Babak Belurs

Jumat, 10 Desember 2021

Top Number 10 adviser addressed staff at Downing Street Christmas party which is now under investigation - Sky News

Boris Johnson's most senior communications adviser addressed staff and handed out awards on the night of the alleged Downing Street party last year during a time of strict COVID restrictions, it is understood.

Jack Doyle, the director of communications in Number 10, thanked staff working there "like he does every week".

Downing Street Christmas parties: How many events are now under investigation and when were they?

The political adviser in overall charge of Mr Johnson's communications also gave out "thank you awards" on the night of 18 December, Sky News understands.

ITV News was first to report Mr Doyle was present on the evening in question.

Mr Doyle has overseen the communications strategy which has seen Number 10 deny for a week that there was a party, after the Daily Mirror first revealed details.

According to sources who have spoken to Sky News, the event on 18 December was a party which took place with around 40 people in attendance.

Following leaked footage of Number 10 aides laughing about an event, Mr Johnson has tasked the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case with investigating what happened and whether they were telling the truth.

Investigation 'exposed as the sham it is'

This latest development puts more pressure on the PM over the party, a saga that has provoked a backlash and caused disquiet within his party.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: "Boris Johnson is unfit to lead our country."

And, speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Sir Keir said Conservative MPs should act and force out Mr Johnson before the next election, currently set for 2024.

"Are they prepared to endure the next two years of increased degradation of themselves and their party, being put out to defend the indefensible and bringing themselves and their party into further disrepute?

"Because this isn't going to change - he's unfit for office, it isn't going to change. Or are they going to do something about it?"

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said the Cabinet Office investigation had already "been exposed as the sham it is".

She said: "The investigation has only just published its terms of reference and we are already seeing more details from the media than the Cabinet Office about the parties."

Speaking at PMQs on Wednesday, the PM apologised and said he was "furious" at the footage, but told MPs he has been "repeatedly assured" no such gathering took place.

Allegra Stratton, one of the advisers who was seen in the video joking about a Christmas party, announced her resignation later that day.

The footage, obtained by ITV News, is reported to be of a rehearsal for a TV media briefing from 22 December last year - four days after the alleged Christmas party took place.

Senior Number 10 aides are heard jokingly referring to a "business meeting" and a "cheese and wine" event.

London had been put into Tier 3 restrictions on 16 December 2020, preventing mixing indoors between households.

What events are being looked into?

The cabinet secretary's investigation will look into events on 18 December, as well as gatherings on 27 November and 10 December.

According to reports, the former was a leaving party for a member of staff in Downing Street at which the PM made a speech. This was during the second national lockdown.

The latter was a party held at the Department for Education which was attended by then-education secretary Gavin Williamson.

The event was at a time when London was in Tier 2, with indoor mixing banned.

"Credible allegations relating to other gatherings" may also be investigated, according to the terms of reference of Mr Case's investigation that were published on Thursday.

According to Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson's former chief adviser, a party took place in the Downing Street flat on 13 November on the day he left his Number 10 role. Downing Street denies this.

A Conservative spokesperson has confirmed to Sky News that, on 14 December, an "unauthorised social gathering" was held at Conservative Campaign Headquarters, organised by the campaign of the party's London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey.

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2021-12-10 07:10:44Z
1195622727

Selasa, 07 Desember 2021

Arthur 'must have had this sense of impending doom' says grandmother - ITV News

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Arthur 'must have had this sense of impending doom' says grandmother ITV News
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Safety warnings ignored, says grandfather BBC News
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes: Were austerity and lockdown a 'lethal cocktail'? Sky News
Boris Johnson orders 'urgent' review of sentences for killers of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes Coventry Live
What is Arthur’s Law?... The Sun
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2021-12-07 16:28:20Z
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Boris Johnson intervened to evacuate animal charity from Kabul, says whistleblower - BBC News

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Boris Johnson instructed the Foreign Office to evacuate an animal charity from Afghanistan, prioritising pets over people and putting soldiers at risk, a whistleblower has claimed.

When Kabul fell to the Taliban earlier this year, thousands attempted to leave the city.

But Raphael Marshall said soldiers were put in danger to help animal charity Nowzad due to the PM's intervention.

