Andy Richardson: Students take a hit as coronavirus affects exams
Students have been among the casualties of Covid-19.
Many waited anxiously for A level results and disappointment came to those whose grades were lower than they were capable of.
Denied the chance to sit an exam, prevented from peaking at the right time, they felt considerable injustice.
It’s no surprise that the Government belatedly announced the right for them to choose between accepting their grade, taking a mock result or sitting an exam later.
The current Cabinet is run like a Vicky Pollard sketch: yeah but no but yeah but no.
There have been numerous U-turns: from contract tracing apps to school meal vouchers, from June’s aborted reopening of schools to a bereavement scheme, from visa surcharges to face coverings and from testing in the community to putting a border down the Irish Sea.
There are times when it feels like the Government has more U-bends than Wickes.
Put it under pressure and it crumbles like the sweet, buttery dessert topping on top of stewed apple.
The latest change will bring chaos to universities as they brace themselves for an admissions nightmare. Students empowered to re-sit, however, are the winners.
As the UK plunges into recession and simultaneously owns the worst downturn of any advanced economy and the worst excess death rate, it’s a bad time to own an airline.
Even Grant Shapps’ benevolent use of air corridors can’t stop the rot.
The airlines don’t help themselves. British Airways has sacked many workers while re-employing others on substantially worse terms, after telling them they’d be for the highway if they didn’t accept.
Numerous airlines are ripping off customers by refusing to provide refunds on cancelled flights.
They are falling short of promises made to the Civil Aviation Authority.
Trying to get through to an airline customer service desk is like waiting for Donald Trump to say something nice about Joe Biden.
The Metropolitan Police have given up on justice for racist murder victim Stephen Lawrence after 27 years.
Incompetence and institutional racism blighted attempts to apprehend the murderers. His mother, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, will fight on.
Given the number of stop and searches of black men, it’s difficult to see what lessons the Met have learned or what improvements they’ve made.
Still, the cricket season has begun – and the heavens have opened. Electrical storms made up for the April showers that usually mar England’s summer game.
