Playing the blame game over care homes won't work for Boris Johnson

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I should imagine owners of care homes and all their hard working and dedicated staff are universally spitting feathers (Rob Merrick, 6 July) about Boris Johnson‘s spurious claim that some care homes didn’t follow the proper procedures. This is the infamous start of the “blame game” and should be called out immediately.

Day after day of this dire pandemic, care workers were on our screens rightly bemoaning the lack of PPE. Some were visibly distressed that they were losing men and women in their care. There was an inherent feeling of real panic from the government and so many elderly patients were being released from hospitals to care homes without being tested for Covid-19.

So I am sorry, Mr Johnson, I am inclined to believe the actual experts in the field rather than a prime minister who wants to shift the narrative and exonerate the government from any blame, as fast as he can.

Judith A Daniels
Great Yarmouth

Motormouth

One of the many worrying things about Boris Johnson is his inability to get his brain round what he wants to say and form it into coherent sentences. Fluent and articulate his oral communication is not.

A shining example being his recent output on care homes. The fact that other ministers are quickly called upon to explain what the prime minister actually meant (or “put it into context”) suggests we’re now at the stage of needing an official interpreter to stand by his shoulder whenever he is in motormouth mode (that’s all the time) and translate his utterances into plain English.

Good luck with that.

Judy Smith
Ipswich

The prime minister, formerly a journalist, seems to have problem with everyone else misunderstanding/misrepresenting the “clarity” of his prose or his soaring rhetoric. Oh that the electorate could sack him! We tried by giving him only 45 per cent of the popular vote in December but that didn’t work.

Hugh Woodhouse
Address supplied

Furlough thoughts

The cost of Covid-19 is the output lost and thus not enjoyed today. It does not lie in the future. The furlough scheme redistributes that cost; it prevents those laid off from having nothing with the additional benefit of holding them in position for when the virus is vanquished. Until then the scheme should be maintained.

Tim Montagnon
Rutland

No more 9 to 5?

Rishi Sunak’s pledge to encourage companies to hire and retain young people through subsidies is welcome. However, businesses must not make the mistake of simply taking the government’s money. This is a real opportunity to hit reset on pre-pandemic working norms. The risk of not doing so is to miss out on much needed talent and ultimately hinder long-term recovery and growth.

Our research has found there is a strong sense that that the traditional 9 to 5 working day needs to be reconsidered. More than two-thirds (68 per cent) of British workers think that set hour contracts are no longer relevant to modern ways of working. Furthermore, nearly three-quarters (74 per cent) now think employee contracts should focus on output rather than the number of hours worked.

Business leaders should continue being transparent and engaging with their workforce as they look to shape future working policies. We need to see the rise of the “employee board” – where employees from all stages of their careers are given a voice on the future of the company. As we move to a better normal, companies must take this opportunity to hit reset; whether they receive government subsidies or not.

Alex Fleming
President of the Adecco Group UK&I

Arts emergency

Finally, at last some help through this crisis for the arts in the United Kingdom. However the rescue package seems to be concentrating on London. As London has so many theatres, can we let some of them close to ensure regional theatres, which may be the only theatre and arts in their area, stay open? Or will the provinces once again be the poor relative of the arts?

After all, the amount per capita for the arts is already lower outside of London.

Ken Twiss
Yarm, Stockton-on-Tees​

Music reform

The government pumping £1.5bn into struggling arts industries is welcome news but there are deep seated issues in the industry, including a serious lack of diversity, that an emergency injection of funding won’t fix. Long before the pandemic, the music industry model was broken. For more than two decades at our charity Youth Music, we’ve witnessed a stifling of young talent as career aspirations are cut short by gender, location, and class discrimination time and time again.

This funding provides a sticking plaster but, in this period of economic transition, the music industry must rid itself of its “old boys club” to promote diversity and inclusion. We must use the upheaval of 2020 as a springboard to hit reset on the industry and open the doors to more young people, who will need all the support they can get.

This is why Youth Music has launched the Incubator Fund to help under-represented young people into the music business. And why, in order to thrive, I urge the music industry to overhaul recruitment; to reform entry-level roles; to end unpaid internships and become living wage employers; and to build meaningful relationships with music education and grassroots projects.

After coming so far, we cannot slip back into the old normal.

Matt Griffiths
CEO of Youth Music