Mr Johnson denied intervening, saying: "No, that's complete nonsense."

A No 10 spokesman also said there had been "no instruction from the PM's office" over the charity's evacuation and that the government "prioritised people over animals".

But animal rights campaigner Dominic Dyer insisted the prime minister was involved, telling the BBC he had contacted the PM's wife, Carrie Johnson, to lobby on the issue - saying she would have given him a "hard time about it" - and that he had "forced the prime minister's arm".

He also claimed it was "utter nonsense" that evacuating the animals came before people, saying Nowzad was "caught up in the blame game regarding the disastrous departure".

Ex-marine Pen Farthing, who ran the charity, tweeted that no British soldiers were employed in the charity's evacuation.

But back in August, the Ministry of Defence said UK Armed Forces had helped him and the animals through the airport.

The charity operated an animal clinic, dog and cat shelter and donkey sanctuary in Afghanistan, training and employing Afghans.

When the Taliban took control of the capital, its supporters launched a vociferous campaign for evacuation, saying staff were in danger due to their work with foreign organisations and the animals were at risk "because the Taliban considers companion animals, particularly dogs, unclean".

Around 15,000 people were airlifted out of the country in August, including Mr Farthing and 150 animals. His staff were left behind, but later made it safely to Pakistan.

In written evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Marshall said up to 150,000 Afghans who were at risk because of their links to Britain applied to be evacuated and fewer than 5% received any assistance.

Mr Marshall, who was working as a senior desk officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) until he resigned in September, said there was "extremely limited capacity" at the airport, with thousands of people waiting outside to try and escape.

But despite the pressure, he said his team "received an instruction from the prime minister to use considerable capacity to transport Nowzad's animals".

The charity had chartered its own plane, but Mr Marshall said the issue was a "limited number of soldiers available to bring eligible people into the airport", adding: "There was therefore no justification for concluding that Nowzad's staff were at significant risk.

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"By contrast many others would inevitably be left behind who were at risk of murder."

He said the Foreign Office team had "eliminated thousands of Afghan friends of the UK at risk of murder from the evacuation lists" because of the lack of capacity, but that space was then used to transport animals, calling it a "direct trade-off".

Mr Marshall added: "I wish the staff of Nowzad all the best in their new life in the UK but they were not eligible for evacuation let alone for exceptional assistance which prioritised them above British Army interpreters.

"I believe that British soldiers were put at risk in order to bring Nowzad's animals into the airport.

"[And the UK government] transported animals which were not at risk of harm at the direct expense of evacuating British nationals and people at risk of imminent murder, including interpreters who had served with the British Army."

But Mr Farthing took to Twitter to claim "not one single British soldier was used to get me or the Nowzad dogs and cats into Kabul airport".

'Severe risk'

Mr Dyer said the campaign to evacuate Nowzad was a "humanitarian operation" as the team was made up of a large number of young women working as vets and nurses, who were "under real threat".

Downing Street has denied any intervention, but the campaigner insisted the PM did get involved and "for the right reasons", saying the problem was not his influence, but that he "wasn't honest about it".

"The prime minister did intervene. He intervened directly with the home secretary to get people on the priority list to evacuate," he told BBC News.

"They weren't on the top of that list, of course they weren't, but we made it very clear they were at severe risk and he accepted that argument.

Mr Dyer also echoed Mr Farthing's remarks that no British soldiers were used to escort the team or animals, bar "one soldier who let him in the gate".

A No 10 spokesman said government assistance for the charity was limited to giving clearance for Mr Farthing's privately funded charter flight.

He said claims Mrs Johnson had assisted the charity were also "untrue", adding: "Neither the PM nor Mrs Johnson was involved."

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2021-12-07 15:45:38Z
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Arthur 'must have had this sense of impending doom' says grandmother - ITV News

Arthur knew he was in danger, he have felt a 'sense of impending doom' his grandmother has said, as Chloe Keedy reports.

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes' grandmother has shared how the six-year-old "must have had this sense of impending doom that something was going to happen to him," saying he knew he was in danger.

Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain, Madeleine Halcrow said her grandson was an "intuitive child" who knew his father was putting him at risk.

