The UK is in a state of confusion over the government’s latest announcement on wearing masks, UK correspondent Mathew Parris says.
“For the last three months the government have been saying that the medical evidence says it’s not clear that masks are much of a help and the WHO had changed its tune and said they are useful,” he told Nine to Noon.
Now the government had reversed its previous advice, he says.
Women wearing face masks walk past the closed closed Sondheim Theatre, home to long-running musical Les Miserables, on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. Photo: David Cliff/NurPhoto/AFP
“We were always obliged to wear masks on public transport, but they are now saying that you’re going to have to wear masks if you go into shops.
“But the trouble is they have made the announcement, it’s not due to come into effect for nearly another week and it’s already beginning to fall apart.
“It appears for instance that you could buy crisps in a news agent without a mask, but you couldn’t buy crisps in a sandwich bar without a mask or is it the other way round? Nobody knows.”
More confusion stems from shoppers being told to wear masks but not shop workers.
“No one is very clear what the logic there is either.
“So, I’m afraid this is another example of the Government not getting its act properly together or its message clear or its arguments straight.”
Hopes of a ‘V’ shaped economic recovery also look to have been premature, Parris says.
“They appear to have been dashed. The Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted yesterday, on the basis of the latest economic figures, that up to 1.3 million people might be added to the dole queues quite soon.”
There was no great bounce back in May, he says.
“It does appear the economy only grew by 1.8 percent in May, we were all expecting 5 or 6 percent so it didn’t rebound in May.”
People remain wary of going out, he says.
“People are still scared to go out, shop takings are way down, people are not crowding into pubs, they did on the first day.
“I went into a pub the other evening and they guy was wearing a space mask it kind of doesn’t add to the conviviality.”
“People are nervous, and the economy is not strong and the idea of it all being like a coiled spring ready to go just does not seem to be happening.”
And unemployment predictions make for grim reading, he says. The Office of Budget Responsibility estimates that the actual rate of unemployment is more like 9 percent than the official rate of 3.9 percent.
“They think that 1.8 million have already lost their jobs and think another 1.3 million are going to lose their jobs when the furlough ends.”
In the meantime, the Conservative Government has announced that the House of Lords will move to the northern city of York as part of its plan to “level up” the regions.
“Nobody, nobody believes it actually could. The Lords couldn’t all go to York there wouldn’t be the accommodation.
“I do think the Conservative Party, of which I was once a member, slightly misunderstands what you might call working class Britain if they think that people are going to be impressed by seeing a lot of men in strange brocade, that looks like carpet, parading up and down in York instead of London.”
