THE death - and inspiration - of Captain Sir Tom Moore, and the bureaucracy of the vaccine roll-out were the topics debated by columnists in the newspapers.

The Guardian

Gaby Hinsliff said there was something particularly cruel about the news of Captain Tom’s death from Covid.

“It was his optimism, as much as the quiet stoicism often found in war veterans who have seen what he must have seen, that captured imaginations,” she said. “His constant refrain that the sun would eventually come out, that tomorrow would be better, that together we could achieve miracles, resonated at a time when people sorely needed to hear it.”

She said he had shifted perceptions of older people and their role in society during a pandemic that saw some ugly prejudices about the value of older people’s lives compared with younger ones

“His desire to give something back was a testament to the place the NHS holds in so many British hearts as well as to his own character,” she said. “His legacy lives on in every patient cared for, every individual giving their best during this pandemic, and every hope for a brighter tomorrow.”

The Independent

Rupert Hawksley said Captain Tom’s greatest achievement - greater than the knighthood or the £32m he raised for the NHS – was that he forced us to look and to care about old people.

“He did not just lift the national mood in a crisis; he fundamentally altered our outlook,” he said. “He amplified the message – that old is not a “destination” – so loudly, it will be forever ringing in our ears.”

He said his achievements were remarkable, ‘his life story thrilling, not despite his age but precisely because of it.’

The fact that Captain Tom had lived with his daughter and her family for years, and not ‘ushered to the sidelines’, was heartening, he said. “If we value any life, we must value all life, and the greatest way of doing this is to give your time. To listen and include.”

The Daily Express

Ann Widdecombe said the Government would always choose the bureaucratic way of doing things.

“Faced with recruiting retired staff to help with the vaccination drive, the NHS could simply have asked where, when and in what capacity the volunteers had last worked in the health service,” she said. “Instead it chose to issue an enormous form, asking about training in diversity and fire evacuations.”

She said a ‘blizzard’ of application forms from elderly and vulnerable people was ‘just what your average GP wants at the moment.’

“There can hardly be anybody in the entire kingdom who has not at some time encountered cumbersome, pointless bureaucracy,” she added.

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