"For a child to say to his own dad 'I'm in danger with you daddy...you're going to kill me'. There's something wrong there," Ms Halcrow said as she spoke movingly about young Arthur.

"Arthur's very intuitive. He must have had this sense of impending doom that something was going to happen to him".

Six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes died in June 2020. Credit: PA

Six-year-old Arthur, from Solihull, was left with an unsurvivable brain injury while in the care of his stepmother, Emma Tustin. Arthur, whose body was covered in 130 bruises, died in hospital the next day.

Tustin was jailed for life on Friday after being convicted of murder, and will serve a minimum of 29 years.

Arthur's father, Thomas Hughes was given a 21 year sentence for manslaughter.

The pair showed "no remorse, no sympathy", Ms Halcrow said, as she branded them "depraved, sadistic, torturous, evil, calculating people".

She said the sentences given to Arthur's stepmother and father aren't long enough - with the attorney general set to review the terms.

'Life should mean life' for Hughes and Tustin

"Life should mean life", she said. "They took Arthur’s life, he’s not going to get his life back, he’s not going to have children of his own."

On Monday, Arthur's maternal grandfather, Peter Halcrow, said Tustin and Hughes "must never see the light of day again".

Ms Halcrow told presenters Susanna Reid and Martin Lewis (both visibly moved by the interview) that she had met with Arthur's paternal grandparents who had noticed bruises on the child.

Social services and the police were called, but Ms Halcrow said not enough action was taken.

An independent review is under way into the actions of the social workers involved in Arthur's particular case, while Ofsted is starting work on their investigation into services involved with child protection in Solihull more generally.

Arthur's paternal grandmother photographed the bruising on him in April 2020, two months before his death. Credit: PA

"I saw new bruises on top of old which tells me this has been going on," Ms Halcrow, who is a nurse, said.

"Seeing them I first imagined the pain Arthur would’ve been in receiving these bruises", she said, overwhelmed with emotion.

Ms Halcrow - who described her grandson as "the happiest child" - said "something is broken" with the system which should have ensured the safety of her grandson.

'Something is broken in this system and something needs fixing'

She said more should have been done by police and social services to recognise and act on the dangers Arthur faced, adding she feels anger towards the authorities.

"I am angry with the inter agencies because somewhere along the line communication hasn’t been passed along," she said - citing other case of child abuse, including Baby P.

After the interview, Susanna Reid - who said the story had "broken her" - asked justice secretary Dominic Raab about the prospects of the sentences for Tustin and Hughes being extended.

Mr Raab said he finds the situation "piercingly heartbreaking" as a father himself and added he fully supports the attorney general's decision to review the sentences.

"I want the maximum protections and the highest sentences to protect the most vulnerable," he said.

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Afghanistan: Foreign Office chaotic during Kabul evacuation - whistleblower - BBC News

Crowds queue at the airport near a plane surrounded by troops.

The UK Foreign Office's handling of the Afghan evacuation after the Taliban seized Kabul was dysfunctional and chaotic, a whistleblower has said.

Raphael Marshall said the process of choosing who could get a flight out was arbitrary and thousands of emails with pleas for help went unread.

The then Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was slow to make decisions, he added.

Mr Raab told the BBC lessons would be learned but the UK did a good job compared to other countries.

After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, the UK airlifted 15,000 people out of the country, including 5,000 British nationals, 8,000 Afghans and 2,000 children.

In written evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Marshall said up to 150,000 Afghans who were at risk because of their links to Britain applied to be evacuated - but fewer than 5% received any assistance.

"It is clear that some of those left behind have since been murdered by the Taliban," he added.

Mr Raab said the two-week evacuation was "the biggest operation in living memory" of its kind and the UK had helped a larger number of people than any nation except the US.

The foreign secretary said the criticism of his decision-making was from a "relatively junior desk officer" but the main challenges were in verifying the identities of applicants on the ground and safely escorting them to the airport in Kabul, not in making decisions from Whitehall.

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Other criticisms were "rather dislocated from the operational pressures and conditions", he said.

"I don't doubt there were challenges, I don't doubt there will be lessons to be learned but if you look at the facts, I think we did a good job by recent standards of evacuations and by international comparisons," he told BBC Breakfast.

Mr Marshall, who was a senior desk officer at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) until he resigned in September, said there was inadequate staffing at the department's crisis centre, and staff would not normally be expected to work at weekends or overnight.

There was also a lack of expertise and a lack of co-ordination between the department and the Ministry of Defence, he added.

Mr Marshall also said Mr Raab took hours to answer emails and "did not fully understand the situation".

And he said an instruction from Prime Minister Boris Johnson to evacuate dogs looked after by an animal charity went against Foreign Office criteria and meant people at risk of being murdered were left behind.

Mr Johnson said the allegation that he intervened on this issue was "complete nonsense" and that the rescue operation was "one of the outstanding military achievements of the last 50 years or more", under "pretty harrowing circumstances".

What are the allegations?

The key issues flagged by Foreign Office whistleblower Raphael Marshall include:

Only 5% of the 150,000 people who requested help received any
Nobody in the team dealing with requests had studied, had any detailed knowledge of Afghanistan, or had ever worked there
No one spoke any Afghan languages, with calls to people asking for help conducted in English
Decisions about who to rescue were arbitrary, and thousands of emails pleading for assistance were not even read
The IT system was dysfunctional, with eight soldiers drafted in to help left sharing one computer
Dominic Raab was slow to make decisions on difficult cases and did not fully understand the situation
Animals from the Nowzad charity run by a former Marine were not in danger and evacuating them was at the direct expense of people at risk of death

As the Taliban approached Kabul in August, there was one government scheme to evacuate those Afghans who had worked directly for the British government, and another to identify and help those who were at risk because of their broader links to the UK.

Mr Marshall worked for the team of officials handling a group known as Afghan Special Cases.

These included Afghan soldiers, politicians, journalists, civil servants, activists, aid workers, judges - and guards who had worked indirectly for the UK government via subcontractors.

In the desperate days at the end of August as the Taliban advanced on Kabul, many of these people were emailing the FCDO to get permission for a flight out of the country.

Mr Marshall said there were "usually 5,000 unread emails in the inbox at any given moment" and "in thousands of cases emails were not even read", including cases from MPs.

He said the process of prioritising the applicants was "arbitrary and dysfunctional". The criteria used by the government were unhelpful and ambiguous, leading to confusion, he added.

Evacuated dogs 'not at risk'

The decision to transport dogs from Pen Farthing's Nowzad shelter used up considerable capacity, so there was less space at the airport and fewer soldiers available to escort evacuees, Mr Marshall said.

He said the UK government ended up transporting animals "which were not at risk of harm at the direct expense of evacuating British nationals and people at risk of imminent murder, including interpreters who had served with the British Army".

Staff in the crisis centre who previously worked for the Department for International Development could not access FCDO computers because "the DFID and FCO IT systems are not yet integrated. They were visibly appalled by our chaotic system".

Mr Marshall described how soldiers were brought in to help but many had not used the computer systems before and so mistakes were made.

The computers had to be shared because FCDO IT had not issued passwords to unlock them. At one point eight soldiers shared one computer.

Telephone calls to Afghans were made only in English, Mr Marshall said. There was no one who spoke Dari or Pashto.

Mr Marshall said: "I believe no member of the Afghan Special Cases team had studied Afghanistan, worked on Afghanistan previously, or had a detailed knowledge of Afghanistan.

He added: "One was clearly scared of being asked to make hundreds of life and death decisions about which they knew nothing."

He said: "Most people in the FCDO crisis centre had a poor understanding of the actual situation at Kabul airport and the consequent urgency of calling people up as soon as possible."

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Mr Marshall's report states the FCDO crisis centre sent notes up to Mr Raab's office to get decisions on difficult cases.

But "it took several hours for the foreign secretary to engage on any of these notes" and when he did "he could not decide on individual cases" without seeing all the cases "in a well-presented table".

Mr Marshall concluded: "For the foreign secretary to make this request suggests he did not fully understand the situation."

He said, on another occasion, "the foreign secretary declined to make a decision on whether to admit these people without a properly formatted submission with a table setting out multiple cases".

A source close to Mr Raab said: "We evacuated over 500 special cases, including journalists, women's rights activists and extremely vulnerable individuals.

