Boris Johnson should disown MP over lockdown comments – The Yorkshire Post says

A statement at odds with the Prime Minister’s recent ebullience, and pronouncements, about getting the country back to work, the measures go further than Thursday’s urgent decision forbidding social gatherings in homes across swathes of the North, including Bradford, Kirklees, Calderdale.

And the consequences – for businesses, tourism, sport, weddings and religious celebrations like Eid – explain the Government’s predicament and why both Ministers, and officials, need to offer far more clarity when announcing such decisions. In the wake of scientific evidence, the Government had to act so swiftly in order to protect, and save, lives. Where it erred, however, was the failure of Ministers and officials to offer the necessary clarity when MPs and councils were briefed with little warning.

This is a key lesson if public trust, confidence and forbearance is to be maintained – these safeguards do have a direct impact on day-to-day lives, like childcare, and there was insufficient recognition of this or a need to show more understanding about the BAME community rather than pandering to ill-informed prejudices of MPs like Calder Valley’s Craig Whittaker.

Yet, whatever the frustrations with the Government, it is everyone’s duty to comply with all public health protocols. A failure to do so will only delay the recovery and put more jobs, and lives, at risk. As Prof Whitty said, it is within our hands, as a society, on how to respond, hence why it remains in the interests of all to follow his guidance without exception.

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

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson