D-Day hero, 95, urges us all to ‘sit on couch’
assistance scheme announced for employees to cover the self-employed.
Train drivers’ union Aslef said: “If the Government doesn’t shut sites and pay self-employment, people will die.”
A snap YouGov poll of 2,788 adults showed 93% back the shutdown called by the PM on Monday night when the public was ordered to stay home, with only essential workers to travel to their jobs if they could not do them at home.
Cabinet minister Michael Gove added to the uncertainty by wrongly suggesting that children whose parents live apart should not travel between them. He later apologised and corrected himself, confirming that children under 18 were permitted to move between their parents’ homes.
And Health Secretary Matt Hancock gave more mixed messages.
In the Commons, he said lockdown orders were “not advice, they are rules and will be enforced including by the
Crowded Tube yesterday morning police, with fines starting at £30 up to unlimited fines for non-compliance”. But at No10 later he called it “advice”, saying: “The advice is crystal clear.”
However, Downing St have confirmed that failure to pay a penalty notice could be subject to criminal proceedings and a conviction.
Former Labour minister Kevin Brennan suggested the Government seemed not to be following its own advice. He said: “The Home Office in
Sheffield is requiring workers to come in to do work which could be done at home – word processing and admin.”
Yesterday police across the country dispersed groups that gathered in public, including in London and Kent.
National Police Chiefs’ Council chairman Martin Hewitt said officers could demand proof people had a reason to be outside.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick was out on patrol in South London yesterday.
She said: “We have been planning for a major incident, we have very robust plans in place and for pandemics – we’ve been planning for years.”
She said that once the new legislation is in place: “My view is that my officers will just carry on talking to people and advising people. The vast majority of people want to comply with the law, the vast majority of people want to keep their society safe.”
Veteran medic Harry Fenn
A D-DAY veteran has issued an emotive plea for Britons to “do their duty” and protect his generation from coronavirus.
Harry Fenn, 95, was just 19 when he played a key role as a medic during the Normandy beach landings in 1944.
In a video published on Liberation 75’s Facebook page, he said: “In 1944, I served my country and did my duty. Now it’s your duty to sit on the couch. Please save lives. It’s as simple as that.”
Mr Fenn, of Jersey, was with the Royal Navy on June 6, 1944 when the Allies landed in Normandy.
He also survived the bombing of Portsmouth, where his family lived after being evacuated from Jersey in June 1940.
On one occasion they ran through the streets as bombs fell, reaching the safety of an air raid shelter as one exploded close by.
Mr Fenn, who was awarded France’s highest military award – the Legion d’Honneur – in 2016, insisted: “I don’t think of myself as a hero. The real heroes are those who never came back.”
Supporters of Harry backed up his message. Lindsey Power said: “This guy ran over trenches with a tommy gun. All we’ve got to do is Netflix and chill.”
Mary Stewart, secretary of the Spirit of Normandy Trust, said: “What Harry is saying is such an important message. Most veterans are quite pragmatic. A lot of them will be sat on the couch – and the younger generation need to do the same for them now.”