The comments made by Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, on 5 April 2021.
It has been enormously tough for the events sector over the past year, but these pilots are a real beacon of hope as we cautiously emerge from the pandemic. This programme will not only provide valuable scientific evidence, but also offer confidence to the industry so we can make the most of the Great British summer and host large-scale events in a way that’s safe for everybody.
The comments made by Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 5 April 2021.
We are all longing to see stadiums full of sporting fans and gigs packed with music lovers, but as we continue the roll out of our vaccination programme, we must find a way to do so safely.
By piloting a range of measures to reduce transmission, we can gather vital scientific evidence to inform our plans for allowing events in the future.
Thanks to the input of our clinicians and the best science available, we can prepare for the moment where we will be able to gather again in some of our best-loved cultural venues.
The comments made by Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on 5 April 2021.
Our sports stars and great performers need us to find ways to get bums back on seats safely. This science-led pilot programme will be the springboard in getting the buzz back of live performance. We’ve supported the sports and arts with unprecedented sums, but it’s now time to make that Great British Summer of live events a reality.
The statement made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 5 April 2021.
Good afternoon, I hope you’re all continuing to enjoy the Easter break, and I know that over this weekend millions of people have been able to see loved ones for the first time in months.
And I want to thank you all again for your patience, because it is really clear now that this is paying off.
And it your collective efforts, our collective efforts, that has given us that crucial time and space to vaccinate more than 31 million people.
And I’m pleased that we’ve also been able to support our overseas territories so that Gibraltar has become one of the first places in the world to offer a vaccination to its entire adult population.
And the net result of your efforts and the vaccine roll-out is that I can today confirm that from Monday 12th April, we will move to Step Two of our roadmap – re-opening shops, gyms, zoos, holiday campsites, personal care services like hairdressers and, of course, beer gardens and outdoor hospitality of all kinds.
And on Monday the 12th I will be going to the pub myself – and cautiously but irreversibly raising a pint of beer to my lips.
We’re also increasing the number of visitors to care homes from one to two – to allow residents to see more of their loved ones.
We think that these changes are fully justified by the data which show we are meeting our four tests for easing the lockdown as Chris will shortly explain.
But – and you know I’m going to say this – we can’t be complacent.
We can see the waves of sickness afflicting other countries and we’ve seen how this story goes.
We still don’t know how strong the vaccine shield will be when cases begin to rise, as I’m afraid that they will – and that’s why we’re saying:
Please get your vaccine or your second dose when your turn comes.
And please use the free NHS tests – even if you don’t feel ill, because remember 1 in 3 people with this virus doesn’t have any symptoms – and you can get these tests from pharmacies or your local test site, you can even order them on gov.uk and get home deliveries.
As part of our roadmap we’re also publishing today on gov.uk the early thinking on our four reviews, on the safe return of major events, on social distancing, the potential role of Covid status certification, and on the resumption of international travel.
We set out our roadmap and we’re sticking to it.
And I want to stress, that we see nothing in the present data that makes us think that we will have to deviate from that roadmap.
But it is by being cautious, by monitoring the data at every stage and by following the rules: remembering hands, face, space and fresh air – that we hope together to make this roadmap to freedom irreversible.
Below is the text of the Queen’s Speech given in the House of Lords on 8 February 1875. It was spoken by the Lord Chancellor on behalf of HM Queen Victoria.
My Lords, and Gentlemen,
It is with great satisfaction that I again meet you and resort to the advice and assistance of my Parliament.
I continue to receive assurances of friendship from all Foreign Powers. The peace of Europe has remained, and I trust will remain, unbroken. To preserve and consolidate it will ever be a main object of my endeavours.
The Conference held at Brussels on the Laws and Usages of War has concluded its sittings. My Government have carefully examined the reports of its proceedings; but, bearing in mind, on the one hand, the importance of the principles involved, and, on the other, the widely divergent opinions which were there expressed, and the improbability of their being reconciled, I have not thought it right to accede to proposals which have been made for further negotiations on the subject. The correspondence which has passed will be presented to you.
The Government of Spain, presided over by Marshal Serrano, has ceased to exist, and the Prince of Asturias has been called to the throne under the title of King Alfonso XII. The question of formally recognizing, in concert with other Powers, the newly restored Monarchy, is at this moment before my Government, and its decision will not be long delayed. It is my earnest hope that internal peace may be speedily restored to a great, but unfortunate, country.
The exertions of my naval and consular servants in the repression of the East African Slave Trade have not been relaxed, and I confidently trust that they will bring about the complete extinction of a traffic equally repugnant to humanity and injurious to legitimate commerce.
The differences which had arisen between China and Japan, and which at one time threatened to lead to war between those States, have been happily adjusted. I have learnt with pleasure that the good offices of my Minister at Pekin have been largely instrumental in bringing about this result.
