Rish and poor
WE hate to be gloomy — but celebrations over our booming economy will be brief.
Yes, it roared back to health in January as Covid waned and before Putin destabilised the world. But if there are two factors sure to send it back into a tailspin they’re rocketing fuel costs and a Treasury doing nothing about them.
Pump prices nearing an insane £2 a litre don’t just fleece drivers. They damage everything, with extra delivery costs passed on to already hard-up customers.
It has been frustrating so far to see Rishi Sunak, a Chancellor so active over Covid, be so slow to alleviate the crippling cost of fuel and energy.
He must slash duty and VAT on petrol and diesel. Always exorbitant, they now look indefensible.
Come on, Rishi . . . Britain needs you.
Sling the Blues
ROMAN Abramovich can never repair his reputation. But he can at least prove his affection for Chelsea was real . . . by giving the club away to save it.
That looks the only hope for the European and Club World champions.
The billionaire will never see a penny from the club he bankrolled for 19 years. Good. But in retaliation he could now do nothing for 80 days until Chelsea’s licence to play expires and it implodes.
He might even have been told to do that by his ally Putin. The baby-killing dictator will have no sentiment over a 117-year-old English football club.
But Abramovich could prove his Chelsea years weren’t as cynical as many believe, by actively enabling new owners to snap it up — and fast.
If he doesn’t, Boris Johnson should beware the consequences of a club of Chelsea’s size going under.
Its huge global fanbase includes millions here, many ordinarily inclined to vote Tory.
Viral lies
REMEMBER being told Britain was the “plague island” with Europe’s worst Covid deaths? It was all cobblers.
It was put about again and again, mainly by those who despise Brexit and were certain Boris’s supposed incompetence killed thousands more than died in nations with “better” leaders.
Now that Covid is no more deadly than flu we can take stock. And the Lancet medical journal reveals that for “excess deaths” per 100,000 population, the best international comparison, we were half-way down a table of 191 nations:
Fractionally higher than Germany and France. Substantially lower than Italy, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Holland.
For overall excess death tolls, we were much lower than Germany or Italy.
Every death is tragic. But it is shameful how many still use Covid victims for political propaganda despite the facts.
But then Brexit Derangement Syndrome, and Boris becoming PM, deprived so many of their reason.
