After 30,000 deaths, when will social care neglect end? – Yorkshire Post Letters

IT seems unlikely that any heads will roll over the issue of people being discharged into care homes without Covid-19 tests, but the years of neglect that left social care in crisis and vulnerable to something like coronavirus cannot go unchallenged any longer.

Matt Hancock challenged over social care ‘Act now or step aside’

More than 30,000 people died in care and nursing homes from Covid-19 between December 2019 and now. Every loss has been a human tragedy – a parent, a brother, a sister, an aunt, an uncle or a friend.

It is true that people were discharged into homes without Covid-19 tests and that is a scandal. It is also a scandal that 1.5 million people cannot get the care they need and £8bn has been cut from social care budgets since 2010.

Government after government has promised to reform social care but betrayed those 1.5 million people again and again. It can be little surprise that the care of our most vulnerable was in crisis long before Covid-19 struck. It was not in a position to deal with this terrible pandemic.

Those years of neglect cannot go on any longer. We must hold the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister accountable for what happens next. They must be forced to promise social care reform within this Parliament or resign if they fail to deliver again.

From: Geoffrey Brooking, Havant, Hampshire.

BORIS Johnson must do the right thing and delay lockdown easing at the end of June if the scientific evidence says so.

The Indian Covid variant is more transmissible than the Kent variant and lots of young people, who were the main ones spreading the virus last September, are yet to be vaccinated.

Add to this the fact that under 50s are still only starting to get the second jab and surely the Prime Minister needs to seek the right advice and take a more cautious approach if advised.

Boris is doing a great job along with Matt Hancock, even though some love to criticise from the sidelines with the benefit of hindsight.

So please Boris, if you have to, play it safe, delay easing, and save lives because in the long run you will gain even more respect, thus paving the way for levelling up Britain through investment in regions and further progress in the demolition of Labour’s eroding red wall.

From: Canon Michael Storey, Healey Wood Road, Brighouse.

BILL Carmichael (The Yorkshire Post, May 26) has given a very thorough summary of “events” relating to the “hornet’s nest” stirred up by Dominic Cummings’ revelations.

As yet, we don’t know how many of the accusations are true but, sadly for me, they confirm my opinion of both the Prime Minister and Mr Hancock – their ways of presenting facts and details always smack of self-importance.

What a shame that a proper inquiry into the Government’s handling of the Covid crisis, at the suggestion of the Prime Minister, will not take place until next year.

From: Michael Dennis, Ripon.

WHY didn’t Greg Clark or Jeremy Hunt ask Dominic Cummings if the Social Care Reform plan that the Prime Minister referred to on July 24, 2019, ever existed?

From: Christine McDade, Morton on Swale.

AM I the only person who remembers seeing our Prime Minister in February 2020 on TV telling us that the flu-like illness sweeping across Europe was not serious and that day he had visited a hospital and shaken hands with all he met, and he saw no reason to stop doing so?

Fairer taxes

From: Professor Graham Scott, Hunmanby.

RECENTLY, I attended a meeting, organised by the Thirsk and Malton constituency Labour Party, with our MP Kevin Hollinrake

I was pleased to hear Mr Hollinrake raise the need for a fairer tax system to rebuild our economy after the pandemic.

So, I was disappointed, but not surprised, that Mr Hollinrake voted against an important Labour Party amendment to the Finance Bill for a global minimum corporation tax; something proposed by President Biden and supported by all G7 countries except the UK.

If the Bill had been passed on taxes on profits made in the UK, it could have been used to give the NHS a proper pay rise; it could have been used to build infrastructure; it could have been used to strengthen our education system and give young people the best start in life; it could have been used to provide support to the elderly and to the most vulnerable in our society.

Because Mr Hollinrake and others voted against the amendment none of this will happen. Mr Hollinrake also said that “the Government has no money, only tax payer’s money”, and that “all this spending will have to be paid back”. So does he expect the people of this country to be taxed more instead of large corporations?

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