9 h. ago Boris Johnson felt 'homicidal' after Sir Gavin Williamson exam results scandal

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson now reckons he “probably did go too far” with the lockdown rules for kids during the pandemic

Politics

14 h. ago Boris Johnson admits his government’s Covid rules went ‘too far’ for children

The former prime minister said closing schools during the pandemic was a ‘nightmare’ scenario

Politics

15 h. ago UK ‘probably did go too far’ with Covid rules, Boris Johnson says

Former prime minister admits children paid ‘huge, huge price’ as government responded to pandemic

Politics

15 h. ago Boris Johnson admits Covid rules went ‘too far’ for children

The former prime minister said closing schools during the pandemic was a ‘nightmare’ scenario

Politics

15 h. ago Fact check: Newspaper front page is manipulated version of two

The front page has been edited to show Sir Keir Starmer being accused of lying, rather than Boris Johnson.

Politics

15 h. ago Boris Johnson says DfE failed to plan for school closures during Covid crisis

Former PM tells inquiry that children ‘were paying a huge, huge price to protect the rest of society’Boris Johnson laid blame on the Department for Education (DfE) over its lack of preparation for school closures at the outbreak of the pandemic, telling the Covid-19 inquiry that he assumed detailed planning was going on behind the scenes.“We were focused on trying to delay the peak of the pandemic and we thought that the closure of schools, if it had to be used at all, would be a measure of last resort,” the former prime minister said. He added: “It was my impression that the work was being done. I certainly, let me put it this way, I certainly assumed that the work was being done.” Continue reading...

Events

17 h. ago Boris Johnson left in ‘homicidal mood’ over Covid exam results saga

Boris Johnson said closing schools during the pandemic was a ‘nightmare’ scenario

Politics

17 h. ago Boris Johnson says children should have been exempted from Covid lockdowns

Disgraced ex PM who oversaw pandemic finally admits ‘full horror’ of Covid-19 was ‘slow to dawn on’ his government as he faced questions at inquiry about a lack of planning for school closures

Politics

18 h. ago Cow worship and dogs on the lookout: photos of the day – Tuesday

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...

Culture

18 h. ago Boris Johnson denies UK failed to plan for Covid school closures

Former prime minister defends government’s response to pandemic but admits children paid ‘huge, huge price’

Politics

18 h. ago Boris Johnson says children paid a 'huge price' when schools were closed during Covid but officials DID plan ahead of 'nightmare' decision

The former PM told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that it was 'obvious' there would need to be 'consideration of closing schools' and he believed education bosses were making a plan.

Politics

18 h. ago ‘We let down a lot of kids’, Boris Johnson admits over Covid exam results saga

Boris Johnson said closing schools during the pandemic was a ‘nightmare’ scenario

Politics

18 h. ago Frustrated Boris Johnson loses his cool at Covid inquiry: ‘You try!’

Boris Johnson appeared to get annoyed when giving evidence to the Covid inquiry on Tuesday (21 October), telling the panel his job “wasn’t easy”.

Politics

18 h. ago ‘Homicidal’ Johnson considered sacking Williamson over 2020 exam results fiasco

The Department for Education was forced into a U-turn after its algorithm intended to prevent grade inflation saw 40% of predicted results downgraded.

Politics

19 h. ago Covid inquiry live: children paid ‘huge price’ to protect rest of society in pandemic, says Johnson

The former prime minister says method for adjudicating exam results ‘must have been bitterly disappointing to students’Former prime minister Boris Johnson tries to give the inquiry context around the decision making on the closure of educational settings. He says:Don’t forget that we didn’t know the effect this disease had on kids. We didn’t know much about the transmissibility of the disease. There were all sorts of things that were simply unknown and difficult to plan for. And the thing was moving very fast.And from the point of view of No 10, we were focused very much on trying to stave off, trying to avoid an appalling public health crisis, and we were focused on getting enough ventilators, on getting enough PPE, trying to avoid a significant number of casualties, and I think it’s important for the inquiry to focus, to remember that at the time that the school closures were first mentioned, they were seen as something you put in at the peak of the pandemic, and we didn’t think w...

Politics

19 h. ago UK did plan for mass school closures after onset of Covid, says Boris Johnson

Former prime minister gives evidence to official inquiry and defends his government’s response to pandemic

Politics

20 h. ago Johnson insists there had been planning for Covid school closures

The former prime minister is giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

Politics

20 h. ago Covid inquiry live: Boris Johnson questioned over impact of pandemic on children

The former prime minister is appearing at the UK’s Covid-19 inquiryClair Dobbin KC is questioning the former prime minister. She is counsel to the Covid Inquiry. She leads its work in Northern Ireland and, separately, its work in relation to children.She has opened by asking about Gavin Williamson’s evidence which suggested there had been very little preparation for the closure of schools. She says his evidence was that “he didn’t seek assessment of the impact of school closures, and nor did he seek to develop planning for mass school closures because, and these were the words he used in his oral evidence, the steer I was hearing – whether it was in cabinet or anything else – was to keep things open, not about closing things.” Continue reading...

Politics

20 h. ago Boris Johnson gives Covid Inquiry evidence on decisions he made as PM

The former Prime Minister Boris Johnson will face questions from the Covid-19 Inquiry about late lockdowns and a lack of national preparation for remote learning

Politics

21 h. ago I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan review – startling stories of China’s new precarity

The viral blog turned book details the exhausting life of a courier, but something may have been lost in translationFrom the early 2000s until the Covid lockdowns, Hu Anyan was one of China’s vast army of internal migrants, moving between cities in pursuit of work. He did 19 jobs – shop assistant, hotel waiter, petrol attendant and security guard, among other things – in six cities. Although all these jobs were atrociously paid, they still earned him more than the one he tried for two years in the middle of this period: writer. (An 8,000-word story earned him less than 300 yuan – about £30.) Then, during Covid, he wrote a blog about his night shifts in a logistics warehouse, and it went viral. The blog expanded and became I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, which has sold nearly 2m copies in China since being published in 2023, and now appears in Jack Hargreaves’s English translation.The low-paid Chinese worker is at the mercy of an entirely unrestrained market. The jobs Hu does dema...

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