Lost control of the Covid crisis

Local Lib Dem Councillors and MPs have been watching the rising number of cases of the coronavirus with increasing concern since before Christmas.

Last Saturday, Cllr James Walsh, a former GP and Lib Dem leader on West Sussex County Council, and the education spokesperson, Cllr Kirsty Lord, wrote to the WSCC Cabinet Member for Schools expressing concern about rising local cases, particularly amongst young people, and the implications for opening schools on Monday.

They sought assurances that West Sussex Schools were safe to open this week and that re-opening them would not cause an increase in cases in the county.

On Sunday, Daisy Cooper MP, Parliamentary spokesperson on education, called on the Government to delay opening schools until January 18 and use that time to ‘get ahead of the virus’ and publish a clear plan to open schools safely, saying, ‘The Tories have squandered every opportunity to get ahead of the virus and are wreaking havoc on people’s lives.’

Many people questioned why the precautionary principle was not being applied.

If schools had not opened this week, children would have remained in their households and would not have had a day mixing with their classmates and teachers, allowing the new, highly infectious, strain of the virus to spread.

The Prime Minister has now admitted on live TV that schools help spread the virus.

And yet, with a new strain that is out of control, he was happy to send pupils and teachers into classrooms, putting lives at risk. This is unforgivable.

Boris Johnson has completely lost control of the

Covid-19 crisis. Over and over again, he has ducked the hard choices. His dither and delay have cost lives and livelihoods.

This government has abdicated its key responsibility, which is to make the tough decisions for the future good of the country.

The Liberal Democrats support the Government’s new lockdown and hope that, despite its late implementation, it will work, alongside the vital vaccination programme, to slow and halt the infection.

In the meantime, we wish parents and teachers well in trying to plan their lives at work and home in the next few weeks.

MORWENMILLSON LiberalDemocratCountyCouncillor forRiverside, ComptonsLane,

Horsham