Why scrutiny of Ministers matters in pandemic response

SOME of your readers have recently written to say this is not the time for party political wrangling. I agree. At a time of national crisis we cut our national and local leaders some slack.

They are making many decisions at pace. That is an awesome responsibility, for which they must be accountable. The question is only when.

We like to think we still live in a democracy and when a very few people have unprecedented levels of power over all of us, for example the Prime Minister giving all of us ‘an instruction’, then we are entitled to ask some searching questions about the decisions they are making and the impact these are having.

So, for example, it is clear we are miles behind most other countries in testing people for symptoms of the virus. The 25,000 daily tests promised by Boris Johnson several weeks ago seem like a mirage in the desert.

In the absence of scrutiny by Parliament or even select committees, who could set up remote meetings, it has fallen to national and local media to ask these questions for us. They can do so because they are the only ones with access to daily briefings by Ministers and senior civil servants.

Ministers and other leaders say we can only win this war against the virus if we are all in it together. That means it’s a two-way process, not one-way instructions.

From: Paul Muller, Sandal, Wakefield.

I AGREE with every word Jayne Dowle has written in her two recent articles concerning the coronavirus. The NHS could not cope with the number of patients coming for treatment before the virus struck because of the great shortage of nurses and doctors.

Now, because we have not been testing the staff in the hospitals, many nurses and doctors have had to self-isolate – this includes all ancillary staff and even the managers. We will not be able to cope with the sick coming to the NHS today or tomorrow.

Finally we have realised that ‘testing, testing, testing’, as stated by the WHO, should have been followed. Unfortunately it is probably too late now.

From: Paul Brown, Bents Green Road, Sheffield.

THERE is a shortage of personal protective equipment in hospitals and allied organisations. One possible solution would be to use face masks, eye protection and overalls stocked by suppliers to the building, take-away food. manufacturing and motor trades which have a reduced demand at present.

Hospital staff with their usual good humour in the face of distressing situations for themselves, and their patients, would be able to make jokes about getting a job as a shipyard welder after the current crisis has subsided.

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

WE have a lovely small Co-op store here within walking distance of the estate opposite and ideal for pensioners who are now having to be restricted in their shopping by an extremely reduced bus service. Unfortunately those still using their cars are stripping the shelves bare. Isn’t it time some people started to listen to the Government advice that there is enough for our need but not for our greed? Let the pensioners have, at least, some food to buy when they take their daily walk.

From: Terry Hammond, Sandal, Wakefield.

I TRAVELLED via totally empty roads in Wakefield to shop at M&S for their early morning shopping hour for elderly shoppers on April 2. On my way back on equally deserted roads, what should I encounter on Asdale Road – a police camera detection vehicle.

In the present circumstances, one would have thought that police manpower could have been better deployed in a more productive way to help our over-stretched health and community services who are at breaking point.

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