Objections about ‘personal liberty’ are no reason to abandon Covid measures

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Shoppers wearing facemasks inside a shopping centre in East London (PA)

I would like to ask for a change in policy in the latest unlocking from Covid measures. To scale back or even scrap the social distancing measures and policy about mask wearing is reckless and seems set to undo all of the hard work by people in society and especially the NHS. I would like to draw attention to all of the people who work in public facing jobs who will be put at extra risk. What about all of the people who have poor immunity or have a low response to the vaccine?

The objections around “personal liberty” are based on a mistake which was played out before when crash helmets on motorbikes came into force, or seatbelts in cars and coaches, or no-smoking zones. Our environments and lives are better for all of these things and yet at the time the regulations were met with opposition based on “liberty”. Countless tragedies have been avoided because of these new laws yet we think very little of them now, as they are accepted.

We all need to accept a new way of living with Covid. Individual responsibility needs to be guided by law. As with most established “rules”, we accept them now because it is for our own and the public good. “Health and Safety” hasn’t gone mad; it is saving lives and helping to avoid tragic outcomes in people’s lives.

Peter Harris

Malvern

Triple lock pension

The “triple lock” on state pension increases is likely to result in an illogically large increase next year as a result of the effect of Covid on average earnings. These fell in 2020 but are bouncing back this year, and it is this bounce-back that will dominate the next triple lock calculation. The government may feel trapped by its manifesto commitment to retain the formula, but given the unforeseen circumstances, it would surely be acceptable to all parties to use half of the two-year earnings rise as the basis of calculation, by-passing last year’s freak earnings fall. This would effectively balance the conflicting interests of pensioners and taxpayers.

John Wilkin

Bury St Edmunds

Weren’t pensioners taxpayers once, and most still are? How many pensioners died during the pandemic? How much money did that save the government? To pick on pensioners when we have companies and sports personalities earning more than the leaders of our country suggests that the government is picking on the wrong people.

P C Doughty

Address supplied

Driven to despair

Given that there are currently 100,000 HGV driver vacancies in the UK, what happens if and when significant numbers of drivers are either pinged by the NHS app to self-isolate or, God forbid, start going off sick with Covid? And, given that long Covid affects 10-20 per cent of cases for up to three months and 1-3.5 per cent for 12 months or longer, and the lack of evidence for vaccine efficacy for long Covid, what is the government’s contingency if significant numbers of drivers go sick long term?

Finally, in this scenario, do we see gradual or local deterioration in deliveries, or is there a tipping point, where once numbers of available drivers gets low enough we see a sudden failure of logistics? The solution cannot be to further extend drivers’ hours, because they will simply be too tired to drive safely.

Ian Henderson

Norwich

Vaccine costs

Simon Calder is not quite correct when he says “Together, these tests are likely to cost £100 or more” (‘How being jabbed will ease travel restrictions for millions’, 8 July). As a UK traveller currently in Malta who is already double-vaccinated I am required to obtain a PCR test up to 72 hours before going to the airport for my return home – at a typical cost of £110 and also book, before I board, a UK-based PCR test appointment for up to two days after my arrival. Boots currently charges £99 for this. So it is about double what he states.

Roger Weston

Malta

Tactical mess

Andy Parsons asks us to imagine the chaos if Boris was England manager – contrasting the two leaders (Voices, 9 July). The difference is mainly one of tactics. Whereas Southgate successfully mixes his game, Johnson just dribbles.

Roger Hinds

Surrey

How does Boris find the time?

Almost every time that I pick up a newspaper or watch the evening news, I come across the prime minister wearing a hard hat and hi-vis jacket, peering into a test tube while sporting a lab coat or sitting on an undersized chair in a classroom.

I am sure that the prime minister’s visits for these photo opportunities are very efficiently organised, but each must take up a significant number of hours during what should be his working day. I would have expected the challenges of dealing with the pandemic, levelling up the country and promoting Global Britain to create a daunting workload for any PM – where does he find the time?

Paul Rex

South Warnborough, Hampshire