HOW Covid has changed our perspective on holidays, the tragedy unfolding in India and Boris Johnson riding high were the issues raised by columnists in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Janet Street-Porter said the pandemic had changed her previously fearless life.

“Covid (not age, or infirmity) has changed my life for good. It has reduced me to a feeble, frightened individual,” she said. “One who has just cancelled this year’s summer holiday in Italy (postponed from 2020) - because only 18.6% of the population have been vaccinated, compared to over 48.8% here.”

She is disgusted with herself for being so pathetic, she said.

“Once, Brits were the people who sailed around the world, journeying to distant lands to build fortunes and trade in everything from tea to rare silks. Explorers and adventurers. Now, we can’t even be bothered to book a week at Pontins (even if one was available).

“A trip to Craven Cottage has become far more enticing than a trip to Capri. Has life really come to this?”

The Independent

Maroosha Muzaffar said she was angry at the sheer incompetence and apathy of the Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“They carry on with their election rallies and hollow speeches when the entire health infrastructure is crumbling right in front of their eyes,” she said. “On my social media, I see desperate pleas for help from families of Covid positive patients looking for hospital beds, of dead bodies laying around crematoriums and graveyards, of people scrambling for oxygen cylinders.”

She said people in India were reliant on pleading for help on social media rather than getting it from their own government.

“Communities are helping each other. Strangers are amplifying pleas for help. But in spite of the mutual aid and solidarity we are seeing in action, it is sadly not enough. It is a shame that people have to do this for their fellow citizens. We already pay taxes. It is the prime minister’s job.”

The Guardian

Polly Toynbee said the sun was shining on the Prime Minister as people talk of pubs, hairdressers, schools being open, hope for summer holidays and the joy of vaccinations.

“Johnson’s tanks are parked on acres of Labour’s old lawns, with his “levelling up” and “left behind” talk and his shameless towns fund bribes to newly won northern seats,” she said. “The danger is that all that’s left for Labour is to defend poor and disadvantaged people, who don’t vote much anyway.”

She warned Johnson’s government was likely to fall from grace next spring, when more austerity cuts bite.

“The current euphoria will fade as people tire of Johnson’s sleazy salesmanship.

“There will be no Tory levelling up, as his tanks on Labour lawns will be exposed as cardboard disintegrating in the austerity rain.”