Inside Politics: Boris Johnson urged to follow Nicola Sturgeon on masks in schools

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Tuesday 25 August 2020 08:00 BST

Boris Johnson calls on parents to send children to school

Warner Bros and DC Comics have “unmasked” the latest film incarnations of superheroes Batman, Wonder Woman and The Flash – as well as some brand-new big screen characters like Black Adam and Cheetah. Boris Johnson is hoping to be the un-caped crusader for the blockbuster reboot of England’s schools. But the all-important coronavirus costume – the mask – is causing him new difficulties, as the teaching unions demand guidance on whether face coverings should be worn.

Inside the bubble

Chief political correspondent John Rentoul on what to look out for today:

A couple of interesting releases coming today from the Office for National Statistics, in addition to the weekly death figures for England and Wales. First there is “Coronavirus and occupational switching” – information on people changing jobs during the first half of this year. Then there’s a survey called “Unity and division in Great Britain” – which looks at the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on perceptions of community.

Daily briefing

FACE OFF: Face coverings have become the focal point for a new showdown between the government and the teaching unions. “The guidance is silent on what schools should do if staff or pupils want to wear face coverings,” said Geoff Barton of the ASCL head teachers’ union. The ASCL urged Boris Johnson to follow Nicola Sturgeon – who looks set to bring in masks for corridors and communal areas of schools in Scotland. Both Gavin Williamson and No 10 said there were “no plans” to follow the Scots. The unions also hit out over the threat of fines if children in England don’t return to the class, warning it could undermine fragile trust with families. Meanwhile, deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harris caused a stir with her rather lurid claim children were at greater risk from car accidents than falling ill from Covid.

BLOOD RUNS COLD: It sounds like last week’s Brexit talks did not go at all well. The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier is said to have rejected Britain’s “consolidated legal text” – the blueprint for a free trade deal – saying it was “unrealistic”. Barnier’s team have told EU diplomats that the UK’s strategy will be to “trade off” fishing access for freedom from level playing field rules, according to The Sun. Apparently member states have been asked to remain “cold-blooded” at any such last-minute offer. Elsewhere, foreign secretary Dominic Raab will need to stay cold-blooded when he meets Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week on visit to the region. Raab is set to meet Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on his two-day trip, and is expected to “press for new dialogue” between both sides.

FURORE OVER GLORY: You know we’re deep into silly season when the lyrics to Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory manage to spark a major political row. The BBC will play only orchestral versions this year, amid concerns about the lyrics’ links with colonialism and slavery. No 10 made clear Johnson would not be at all happy if the anthems were ditched, while culture secretary Oliver Dowden said he had raised the issue with the Beeb. “Confident forward-looking nations don’t erase their history, they add to it,” he said. Culture warriors will be delighted to hear there’s a brand new row to tweet about. The British Museum has removed a bust of founding father Sir Hans Sloane and labelled him a “slave owner”. And military patriots may get angry at the news the Ministry of Defence is considering “mothballing” all of Britain’s tanks. The Times reports that it’s part of a plan to switch investment to cyber-capabilities.

INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE: The Lib Dem leadership contest is reaching fever pitch. Well, not fever pitch exactly, but it’s coming to an end (the ballot closes 26 August). Acting boss Sir Ed Davey and Layla Moran clashed over credentials on a BBC debate, with the latter arguing that her inexperience (she’s only been an MP since 2017) – was actually a good thing given “people don’t trust politicians”. Sir Ed played the elder statesman card, talking up his work alongside ex-leader Paddy Ashdown way back in the good old days of the 1990s. Interestingly, both MPs championed the idea of a universal basic income. Moran wants to reform our first-past-the-post voting system with the single transferable vote. Writing in The Independent, she vowed to write to all opposition party leaders to urge them to commit to proportional representation at Westminster.

ROLL UP, ROLL UP: The Republican ringmaster Donald Trump barked out more wild conspiracy theories as the party officially anointed him their 2020 candidate. He said Democrats were out to “steal” the election – claiming without evidence that mail-in “ballot harvesting” would be “the greatest scam in the history of politics”. He told the North Carolina convention: “They’re using Covid to defraud the American people.” Trump said Democrats were opposed to all of the best things in life. “They want no guns, they want no oil and gas, and they want no God.” Other acts at the circus saw Donald Trump Jr call Joe Biden “the Loch Ness monster of the swamp”, while Trump Jr’s girlfriend – ex-Fox News host Kimberley Guilfoyle – claimed the state of California was now a land of riots, blackouts and “discarded heroin needles in parks”.

NAMING YOUR POISON: Doctors at the hospital in Germany now treating Alexei Navalny said the Russian opposition leader appears to have been poisoned. The Berlin facility said it looked like “intoxication through a substance belonging to the group of cholinesterase inhibitors”. Chancellor Angela Merkel said those behind the poisoning should be held accountable. The good news is he’s expected to survive, but could be out of action for “months”, according to the NGO which arranged to flight out of Russia. In other (very) big medical news, scientists at Hong Kong University reported the world’s first case of someone getting re-infected with the coronavirus. Researchers said a 33-year-old Hong Kong man was infected twice by different versions of the virus, several months apart.

On the record

“The risks are very, very, very small that they’ll even get it, but then the risk that they’ll suffer from it badly are very, very, very, very small indeed.”

Boris Johnson says it’s very, very, very much time to get the kids back to school.

From the Twitterati

“Equating the risk of Coronavirus with the statistical probability of a child being in a car accident is bad science. A road traffic accident is a single event. Any child involved won’t be transmitting the accident to peers, teachers and family.”

Activist Amanda Jeyaretnam finds the deputy chief medical officer’s comparison inappropriate...

“Public: Please show us you have a plan to keep the virus low whilst reopening schools. Government: Rest assured kids get smashed to smithereens by cars all the f****** time.”

…while satirist James Felton finds it weird and tasteless.