The past year has been one of general prosperity and progress throughout my Colonial Empire.
On the Gold Coast, a steady advance has been made in the establishment of civil government, peace has been maintained, and I have procured the assent of the protected tribes to the abolition of slavery. Henceforward, I trust, freedom will exist there as in every part of my dominions.
In Natal, I have found myself under the necessity of reviewing the sentence which had been passed upon a native Chief, and of considering the condition of the tribes, and their relations to the European settlers and my Government. I doubt not that I shall have your concurrence in any measures which it may become my duty to adopt for ensuring a wise and humane system of native administration in that part of South Africa.
Papers will be laid before you on these several matters.
The King and Chiefs of Fiji having made a new offer of their Islands unfettered by conditions, I have thought it right to accept the cession of a territory which, independently of its large natural resources, offers important maritime advantages to my fleets in the Pacific.”
An ample harvest has restored prosperity to the Provinces of my Eastern Empire which, last year, were visited with famine. By the blessing of Providence my Indian Government has been able entirely to avert the loss of life which I had reason to apprehend from that great calamity.
Gentlemen of the House of Commons,
I have directed the Estimates of the year to be prepared and presented to you without delay.
My Lords, and Gentlemen,
The condition of the finances is satisfactory. The trade of the country in the past year has somewhat fallen short of that of the year before, but the general prosperity of the people, supported as it has been by an excellent harvest, as well as by the great reductions lately made in taxation, has led to a steady increase in the consumption of all the necessaries of life, and of those articles which contribute to the revenue.
The various statutes of an exceptional or temporary nature now in force for the preservation of peace in Ireland will be brought to your notice with a view to determine whether some of them may not be dispensed with.
Several measures which were unavoidably postponed at the end of last Session will be again introduced. Among the most important are those for simplifying the Transfer of Land and completing the reconstruction of the Judicature.
Bills will be also laid before you for facilitating the Improvement of the Dwellings of the Working Classes in large towns; for the consolidation and amendment of the Sanitary Laws; and for the prevention of the pollution of rivers.
A measure has been prepared for consolidating and amending the laws relating to Friendly Societies. Its object will be to assist without unnecessarily interfering with the laudable efforts of my people to make provision for themselves against some of the calamities of life.
A Bill for the amendment of the Merchant Shipping Acts will be laid before you.
Your attention will be moreover directed to legislation for the better security of my subjects from personal violence, and for more effectually providing for the trial of offences by establishing the office of a Public Prosecutor.
Although the Report of the Commission issued by me to inquire into the state and working of the law as to offences connected with trade has not yet been made to me, I trust that any legislation on this subject which may be found to be expedient may take place in the present Session.
You will also be invited to consider a measure for improving the law as to Agricultural Tenancies.
I commend to your careful consideration these and other measures which may be submitted to you, and I pray that your deliberations may, under the Divine blessing, result in the happiness and contentment of my people.
The article written by Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, on 30 March 2021.
This is the most important election in Scotland’s history.
So much hangs on its outcome, but at its heart it comes down to one very simple question – who should decide our country’s future?
Should it be a Scottish Government at Holyrood, elected by the people of Scotland – or should it be Boris Johnson and the Tories at Westminster?
The last few days have shown us just how important that question is and just how much it matters.
That’s because the last few days have shown everyone the respective priorities of Holyrood and Westminster – and when it comes to how different those priorities are it is not so much a gulf as a vast and ever widening chasm.
In Scotland, the SNP Government has made our priorities clear, with a four per cent pay offer to NHS staff – people who are deserving at the best of times but who, over the last 12 months, have truly gone above and beyond the call of duty as they have battled on the front line of the Covid pandemic to try to keep us all safe.
At the same time, Boris Johnson’s Tory government has not only failed, so far at least, to come anywhere near matching that pay offer for health service staff – they have almost gone out of their way to show how different their priorities are.
How else can anyone explain the bizarre and frankly grotesque decision to lift the cap on the UK’s stockpile of nuclear warheads.
At a time when the world should be looking to solve common problems and challenges like climate chance and recovery from the pandemic, the Tories are intent on rolling the clock back 30 years or more to a Cold War mentality.
So while they claim to be struggling to find the money to pay nurses, they have no qualms about spending billions of pounds on the obscenity of new nuclear weapons of mass destruction – weapons which will be stored right here in Scotland, barely 40 miles from our biggest city and centre of population.
Boris Johnson’s priorities are clearly not Scotland’s priorities.
But this election can be the one in which Scotland, overwhelmingly and decisively, shows that it is choosing a better path for all our futures.
Over the coming weeks, the SNP will set out the most positive, upbeat and optimistic case ever made for the future of this country.
It will be brimming over with policies, ideas and initiatives for how we rebuild from the pandemic and create a fairer, more prosperous nation.
