Ticking boxes isn’t just ‘ticking boxes’

Writing in response to the High Court ruling that health secretary Matt Hancock broke the law over failing to publish details of Covid contracts, Nick (MetroTalk, Mon) says getting emergency PPE was more important than ‘box-ticking’.

Assuming there was no delay in payments from the government to the companies supplying said NHS equipment, as well as no delay in receiving said NHS equipment, there’s no excuse for not providing accounts in the given time.

Roy J Hunt, Bloomsbury

Nick is right to point out that the priority during a pandemic is to concentrate on saving lives and not focus too much on accountability and procedures. But that’s not the issue here. The concern is one of cronyism at the heart of government – whether friends of the Tory party were given preference when the contracts were awarded.

Alan, North London

Resistance to taking the Covid vaccine seems broadly to divide into two camps – those based on religious grounds and those under-40s who have fallen for social media lies.

When these under-40s find, as seems very likely, that they won’t be able to holiday in many countries unless vaccinated, just watch the uptake then. Their complaint will then be to ask why they can’t be prioritised because not being able to holiday abroad is ‘affecting their mental health’.

John T Pharro, Canvey Island

Regarding whether life in the UK can go ‘back to normal’ on June 21 (Metro, Tue).

It won’t for the 120,000-plus dead and their friends and family, nor the 20,000 odd in hospital, the 30,000 likely to die before being vaccinated because we’re coming out of lockdown before vaccination is complete and the hundreds of thousands permanently damaged by Covid.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was not aiming for a Covid-free Britain, unlike other countries which took the coronavirus seriously a year ago, while he skipped Cobra meetings, failed on PPE, and wasted £22billion on track and trace. I’m not so cheerful here, I’m afraid. I just hope I get vaccinated before I get Covid.

M Reader, London

The only reason we are in this Covid mess is due to past governments not investing in the NHS. Blame them.