FROM protecting handwriting skills to Sajid Javid's parting blast in the House of Commons, a number of topics have been covered in media columns. And the handling of the coronavirus has also been brought into question by commentators.

The Scotsman

Bill Jamieson observed in his column handwriting is an essential skill and must not die out.

He said: "Handwriting is a unique personal signature guide to our very soul, individual and unique to us. Care taken on a personal hand-written letter means so much more than a literal-splattered text message and fatuous silly-face meme. I was fortunate to be taught italic handwriting, encouraged by my parents and by a handbook of examples by the author Tom Gourdie. This book has been with me for decades, with its inspiring range of italic styles. It was reinforced by a painstaking teacher who made us do upstrokes and downstrokes till we had mastered the discipline of clear and elegant writing – a habit that has lasted a lifetime.

"No iPhones, battery chargers, or anti-social texting with head bowed, and eye-strain. Just pen and paper – far cheaper and infinitely more flexible than a phone, universally available and practical for all manner of correspondence. And a source of pride when undertaken.

"What is happening to us that we are dumbing down our children and stripping them of such a basic, practical and pleasure-giving life skill?"

The Daily Mail

Henry Deedes wrote in his column that former chancellor Sajid Javid's House of Commons speech will have rattled a few Downing Street teacups.

He said: "Mr Javid admitted he had been unwilling to accept the PM's demand, supposedly at the behest of his senior aide Dominic Cummings, that he sack his team of advisors. Such a move, he said, would not have been in the national interest.

"'Advisers advise, ministers decide - and ministers decide on their advisers,' he said. Oof!"

"He did not wish to go into the personalities, apparently. Cue howls of disappointment. Boring! Though anguish quickly turned to laughter when Saj [Mr Javid] added: 'The Cummings and goings if you will.'"

The Guardian

Ma Jian comments Chinese President Xi Jinping has buried the truth about coronavirus saying that the reaction "to the outbreak has revealed the unreconstructed despotism of the Chinese state."

He said: "Over the past 70 years, the Chinese Communist party has subjected its country to a succession of manmade catastrophes, from the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square massacre, to the forceful suppression of rights in Hong Kong and Tibet, and the mass internment of Uighurs in Xinjiang. Official coverups and corruption have multiplied the death toll of natural calamities, from the Sars virus to the Sichuan earthquake.

"Xi Jinping’s mishandling of the coronavirus epidemic must now be added to the party’s shameful list of crimes. With serious outbreaks occurring in Japan, South Korea, Iran and Italy, it is clear that the virus of Xi’s totalitarian rule threatens the health and freedoms not only of the Chinese people, but of all of us everywhere."

The Independent

Iran's coronavirus outbreak is bizarrely reminiscent of the Black Death says Robert Fisk in his column.

"When the very first Coronavirus reports emerged, I had a suspicion that Iran would be a target of the world’s anger. The spread of Covid-19 to the Middle East was as inevitable as history because the Muslim pilgrim routes have always acted as a channel for pestilence.

"A virus that clearly had its origins in China is now supposedly turning Iran into a menace to us all."

He added: "It was inevitable, of course. After originally denying that it had shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet over Tehran on 8 January, Iran’s word was not going to be trusted when it announced its first coronavirus deaths.

"The holy city of Qom had itself suffered 50 fatalities, one of the country’s own MPs claimed to the horror (and denial) of the government. Of the 139 people testing positive in the country, even its health minister admitted he was a patient after dripping perspiration at a televised press conference."