Furlough extension welcome but people must respect lockdown – The Yorkshire Post says

Weeks ago, Rishi Sunak was strongly resisting calls to maintain the salary subsidy policy beyond the original November 30 cut-off because of the wider costs to an economy already in deep recession.

The Richmond MP then agreed amid the chaos of last Saturday night’s lockdown announcement to continue subsidising 80 per cent of salaries of people on furlough until December.

Now it is continuing until the end of March, a full year after its advent, because the economic recovery has slowed, and risks increased, with the retail and hospitality sectors very vulnerable.

Inevitably reaction was split. Mr Sunak’s supporters, and the affected workers, welcomed the move, and which benefits the entire UK, while Labour accused him of responding too slowly to events.

However this so-called ‘safety net’ does, in fact, give England a better chance of being able to emerge from this latest lockdown on December 2 with Covid under better control as the number of daily deaths edges towards 500.

Already Boris Johnson’s critics are looking to blame the PM if the country isn’t able then to return to the tiered system of social restrictions.

But the real culprits, judging by early evidence, are the sheer number of people whose lackadaisical observance of the lockdown’s strictures is now the near-reverse of the national show of solidarity back in March.

And their selfishness means they, rather than the Government, will be to blame if their lack of personal responsibility – at a time of national crisis – prolongs the human, economic and social misery being endured by so many with such fortitude.

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