"The major practical challenge to evacuation was verifying identity and securing safe passage to the airport, not the speed of decision making. At all times, the team's focus was on saving lives."

'Leadership questions'

Chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Tugendhat, said: "The real question that needs answering is, where was everybody?"

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Mr Marshall's evidence depicts a 25-year-old, at times completely on his own, dealing with a huge volume of requests for help, "in a Foreign Office that was effectively a Mary Celeste at a time of national emergency".

Asked if it showed that the Foreign Office's work-from-home arrangements had failed, Mr Tugendhat said "all hands needed to be on deck" and "whatever the working arrangements, they weren't working".

A UK government spokesperson said more than 1,000 FCDO staff worked tirelessly in challenging circumstances, and decisions on prioritisation had to be made quickly to help as many people as possible.

It said the government was still working to help others leave and since the end of the operation had helped more than 3,000 people leave Afghanistan.

"Regrettably we were not able to evacuate all those we wanted to, but our commitment to them is enduring," they added.

Afghan exit: A timeline

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11 August: Afghan forces begin to surrender to the Taliban as US officials are quoted as saying Afghanistan could fall within 90 days.

15 August: An estimated 17,600 people fleeing the Taliban arrive in Kabul, with thousands more arriving all the time, according to the UN.

16 August: There are chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, where a number of people die and large crowds on the runway lead all flights to be halted for several hours

18 August: Kabul airport appears to be secured by US and Nato troops but the scramble to leave Afghanistan leads to chaotic scenes outside the airport's perimeter

22 August: Sir Laurie Bristow, the UK's ambassador to Afghanistan, describes the evacuation as "gathering pace" - confirming 6,000 Britons and eligible Afghans flown out since 13 August

23 August: UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says the final UK evacuation flights are "hours not weeks" away

25 August: The UK Foreign Office issues new guidance for Britons and eligible Afghans to move away from Kabul airport "to a safe location and await further advice"

26 August: At least 95 people are killed - including 13 US service personnel - and 150 others wounded after an explosion near the Abbey Gate entrance to the airfield

27 August: The Ministry of Defence confirms animal shelter founder Paul "Pen" Farthing and his animals have made it through Kabul airport's checkpoints - the department said members of the UK Armed Forces assisted

Speaking later that day, Mr Johnson says he feels a "great sense of regret" about those left behind in Afghanistan

28 August: The UK Ministry of Defence says the UK's final evacuation flight purely for civilians has left Kabul

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2021-12-07 14:12:04Z
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Senin, 06 Desember 2021

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes’ evil father agrees to finally release son’s body for funeral - Scottish Daily Record

The body of little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes will finally be laid to rest after his twisted killer dad finally agreed to release his remains.

Thomas Hughes, 29, was sentenced to 21 years for manslaughter at Coventry Crown Court on Friday, along with the six-year-old’s stepmother Emma Tustin, 32, who was caged for life and will serve a minimum term of 29 years, after being found guilty murder.

The cruel father had been “passive” on the issue until now but hoped the decision would provide a “tiny scrap of peace” to Arthur’s mum Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow, his lawyer said.

Since the sentencing last week the UK Government has announced a major review into the circumstances which led to the murder, aiming to determine what improvements are needed by the agencies that came into contact with Arthur before his death.

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes with his father Thomas Hughes and Thomas' partner Emma Tustin (Image: PA)

The National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel will lead the review and will provide additional support to Solihull Children’s Safeguarding Partnership.

It emerged in court the boy had been seen by social workers just two months before his death, but they concluded there were “no safeguarding concerns”.

When the pair were sentenced on Friday, it was confirmed Arthur had yet to be laid to rest.

Arthur's grandmother, Madeleine Halcrow, wants to finally lay the little boy to rest (Image: Jacob King/PA Wire)

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Arthur’s natural mother Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow was jailed for killing her then partner in 2019, leaving Hughes in sole custody of their son.

It was her arrest and remand into custody in February 2019 that led to Arthur falling into the care of Hughes, according to Bristol Live.

In an emotional statement, read by her mother Madeleine Halcrow, Arthur’s grandmother, she said her life had been “destroyed” by her son’s death.

