’d do better by incentivising vaccination, says Larry Elliott in the Guardian.
- “Could travel U-turn save our summer?” – The creation of an extra travel alert level hung in the balance last night amid a mounting Tory revolt and a warning by Rishi Sunak that the industry faced devastation, reports the Daily Mail.
- “Britons could be offered free coffee and cinema tickets to get jabbed” – In a bid to tackle vaccine hesitancy among young Britons, the Government is planning to do deals with cinema chains, coffee franchises and high street restaurants to offer incentives to get jabbed, according to the Daily Mail.
- “Half of Britons cut back on socialising to avoid pingdemic” – Nearly half of Britons are reducing social contact, polling for the Times has found, in a sign that the ‘pingdemic’ is having a significant effect on behaviour.
- “Public policy on Covid framed on the back of ‘massive modelling mistakes’” – Sky News Australia host Alan Jones says public policy on the response to COVID-19 has been framed on the back of “massive modelling mistakes”.
- “250,000 viable jobs at risk as furlough scheme winds down” – Hundreds of thousands of viable jobs will be put at risk when the furlough scheme ends, reports the Times.
- “2020s will be boring, endless COVID restrictions and judgement for those who do not comply” – Douglas Murray tells Fox & Friends that the years ahead will be filled with constant government intervention in people’s lives.
- “Covid: UK hits 85m jab milestone amid discount push for young” – Cheap travel and takeaways will be offered in a bid to boost vaccine uptake among young people, reports BBC News.
- “Average age of seriously-ill Covid patient falls by 10 years to 49” – The NHS figures illustrate the dramatic success of vaccines in protecting older adults in Britain, almost all of whom have been double-jabbed, claims the Daily Mail.
- “Bin lorry drivers are offered £3k bonuses as ‘pingdemic’ wreaks havoc” – Rubbish has piled up in many areas across the U.K. in recent weeks, reports the Daily Mail.
- “‘Multiple athletes’ involved in rule-breaking party at Olympic Village” – Bosses of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games say “multiple athletes” and team officials were involved in an alcohol-fuelled party at the athletes’ village complex on Friday night, according to MailOnline.
- “China tests millions as Nanjing airport outbreak sees Covid cases surge” – China fights its most widespread outbreak in months with cases in more than a dozen provinces, reports the Guardian.
- “Boris Johnson’s approval rating plummets” – A new poll by the Conservative Home website finds Boris’s rating dropping from 39.2% last month to just 3.4 per cent today, reports the Daily Mail.
- “Allegra Stratton: Net-zero date too far away” – Boris Johnson’s spokeswoman for the UN climate conference in Glasgow says the Government’s target of making the U.K. carbon neutral by 2050 is “too far away”, says the Times.
- “Net-zero zealots take no notice of the hardship their haste will cause” – Britain ploughs on with costly green policies while dozens of other countries break their promises, says Nick Timothy in the Telegraph.
- “Classical Music’s Suicide Pact (Part 1)” – Succumbing to specious charges of racism, America’s orchestras, opera companies, and conductors are abandoning the Western canon, says Heather Mac Donald in City Journal.
- “Trustees quit Vegan Society after claims of racism at the top” – Five trustees at the Vegan Society have quit after claims of racism and discrimination at the top of the charity, reports the Times.
- “Shot putter Raven Saunders crosses arms in Tokyo podium protest” – A 25-year-old American shot putter crossed her wrists on the podium, explaining that the cross represents “the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet”.
- “If you believe in liberal values, you have to stand up to this” – Andrew Doyle rails against the insistence that employees use the preferred gender pronouns of their colleagues on GB News
By Toby Young / 2 August 2021 • 03.02
