Nothing must undermine the extraordinary success of Britain’s Covid vaccine rollout
Gift of the jab
NOTHING must undermine the extraordinary success of our vaccine rollout.
That means combating anti-vax idiots, among them the President of France, spreading lies about AstraZeneca’s jab.
Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
It means encouraging the ethnic minority community leaders already doing admirable work to convince those who still doubt the vaccines’ safety.
But it must surely mean closing our borders, temporarily but immediately, not just to countries deemed higher risk but to all (with a small number of exemptions for certain jobs).
We are told our jabs should work against the worrying South African Covid variant.
But Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s insistence that those in certain postcodes get tested, even without symptoms, betrays his nervousness.
Other new strains must be kept out, especially with so many still unjabbed.
Every day, that number falls at a fantastic rate.
Almost a million people were inoculated at the weekend alone.
That, like Britain’s commitment to donate excess vaccines to nations in need, is a cause for huge pride.
We must do nothing to set it back.
Thin excuse
NANNY state obsessives in Downing Street must remember the low-paid before brainlessly scrapping supermarket specials.
Two-for-one deals are merely a nice treat for middle-class shoppers.
For millions of others they are essential.
One in four Brits fears being unable to afford the weekly shop if such cut-price promotions are axed — the latest panic measure aimed at getting us slimmer.
It will bite hard for hundreds of thousands left unemployed by Covid.
Obesity has worsened our virus toll.
Tackling that national problem requires a long-term culture change and better education about diet and exercise.
Quick fixes won’t work.
Sugar taxes have failed to cut obesity anywhere.
Banning buy-one-get-one-frees would join them as another failed Tory policy which hit the poor hardest.
Brexie bonus
EVEN The Sun never expected to see Brexit’s benefits quite so fast.
But after striking scores of new trade deals already, Liz Truss has now applied to join the CPTPP, a bloc of 11 nations including Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
Our annual trade with them is already worth £111billion.
Scrapping 95 per cent of tariffs should hugely increase that and create jobs.
Unlike the EU, the CPTPP is not an exclusive customs union which outlaws other deals, imposes its laws and seeks to absorb Britain into a giant superstate.
It’s exactly the sort of global opportunity we should now exploit.
And it’s another nail in the coffin of the sneering critics still trying to claim that Brexit created an insular Little Britain.
Most read in Opinion
GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL exclusive@the-sun.co.uk