Home
The crisis of the week was a shortage of fuel at garages. ‘There is no need for people to go out and panic buy,’ said Paul Scully, the small-business minister. That set motorists queueing. BP had shut some petrol stations and blamed a shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers. Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, blamed ‘one of the haulage associations’ for leaking details of a government meeting at which fuel industry people expressed concerns that fuel stocks were at two-thirds of normal levels. But Rod McKenzie, the managing director of policy and public affairs at the Road Haulage Association, said it wasn’t him. The government suddenly said it would grant 5,000 visas for people in the European Union to come as lorry drivers for three months, even though there was a shortage of HGV drivers in the EU. Then the government said that soldiers would help with driving tests for HGV drivers, held up by the fainéant DVLA; next it said that soldiers would drive petrol tankers, after a bit of practice. Turkeys for Christmas were among future shortages predicted.
In the seven days up to the beginning of the week, 963 people had died with coronavirus, bringing the total of deaths (within 28 days of testing positive) to 136,110. (In the previous week deaths had numbered 1,003.) Numbers remaining in hospital fell for a second week, from 7,895 to 6,865. The government took away the train-operating franchise of Southeastern, for failing to declare £25 million of taxpayer funding, and effectively nationalised the concern. Grant Thornton, the auditor of the Patisserie Valerie chain, was fined £2.3 million over its role in the collapse of the company after its accounts had been overstated by about £94 million.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in