If we can build pop-up hospitals, why not classrooms? – David Behrens

The 14-day isolation measure which came into force on Monday for incoming visitors literally rewrites the rules on how we will spend our holidays – not just this year but also and more worryingly, next summer too.

At least one tour operator has reported that families are splashing out on overseas trips in 2021 to make up for having been denied them this year.

But what will that mean for those in Yorkshire’s tourism sector who have already lost the best part of a year’s income? Forfeiting next summer’s trade to the Mediterranean may be the last straw for some.

Tourism isn’t the only casualty of the economic catastrophe we are all facing; it’s merely the most obvious. Its victims are often people we know, in places we love. But we haven’t been outside clapping for them on Thursday evenings, have we?

Boris Johnson must take back control...if he can – Bernard Ingham

Our sole focus since March has been on protecting the NHS. That has been the mantra of one vacillating Minister after the next. But we haven’t really protected it at all. According to the health service’s own figures, the waiting list for routine treatment will have more than doubled by the end of the year, to around 10m. So good luck getting that operation you were promised last January.

The tide in this pandemic is slowly turning and so must our sense of priorities. It seems insensitive to talk of economic healing when so many families are still nursing physical wounds but the economy is not just the concern of the business fraternity; all our futures are wrapped up in it and the omens are not encouraging.

The headline figure from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is that Britain is the developed economy likely to fare worst, with a slump roughly double that of Germany. This is supported by the Institute of Directors, which says plans by companies to recruit new staff have “plumbed new depths”. But those bald statistics conceal the human cost, which is that more than a third of young adults think they will be made redundant or see their pay cut in the coming months.

Schools and lockdown: PM must be taken to task – The Yorkshire Post says

In some areas, unemployment in that age group is predicted to rise from eight to 26 per cent, taking into account those who work – or used to – in tourism and hospitality. That is a quite staggering number to be plunged into a world without work.

Many of those people have children whose own progress has stalled, having lost a term and a half of education. This, despite the standard Government advice that missing even a day of lessons leaves them vulnerable to falling behind.

The Nightingale Hospital that sprang up in Harrogate Conference Centre at the start of the pandemic but which was, in the event, not needed, should have served as an example here.

If we could muster the money and effort to create facilities like that, surely we could have put up temporary classrooms in closed-down libraries and other public buildings where social distancing could have been observed?

Boris Johnson fails to repay our trust on flooding – The Yorkshire Post says

We’re not talking about expensive beds and respirators here – just pencil cases and protractors.

Boris Johnson insisted on Wednesday he had a plan to get the country back on its feet and promised extra cash to support vulnerable families. He sounded reassuring and he’s good at doing that. Three weeks ago he reassured us that Britain would have a “world-beating” track-and-trace system by the end of May and that schools in England would reopen on June 1. This week, with the education plans in the shredder, his chief scientific adviser said the track-and- trace system was not fit for purpose.

Reassurance is no use if it is always to be followed by crushing disappointment.

The latest, somewhat vague, changes to the rules will mean that from today some of the couples who have been kept apart can be finally reunited and grandparents perhaps allowed to hug their families once more.

While these short-term benefits are welcome, it will take properly planned, long-term strategies to give businesses in the tourism sector and those they employ any vestige of hope. And so far, there are fewer of those than washed-up whales on our empty beaches.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

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James Mitchinson, Editor