THE ‘lockdown zealot’, Christmas bubbles and getting the vaccination delivery right were the subjects debated by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Stephen Glover said Michael Gove was, until recently, seen as a social liberal and libertarian.

“One did not associate him with the expansion of State power,” he said. “Covid has changed all that. Somehow the pandemic has transformed the once broad-minded Cabinet Office Minister — it may sound an unimportant job, but he may well be the second most powerful man in the Government — into a sort of Tory Suslov.”

He said Mr Gove had reportedly argued for putting London into Tier Three, essentially devastating the city’s already fragile economy.

“On Saturday morning, in the pages of his old newspaper, The Times, Mr Gove warned in a mammoth essay that every hospital in England risks being overwhelmed with Covid-19 cases if rebellious Conservative MPs fail to back the Government’s tough new restrictions in a vote that will take place tomorrow,” he added.

“Mr Gove also did not honestly consider in his article the baffling inconsistencies of the new system, which lumps together areas with low and high infection rates. His justification for these anomalies is that ‘we are a small, densely populated country where the virus has proven it can spread with ease’.”

He said the closure of pubs and restaurants in areas with few cases was ‘monstrous’ and an arbitrary extension of State power such as ‘we have probably never seen in peace time since the dawn of the democratic age.’

He said Gove could have been the voice of sanity during the pandemic.

“As it is, because of his zealotry, the chief ideologue of Covid has become the biggest threat to our hopes of getting out of the mess we’re in.”

The Guardian

Stephen Reicher, a member of the behavioural science advisory committee to Sage, warned five days of mixing at Christmas would inevitably lead to more deaths in the New Year,

“Is it best to insist that people cannot meet up in their houses, with the risk that many will simply ignore such regulations, meet up regardless and in doing so destroy any vestiges of trust between the government and the public?,” he asked. “Or is it better to bend towards peoples’ desires a little in the hope of retaining some level of control?”

He said despite the Government’s three household rule, people would still face choices.

“Christmas, most will agree, is a time for family, goodwill and compassion,” he said. “Do we best express our care for our family, and our goodwill to the wider community, by meeting up with them – or by not meeting until it is safe to do so?”

He said people could meet up outdoors or open their windows and schools could teach online for the week before Christmas to allow families to isolate ahead of December 25.

“If we all take mixing to the official limit, this Christmas could be a disaster.,” he said. “But it could also be an opportunity for a different sort of Christmas, one where we show our care for others while staying safe from Covid.”

The Daily Express

Leo McKinstry said the British stiff upper lip will need to remain in place over a socially distanced Christmas.

“But the burden will be easier to bear because of the knowledge that victory over the virus could soon be in our grasp, thanks to the pioneering work of scientists,” he said, “In recent weeks, there has been a succession of reports about the success of various new anti-Covid vaccines, such as those developed by Moderna, Pfizer and the partnership of Oxford University and AstraZeneca.”

He said the speed with which such vaccines had been developed was astonishing and said early next year there could be a million vaccines delivered a day but to reach that level of efficiency would require a ‘gargantuan effort.’

“This will be by far the biggest single medical mission in British history – the NHS’s equivalent of the D-Day assault, requiring vast reserves of dedication, foresight and creativity,” he said.

“Furthermore, a specially trained force of 40,000 extra health workers will be supported by 30,000 volunteers from the St John Ambulance, as well as firemen and the Armed Forces.

“Ministers had better get the vaccination programme right. To squander this new weapon against the virus would be unforgivable.”