It would be wrong to stop flights into Northern Ireland and wrong not to reopen schools after Christmas

Of the possible Covid measures that have been on the agenda over the last 48 hours, perhaps the most important relate to transport and schools.
News Letter editorialNews Letter editorial
News Letter editorial

Sinn Fein want to stop flights to and from Great Britain and most parties now want much of schools to stay shut in January.

Unfortunately, republicans have polluted the context in which flights can be discussed. The party has influence in the Holylands, where there has been relentless partying, in the GAA, when there were large crowds at some games and celebrations in September, in the Northwest, where a bad autumn outbreak made it the worst hit part of Northern Ireland, and among republicans, where there have been repeat funeral breaches. Yet they are obsessed with all island approaches and spurning things done in London.

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Unionists view with contempt SF’s bid to depict themselves as merely followers of the science, when the party ceaselessly acts as if it is hoping for some constitutional change to emerge from emergency policies.

Anyone living in tier four in England should not travel, and it is right to restate that message, and to try to get traveller numbers down, as was achieved in the first lockdown, when the Belfast-London route went from 30+ daily flights to two. A full flight ban is a last resort, and a step too far.

As to schools, Peter Weir has emerged as a key Stomont figure. His effort to keep schools open is being assailed, just as it was a battle to reopen schools after they closed in March.

Children are by far the safest age category in Covid outcomes, and pre teen children rarely transmit it. Yet experts including paediatricians are clear on the damage caused to them by missing education, particularly poorer children.

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Advocates of school closure talk as if they are vigilant about a pandemic and so have the moral high ground. But closure, like scrapping exams, is easy.

It is the pupils of today who will have to pay the price, in education and emotional wellbeing, as a result of this perilous schooling experiment.

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