Safety first
THERE is a cast-iron case for making jabs mandatory for all frontline NHS workers as well as care home staff.
It should not be controversial.
There can be no doubting the risk the unvaccinated pose to patients.
More than 11,000 people have died of Covid they caught in hospital. Yet 103,000 health staff still haven’t had a first dose.
Public safety must trump the unfounded fears many still hold despite all the evidence we now have.
They worry the drugs were not properly tested. That they are unsafe for mums-to-be or women trying to get pregnant. Both theories are utterly false.
They worry there are dangerous side- effects. But those risks are tiny.
Some simply object to being ordered to get jabbed. OK, it’s a free country. Just don’t expect to work with the sick.
Many health authorities insist doctors get vaccinated against other dangerous illnesses. Covid is no different.
There is a fear that NHS refuseniks may quit in droves, causing a staffing crisis. Health Secretary Sajid Javid must prepare for it.
But it would be bonkers to abandon a fulfilling career for fear of a simple inoculation most of us have had twice.
We are encouraged that nearly half of former anti-vaxxers have now had jabs.
We hope the rest see sense.
These drugs are liberating Britain from our gravest crisis since the war. Get yours.
Wad a joke
WHETHER MPs should be allowed second jobs is open to debate.
What isn’t is that Sir Geoffrey Cox looks like he is treating voters and Parliament with contempt.
How did the top QC imagine it would go down when he was revealed to be earning a jaw-dropping fortune in the Caribbean, 4,000 miles from his seat?
It’s not just that he was advising a tax haven, defending a corruption case brought by our own Foreign Office.
It’s that he found so much spare time to do so despite there being no real limit to the attention an MP can give constituents.
Sir Geoffrey has spoken in Parliament ONCE this year. He is making a mockery of an MP’s role. Is he simply complacent over his vast majority in Devon?
And is that Boris Johnson’s problem too? Today the PM will swerve the flak again, disappearing back to COP26. Had he faced down his deserved pummelling in the
Commons on Monday he might just have put a lid on the sleaze scandal.
As it is, the firestorm isn’t going out.
A glass act
THERE are few pubs where you can just recline and gaze in wonder.
But you can in Tunbridge Wells, where Wetherspoons have spent £700,000 restoring the glorious ceiling at the old opera house.
What’s more, you can buy a round and still get change from a tenor.
