Christmas travel plans for students
Revd Naomi Nixon, CEO of the Student Christian Movement, has criticised the Government's plans to get English university students home before Christmas. This was in reaction to a travel window, between 3 and 9 December, for students to go home in evacuation-styled staggered time slots. In-person teaching is also due to end. She said the procedure is brutal and confusing; treating students differently from everyone else in society. What if students have exams after the cut-off date, or live off-campus? Are students living in regular housing and streets to be treated differently from other people living in that street travelling at Christmas? Will students who have expensive train or plane tickets falling outside the travel window be refunded? There will be students isolating after a positive test, and students who have left foster care and are now 18 with nowhere to go.
Brexit border concerns
The ‘Haulier Handbook’ (to prevent Brexit border meltdown) is a guide to the mountain of new red tape required to transport goods across borders. It was promised in early September but will now not be fully available until 7 December, three weeks before it is needed. Logistics UK, representing freight groups, warned that time is running out to prevent ‘lorry queues at Dover and empty shelves in Northern Ireland’ when the transition period ends in 50 days’ time. ‘With the economy still reeling from handling the impact of Covid-19, the last thing UK plc needs is another major shock of our own making,’ said the Logistics director of policy. Construction of border inspection posts for checks on animal products crossing the Irish Sea has not yet started, and will take up to six months to complete.
Second wave will be more gruelling
UK doctors have been warned the second coronavirus wave will be ‘gruelling professionally and personally’ with increased pressure throughout the winter. NHS chiefs and all four British medical officers have written to medics urging them to brace for a ‘prolonged’ Covid-19 outbreak over the coming weeks or even months. Healthcare professionals will have to be flexible, which ‘may entail working in unfamiliar circumstances or surroundings, or working in clinical areas outside of their usual practice.’ Their warning comes as Boris Johnson’s official spokesman told a Westminster briefing that England’s lockdown will not be extended. He insisted, ‘When the current national measures come to an end on 2 December, we will be returning to a regional tiered approach.’ Pray for rapid tests to speed up a return to normal life. Pray for God to inspire peace and remove the fear caused by continual negative media updates. Also, pray for the encouragement caused by news of the Pfizer vaccine to become reality.
‘Life-saving' gambling laws review postponed until 2021
The inquiry into gambling laws promised in the election manifesto should have begun this month. But the culture and media department now says it is ‘not imminent’. The UK betting industry has seen revenues surge to £14.5billion a year because of lax regulations and more gambling on smartphones. Not getting this review under way now will be a matter of life and death for hundreds of families. Two gambling addicts take their own life every day, with many more left bankrupt. One in ten children admit gambling with their own money. The Government is under pressure to curb advertising, prevent punters spending thousands online, and help the 55,000 children suffering from addiction. Richard Holden, a Tory member of a Commons committee which has investigated gambling, said, ‘The fact that the most senior civil servant in the culture department now seems to be backing away from getting the gambling review started is very worrying.’
