Instant Opinion: the year is 2022 - so ‘what does life look like’?
Credits Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images Your guide to the best columns and
commentary on Friday 10 July Reaction The Week Staff Friday, July 10, 2020 -
12:08pm The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from
across the British and international media, with excerpts from each. 1. David
Leonhardt in The New York Times on the post-coronavirus future It’s 2022. What
Does Life Look Like? “It’s 2022, and the coronavirus has at long last been
defeated. After a miserable year-and-a-half, alternating between lockdowns and
new outbreaks, life can finally begin returning to normal. But it will not be
the old normal. It will be a new world, with a reshaped economy, much as war and
depression reordered life for previous generations. Thousands of stores and
companies that were vulnerable before the virus arrived have disappeared. Dozens
of colleges are shutting down, in the first wave of closures in the history of
American higher education. People have also changed long-held patterns of
behavior: Outdoor socializing is in, business trips are out. And American
politics — while still divided in many of the same ways it was before the virus
— has entered a new era. All of this, obviously, is conjecture. The future is
unknowable. But the pandemic increasingly looks like one of the defining events
of our time.” 2. Billy Bragg, musician and activist, in The Guardian on how
speech is only free when everyone has a voice ‘Cancel culture’ doesn’t stifle
debate, but it does challenge the old order See related Cartoon characters could
be banned from junk food London Underground to consider ban on junk food adverts
Children's online junk food ads banned by watchdog “The ability of middle-aged
gatekeepers to control the agenda has been usurped by a new generation of
activists who can spread information through their own networks, allowing them
to challenge narratives promoted by the status quo. The great progressive
movements of the 21st century have sprung from these networks: Black Lives
Matter; #MeToo; Extinction Rebellion. While they may seem disparate in their
aims, what they have in common is a demand for accountability. Although free
speech remains the fundamental bedrock of a free society, for everyone to enjoy
the benefits of freedom, liberty needs to be tempered by two further dimensions:
equality and accountability. Without equality, those in power will use their
freedom of expression to abuse and marginalise others. Without accountability,
liberty can mutate into the most dangerous of all freedoms – impunity.” 3. Iain
Martin in The Times on Rishi’s rapid rise Sunak’s road to No 10 gets bumpy from
here “It is already possible to see how at some future critical moment in this
pandemic, or when there is an electoral reverse or constitutional crisis, Mr
Johnson could become the latest victim of Conservative Party ruthlessness. There
are pitfalls for the chancellor, though. Mr Johnson is dangerously competitive.
Soon, it will also be possible for opponents to label the chancellor Mr
Unemployment. Often the Tory frontrunner doesn’t win and for all the spin that
everything is lovely between Nos 10 and 11 right now, it won’t always be. A
small but vicious band of Johnson ultra-loyalists will defend their man and
their power. All that fun is to come. But it is worth pausing for a moment to
admire the manner in which someone who just a year ago was serving as
parliamentary under-secretary of state for local government rose to become the
likely next prime minister.” 4. John T Bennett in The Independent on a president
losing grip at the worst possible time I’ve documented Trump every day of his
presidency — and now he’s in free-fall “The more Trump follows his instincts,
the further he seems to fall. He has stumbled before during his term. But after
watching every day of his presidency since he was sworn in on that grey day in
January 2017, this correspondent sees a president in free-fall. He has no
message for voters on why they should hand him a second term. His potential
legal problems mounted Thursday when the Supreme Court ruled his office does not
grant him automatic immunity from a Manhattan district attorney’s subpoena
seeking his tax and financial records. His poll numbers are dismal. The virus is
spreading again like wildfire. On issues from wearing masks to guard against
Covid-carrying droplets ejected from our fellow humans to flying the Confederate
flag to whether coronavirus is even that serious to the real state of the
virus-hobbled economy, Trump’s know-it-all approach to life leaves him more and
more isolated.” 5. Fraser Nelson in The Daily Telegraph on an obscured truth
about Britain’s care chaos The real story behind Britain’s Covid care home
crisis isn’t what you think “Care homes argue, still, that their business model
depends on being able to pay people less than supermarkets do. Their complaint
about Brexit, even now, is that it makes it harder for them to import cheap
labour and keep wages down. Their bigger concern should be what the Covid crisis
has shown about their ability to protect those in their care. Deciding what to
do about care homes is, we’re told, high up on Boris Johnson’s list – but the
more important point is what lessons can be learned now. If there is to be a
second wave of Covid, it’s pretty clear what ought to happen: care home workers
should be isolated and put up in a hotel if needs be. And – needless to say –
forbidden from working from multiple homes. It will cost, but looking after the
elderly can’t be done on the cheap. The last few months have proved, yet again,
the real price of low-cost care.” UK News US Media Science & Health Politics
Society Coronavirus Covid-19 Free speech Rishi Sunak Boris Johnson 10 Downing
Street Donald Trump 2020 US election care homes#world_news
