Web data cap axed to help users
THE data cap for the internet is to be scrapped during the crisis. Mobile providers will also boost data packages and offer more free calls.
Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said: “It’s fantastic to see providers pulling together to do their bit.”
Meanwhile, the first 2,000 food parcels will be delivered today to people most at risk. Collaboration between the food industry, councils and volunteers could soon see hundreds of thousands sent out.
And in a separate move, pension transfers could be put on hold to stop crooks scamming worried investors.
Sophie described how she felt her baby move for the first time and was so excited she covered her head with a baby jumper and ran through to another room so her partner could feel the kicks.
She said: “He couldn’t believe how much my bump had grown in just two weeks. Now we are looking forward to picking boys’ names.
“But I am not due until August so I’ll be able to see patients for another few months.”
MIDWIVES’ leaders yesterday warned their staff must not be redeployed during the crisis.
The Royal College of Midwives said illness and vacancies meant one in five roles is unfilled.
Gill Walton, RCM chief exec-utive, said: “Women are still pregnant, still having babies. The shortage of midwives has doubled since the outbreak, a situation which is only likely to worsen.”
THE wartime clichés have been raining down like doodlebugs – there is talk of blitz spirit and profiteering, rationing and “is your journey really necessary?”.
Even Trump, ridiculous as ever, has declared himself a Wartime President – it’ll be over by Easter, he says.
But some echoes of the Second World War ring truer.
Just before D-Day in 1944, Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour, went to Portsmouth to visit our soldiers on the eve of their embarkation for France.
One asked him: “Ernie, when we have done this job for you, are we going back to the dole?”
In this war, the frontline soldiers are our public servants – doctors, nurses, paramedics, orderlies, cleaners, care workers, delivery drivers.
When the doorstep clapping and the Downing Street platitudes are over, what will happen to these heroes?
For 50 years, Britain has fawned over the wrong kind of heroes while insulting and undervaluing our real titans. Well, it’s not been a great week for all those brave, dynamic entrepreneurs – Sports Direct’s Mike Ashley and Wetherspoons’ Tim Martin, Topshop’s Philip Green, Richard Branson, Rick Stein and all the other millionaires who laid off staff without pay or forced them into work.
Meanwhile, the Tories have been looking for ways to quietly euthanize the NHS. In 2017, Conservative MPs cheered in the Commons as they voted down a pay rise for nurses.
But, when this is all over, we should remember who skulked and profited, and who the real heroes were and reward them with their due.
Stuart Maconie is the author of
The Nanny State Made Me.