Getting the economy moving again
ECONOMIC recovery following lockdown was a recurring theme in yesterday’s opinion columns.
The Daily Mail
Dominic Lawson said Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help
Out scheme had helped rescue the UK’S hospitality industry “at a time of unprecedented commercial peril”.
The scheme, he wrote, “sent a jolt of electricity through a population which was reluctant to eat out at all, not necessarily through fear of infection but just inertia or a habit acquired during lockdown”.
The “sudden imposition” of quarantine restrictions on travellers returning from certain countries had also helped domestic business, Mr Lawson noted.
“First it was Spain, then France, then Croatia,” he added. “Now even ultra- hygienic Switzerland has been removed from the list of nations with a quarantine-free ‘travel corridor’ to the UK.”
Mr Lawson went on: “It is almost as if the real reason for the apparently capricious imposition of these requirements was to deter people from taking their holidays overseas and instead spend their money here – as an additional inducement to Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
“If so, it has worked – and not just in such obvious hotspots as Cornwall, where one in three private sector jobs are connected to tourism.
“James Mason, the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: ‘We’ve been doing a roaring trade since July . . . supply can’t meet demand and many businesses are saying they’re booked into September and October.’
“The chairman of the Wales Tourism Alliance, Andrew Campbell, happily reported that ‘self- catering is flying. It’s been booked out to an unprecedented level’.”
Now that the “eating out and holidaying in Britain habits” have returned, Mr Lawson concluded, “they need to continue even in the absence of Sunak’s ingenious stimulus”.
The Times
In its leader comment, the paper stressed that restoring a degree of normality to the economy would require ministers to demonstrate competence.
Opening educational institutions, it said, would be “vital” for young people’s welfare, adding: “In business, the case for going back to offices, factories, shops and places of hospitality is no less compelling.”
However, the paper suggested that persuading staff to leave home would be no easy task.
“Workers will return when they have confidence that public authorities have the coronavirus under control,” it said.
“Britain and the other advanced industrial economies are still far from that position.”
The comment concluded: “Opening up society and commerce while protecting public health is a fine balance to maintain.
“Encouragement, and a determined show of ministerial competence, will prove more effective than exhortation in getting the economy and public life moving once more.”
The Daily Telegraph
The paper’s leader comment expressed concern about efforts to re-open the economy and balance the UK’S books.
“Officials in the Treasury have been looking for an excuse to raid capital gains, pensions, fuel, online shopping or inheritance tax,” it said.
“If they do so, it will destroy the recovery before it has even begun – and do catastrophic damage to the reputation of the Conservative Party.
“Unfortunately, there are signs of institutional reluctance, including among university unions, head teachers and the civil service. It is dispiriting that the same ministers trying to encourage the public to return to normal cannot persuade some of their own staff to end home working, but from the depths of Whitehall comes a pertinent question: if there is a second outbreak, the Government will presumably shut the whole country down again, so why bother to come in?”
The comment concluded: “Returning to normal is an experiment that needs to be given a chance to work. It demands clarity from ministers as well as the full backing of the public sector.
“It also requires workers and parents to weigh up their own risks and operate common sense. In the long-term, Britain needs to beef up its track-and-trace systems and work towards a vaccine. For now, it needs a little courage.”