I fear we have lost the forward looking attitude of the VE Day generation

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A dignified commemoration of VE Day – yes – but I sense in some quarters a feeling that we have been denied a triumphalist, flag waving, street partying celebration of VE Day. As a child born in the early years after the war I realised that the dominant mood was relief that it was over, sadness at those lost and most importantly a forward looking attitude to improve things and not simply to get back to what life had been like before. The NHS, the welfare state and large scale investment in housing were just some of the fruits of this attitude.

Today the Covid-19 crisis is uniting the people of the world, if not all their current governments. When it is finally brought under control those post-war sentiments will be just what are required to build a better world. My fear is that we as a nation have lost that forward looking attitude and our all too frequent tendency is to lapse into a “get back to normal” attitude. Too many flaws have been revealed in our society to allow nostalgia to be, yet again, our analgesia.

John Dillon
Northfield, Birmingham

Common sense required

If garden centres are permitted to open on a Wednesday only, it will ensure that there will be a maximum risk of human contact there on that day and, once a week, an ensured increase in vehicular traffic. While it is comforting to know that the government acts on scientific evidence at all times might we hope that, on occasion, they use a little common sense?

Anthony Bron
Oxford

A bailout too far

Given the massive carbon footprint of the aviation industry, the anomalous tax breaks that airlines have enjoyed for decades, and their role in the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, why on Earth should the taxpayer be expected to bail them out?

Mike Wright
Nuneaton

Ashamed to live in today’s Britain

Don’t George Eustice and the rest of the government realise that if they put the money they are giving to food charities to the DWP instead they could reduce the need for food banks altogether. I am ashamed to live in a Britain where people have to rely on charity to meet their basic daily needs. This should not be happening to anybody in a country as rich as ours in this century.

Evelyn Stevens

Conwy, Wales

Food failure

The government’s £16m to support frontline food charities signals recognition of government failure on food.

As a result of Covid-19 many people in the UK, and globally, are experiencing new vulnerabilities. This is particularly so in relation to food. More people than ever are accessing food charities either as a result of physical or economic obstacles to fresh food supplies. People who have never used food banks are now dependent on food parcels and deliveries from food banks, community food networks and charities. The new responsibilities food charities find themselves carrying reveal a neglect of “old” responsibilities of the state.

The law attributes responsibility, it does not stipulate the means. In the UK, for the main part, supermarkets have been an effective (albeit at times exploitative) mechanism to deliver on food security. Most of the population has developed dependencies on this system. There is an expectation that when it comes to food the (super)market will provide. This creates a blurring of the lines of who really bears responsibility for ensuring access to affordable and adequate food supplies.

If the state transfers responsibility for public goods provision to the market, it cannot absolve itself of responsibility. It is the role of the state to deliver public goods and to regulate the market. If the market cannot reach parts of the population, the state is obligated legally, politically, and ethically, to step in and cover the gaps. If supermarkets are being relied upon to prevent hunger, essentially provide a national food service, that service must operate in a non-discriminatory way and reach all those in need.

The law is clear that it is the state’s responsibility to ensure everyone has access to food, it is also in the self-interest of any given government to do so. History suggests nothing invites revolution like hunger does.

Dr Kirsteen Shields
Lecturer in international law and food security, University of Edinburgh

We need a universal app

My concern with the coronavirus testing app is not with security. My concern is with governments adopting different independent apps.

How are we going to monitor Germans coming into England to ensure they can have confidence moving in an English crowd? How can English people travel freely in a French crowd and feel confident that they are safe in monitoring who has Covid-19?

The adoption of a common standard doesn’t even apply in these British Isles. The English are testing an app in the Isle of Wight without the Scottish and Welsh embracing its adoption. In Northern Ireland there will be different standards north and south of the border. We have to think more widely than this.

As we mark VE Day let’s see some leadership in our governments to see a common app that tells all of us where the danger is from Covid-19. This will allow us to move freely, without concern, throughout Europe, in safety, knowing that the virus can be traced.

Martin Rayner
Windermere, Cumbria