She added: “Now over a year on my beautiful boy has still not been laid to rest. He is still alone and cold; the people who took him refuse to show compassion and allow his little body to be released to me, his mother; to finally let him rest peacefully and warm.

“Burying my beloved son is the final thing I will ever be able to do for him. The waiting is torture and even though I try to stop myself every night when I get into a warm bed, my heart breaks all over again at the thought of my Arthur alone in the cold.”

Bernard Richmond QC, barrister for Hughes, said a “degree of passivity” was part of his client’s character and he had not been “standing up” for the things he should have.

Arthur Labinjo-Hughes with his biological mother Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow (Image: PA)

He told the court Hughes had left the issue of Arthur’s remains to his family and Ms Labinjo-Halcrow’s family to resolve but they had not been able to agree.

Mr Richmond added: “I have spoke to him and said this can’t go on. He has instructed me to say that Arthur’s remains, after a service with his family, must go to his mother’s family for her to have a funeral and she must have control of his ashes.

“He does hope he can give Olivia a tiny scrap of peace.”

Arthur’s grandmother Madeleine Halcrow was among a large crowd of people who on Sunday afternoon gathered outside the house in Cranmore Road, Solihull, where the six-year-old was killed, to pay tribute.

She could be seen wiping away tears at the vigil while wearing a T-shirt bearing his face.

The crowd lined the road before letting go of the balloons, some bearing messages, and applauding.

Plan B ‘won’t be used before Christmas’ even if Omicron cases continue to rise – unles - iNews

Ministers will not trigger the Covid-19 “plan B” before Christmas solely in response to rising UK cases of the Omicron variant, i has been told, despite confirmation that the new strain is now spreading in the community.

Sajid Javid told MPs on Monday that some of the 336 people infected with Omicron in Britain caught it in this country, rather than importing it from abroad. Another 90 cases have been detected, covering nearly all parts of the UK.

None of the 336 Omicron cases has been hospitalised, the minister said.

Mr Javid said: “The Omicron variant is continuing to spread here and around the world… This includes cases with no links to international travel, so we can conclude there is now community transmission across multiple regions of England.”

Outlining the latest measures against the variant including pre-departure tests and placing Nigeria on the red list, Mr Javid added: “We can’t say for certain at this point whether Omicron has the potential to knock us off our road to recovery. We are leaving nothing to chance…

“But we can say we are doing everything in our power to strengthen our national defences. We will be as prepared as possible for whatever this virus brings.”

The number of Delta cases is also increasing with 51,459 new infections confirmed across the UK, a rise of nearly 9,000 on the previous Monday, while daily deaths appear to have stopped falling.

Despite the growing presence of the variant, which is forecast to become dominant next month, the Government will not impose new restrictions unless laboratory data and evidence from South Africa prove it is significantly more dangerous to the British population.

However, if hospital admissions rise significantly as a result of soaring admissions, it will increase the chances of extra measures.

A No 10 spokesman said: “There is no set threshold, that is not the approach we have taken throughout. What is important is that we put in the steps necessary to buy us time while scientists both here in places like Porton Down and around the world get more hard data on the characteristics of this variant.”

A Government insider told i that a rise in cases is almost inevitable and would not be enough to convince ministers they should crack down before Christmas, for example by telling people to work from home or imposing vaccine passports on crowded venues.

Asked whether the current restrictions were tough enough, Boris Johnson said: “I don’t think we need to change the overall guidance and advice we’re giving about Omicron in this country. We’re still waiting to see exactly how dangerous it is, what sort of effect it has in terms of deaths and hospitalisations.”

Although he refused to guarantee that no further measures would come into effect over the next three weeks, the Prime Minister added: “I’ve said I think many times now that I think this Christmas will be considerably better than last Christmas.”

Mr Johnson is likely to confirm next Thursday what rules will apply over Christmas, because that is the last day Parliament is sitting before it breaks up for the festive recess.

One leading scientist suggested that Christmas would help reduce transmission because the absence of people from schools and offices will cut the number of close contacts each individual has, outweighing the effect of increased travel around the country due to family reunions.

But others fear that if new rules do prove to be needed at some point, deliberately delaying them until the New Year would only require tougher measures which would be in place for longer.

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2021-12-06 17:38:00Z
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