Killer Macron
PRESIDENT Macron must live out his days knowing he killed hundreds of thousands worldwide through his cynical falsehoods over the AstraZeneca jab, fuelled by hatred for Brexit.
Thousands of those Covid victims were French.
We have speculated before that the baseless scares which he and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen promoted over Britain’s vaccine will have proved lethal.
It gives us no pleasure to see that confirmed by Oxford professor Sir John Bell, who helped develop the AZ jab.
Sir John says the reputational damage deterred vast numbers in Europe and Africa.
They will then have caught fatal Covid infections waiting for alternatives even though AZ is far cheaper, easier to transport and store, and hugely effective at preventing serious illness and death.
France, already vaccine-sceptic, binned huge stocks which could have saved lives in poorer countries.
Critics of Boris Johnson, mainly Remainers, blame him for Britain’s death toll on the disputable basis that he was slow initially to respond to Covid and to lock down in 2020.
By contrast, leaders of their beloved EU spread deadly disinformation about a safe, life-saving UK medicine purely for petty revenge over Brexit and the success of our vaccine rollout.
In a sane world they would be hounded from office in shame.
Tory tax riddle
IT’S music to our ears to hear the new Downing Street policy guru speak of “rapidly” cutting taxes.
We don’t doubt Andrew Griffith means every word.
But he has an uphill task persuading his boss.
The PM is ploughing on with his foolish National Insurance hike, while his policy chief rightly talks up Thatcherite tax cuts not long afterwards.
It doesn’t add up.
Besides which, the Tories need to slash taxes from their current level . . . not from the grim new 70-year high they will hit after Boris’s grab from our pay.
To reclaim their mantle as the party of lower taxes they need to prove it, and fast.
Healthy option
IT’S no comfort for those on vast NHS waiting lists but the Chancellor is right to insist the new billions being poured in are spent wisely.
If Rishi Sunak is holding out for targets to be met in exchange for funding the new plan, we’re all for it.
Whatever Labour and its supporters say, we cannot just increase the NHS budget by billions each year and hope for the best.
It is a bottomless pit.
Britain could spend every penny we have on it and some would still say it wasn’t enough.
Getting value for money has never been more vital.
