Captain Tom’s force for good

Write to me c/o Daily Star Sunday, One Canada Square, London E14 5AP

JOURNALISTS must pursue the truth with rigorous and forensic determination.

Our role is simple – to hold those in power to account whatever the consequences.

That is why I thought long and hard about the words I am about to write…

I think it’s time to offer our nation some rays of sunshine.

This is not a call to end critical reporting – we should continue to report all the grisly details if the Government fails us or does not move swiftly enough.

Rather, it is a suggestion to my profession to realise the huge power it has in setting the national mood.

The coverage in some papers of last month’s sunny Easter weekend made it look like half the country was defying the lockdown and had raced off to the park or beach.

But with a population of about 67million, it is only ever going to take a fraction of 1% to disobey the rules and make it look like a rebellion.

The opposite was true and, as usual, the Great British public played ball.

The media, myself included, has rightly focused on the clumsiness of reporting the number of coronavirus deaths, as well as the delays in getting PPE to where it is most needed and in delivering the 100,000 daily tests promised by the Government. But let us not forget that one of the Government’s primary aims was to prevent the NHS buckling under the strain of Covid-19.

As I write, this has been achieved – unlike in Italy, where the health service effectively collapsed and people died in hospital corridors or in the back of ambulances.

Study the news worldwide and you will see that the shortage of protective kit is not a uniquely British problem.

The fact that more than 900,000 pieces of PPE were moved to 58,000 different locations in the UK has not really been heard.

And let us not forget how a network of Nightingale hospitals was built by the Army in a matter of days.

This is not to pretend it has been a story of glittering success, but ask yourself this: Why has the nation taken to Captain (soon to be Colonel) Tom Moore, left, with such enthusiasm and dug into its pockets to the tune of more than £30million?

It is because Capt Tom’s story is one of hope and determination against all odds.

People need to be uplifted and even to laugh during these dark times.

Remember that during the war newspapers still ran cartoons and the popular radio comedy It’s That Man Again came of age and delighted millions.

Let the robust reporting continue, without fear or favour…but also without forgetting that there are plenty of reasons for us to be cheerful, too.

AN asteroid more than a mile wide and travelling at 19,000 miles an hour changed track at the last minute and dodged Earth. You can’t blame it, really.