Common good and lights in darkness
THE conflict between individual choice and the common good, MPS’ extra £10,000 to work from home, and the light shone in times of darkness by frontline workers were the topics debated by columnists and contributors in yesterday’s papers.
The Guardian
Alison Hills, a philosophy tutor at St John’s College, Oxford, said Covid-19 gave “fresh urgency” to philosophers’ struggle between individual choice and the common good.
“It is a mark of the crisis we are in that simply sunbathing in the park raises the deepest questions about what truly matters in our lives,” she said. “As political philosophers such as Karl Marx emphasise, our individual decisions are made against a social background that we have not chosen.
“Lockdown is a very different experience for different people, depending on their personality, their family circumstances and their living conditions. It is easier to stay at home in a large, roomy house with a pleasant garden than in a cramped high-rise flat with no outdoor space.”
In this way, it reinforces existing social inequalities, she said.
“Though we should all keep to the guidelines, it doesn’t follow that we should heap blame on those who don’t, not knowing what staying at home is like for them, not knowing their reasons for being out,” she said.
“There are huge disparities between the burdens a few are being asked to bear for the sake of the many. Doctors, nurses and other key workers constantly risk their lives to look after the sick and to keep essential services running. For the rest of us, there is very little that we can do to make a difference in this global crisis. It is easy to feel helpless and overwhelmed. But in fact, sitting at home, we can stand in solidarity with those who are doing more.”
Daily Mail
Richard Littlejohn said that while we are always being told we’re all in this together, the harsh reality is somewhat different.
“Yet while millions of people in the private sector endure pay cuts and face an uncertain future, MPS are actually being paid more money to help them cope with the coronavirus crisis,” he said.
Not just their 3.1 per cent pay rise this month, but now an additional £10,000 to help with working from home expenses “while millions of people in the private sector endure pay cuts and face an uncertain future.”
“The real question is why they need any more money,” he added. “In March, every MP got an extra £25,000 to cover increased staff costs, taking the total amount for running their offices to over £200,000 a year.
“Admittedly, working from home may mean they incur higher domestic telephone and utility bills, but they’re also saving money while their constituency offices are shut. So why bung them another ten grand? “
He pointed out millions of people are working from home, using their own laptops and phones, without receiving an extra penny.
Daily Express
Reverend George Pitcher, rector of the parish of Waldron in East Sussex, remembers a young Australian nurse called Kirsty Boden who was in the news three years ago.
She was on a night out with friends near London Bridge when masonry rained down on the restaurant after a van crashed into railings. Everyone else fled.
“Not Kirsty,” he said “One of her friends remembers her saying: “I’m a nurse. I have to try to help.”
She did not know that was the beginning of a terror attack that was to see eight people killed.
Mr Pitcher continued: “She found a waiter from the restaurant, Alexandre Pigeard, mortally wounded in a pool of blood and rushed to his aid. He’d been stabbed. As she bent over him, his attackers set about Kirsty. She died shortly afterwards of her stab wounds.”
He said that, as the world is gripped by a different kind of terror, we should “dwell on on those countless thousands who, like Kirsty, have run towards danger on behalf of us all, rather than away to protect themselves”. Namely, he said, the NHS staff and volunteers, and emergency workers who are on the frontline in the fight against the coronavirus.
“What will cure us are the lights that shine in the darkness, those who serve in humility, running towards danger to help or just sitting at home to protect others.
“As I sit alone today in a 900-year-old church, I know this Easter that nothing – not even death – can overcome what Kirsty shone three years ago and what so many of her fellow professionals shine today.”