Policies like John Swinney’s plan to put a laptop or Chromebook in the hands of every pupil in Scotland’s schools. Just as teachers used to hand out jotters to all, in the years to come, every pupil will receive the device they need, putting the internet in the hands of every pupil, in class and at home.
Over the last couple of days we have already started to outline some of that vision.
On Friday, as I addressed local government leaders in COSLA, I confirmed that one of the first acts of a re-elected SNP Government will be to begin work on a National Care Service.
I also made clear that we plan to scrap charges for non-residential care, to help ease the financial pressure on those accessing care. And we will bring in a National Wage for carers so that the value of the pay received by our social care workforce better reflects the huge value of the work they do.
Meanwhile, we have announced that if re-elected we will deliver 100,000 new homes across Scotland in the next decade.
We have already delivered nearly 100,000 homes since 2007, but our plan for the next 10 years seeks to double that, in a move that will support up to 14,000 jobs a year as we rebuild from the pandemic and generate investment of around £16 billion.
That makes our plan the largest home building and investment programme since the start of devolution – and at least 70 per cent of the new homes will be for social rent.
We’ll also introduce a new single standard for housing quality to help make sure homes are more energy efficient, more spacious and of better quality overall.
These are just some of the policy ideas we are bringing to this campaign – but as I said, at its heart this election is about who gets to decide Scotland’s future.
If re-elected, an SNP Government will take forward plans for an independence referendum, and if those plans have the backing of a majority of MSPs at Holyrood then we propose a referendum should be held once we are through the pandemic.
The question of who is in charge of the rebuilding that is needed is a crucial one – and independence means we can focus on priorities like homes, health and education and not the wasteful priorities of Boris Johnson.
To make that happen we need the strongest possible SNP vote – that means giving both votes to the SNP on May 6th.
The Easter message issued by Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Opposition, on 3 April 2021.
Happy Easter to Christians celebrating in the UK and around the world.
I am in awe of everything that you’ve done in the pandemic over the course of the last year.
The Christian community has always been there for the marginalised and for those that need support and help, but over the last year that has shone through so strong and so visible for everybody to see.
Whether that’s work in Churches with foodbanks, I’ve seen so many in our Churches supplying food to those that need it in our communities. Whether it’s vaccine centres in our Church or just the pure volunteering and looking out for people within our communities.
Thank you for everything you’ve done during this pandemic. Thank you for all that support and community spirit.
I know Easter is a special time for Christians. It’s a time for hope and renewal. And, as we come out of this pandemic, I think those values will be so important to us as a nation.
As we see the light at the end of the tunnel, Easter is a good time for us to reflect on the values and the things that really matter in our lives. So Happy Easter.
The statement made by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities on 2 April 2021. Main image photo is Clive Lewis MP, who was referred to in this statement.
On Wednesday we released our report into race and ethnic disparities in the UK. In it we stated categorically that “we take the reality of racism seriously and we do not deny that it is a real force in the UK”. We also said our report sought to “approach the issues of racial and ethnic disparities in a balanced way, highlighting both the success stories that the data reveals as well as delving into what lies beneath some of the most persistent and enduring ones”. We are pleased that so many people are engaging seriously with the ideas and evidence we have presented.
The facts and analysis we presented challenge a number of strongly held beliefs about the nature and extent of racism in Britain today. Sadly, however, in some cases fair and robust disagreement with the Commission’s work has tipped into misrepresentation. This misrepresentation risks undermining the purpose of the report – understanding and addressing the causes of inequality in the UK – and any of the positive work that results from it. For that reason, it is necessary to set the record straight.
We have never said that racism does not exist in society or in institutions. We say the contrary: racism is real and we must do more to tackle it. That is why our very first recommendation to the Government is to challenge racist and discriminatory action and increase funding to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to pursue investigations. We reaffirm the Macpherson definition of institutional racism, though we did not find conclusive evidence that it exists in the areas we examined. However, we said that “both the reality and the perception of unfairness matter”, which is why our recommendations are underpinned by four themes – to build trust, promote fairness, create agency and to achieve inclusivity.
There has also been a wilful misrepresentation by some people of the Commission’s view on the history of slavery. The idea that the Commission would downplay the atrocities of slavery is as absurd as it is offensive to every one of us. The report merely says that in the face of the inhumanity of slavery, African people preserved their humanity and culture. The Commission’s recommendation for Government to create inclusive curriculum resources is about teaching these histories which often do not get the attention they deserve.
The deeply personal attacks on many of us by politicians and other public figures are irresponsible and dangerous. For example, one MP [Clive Lewis, Norwich South] presented commissioners as members of the KKK. Robust debate we welcome. But to depict us as racism deniers, slavery apologists or worse is unacceptable.
This is a wide ranging report, and we hope it will lead to further research and better understanding of the complex causes of inequalities in the UK. Our terms of reference were ambitious and, despite the disruption of COVID-19, we addressed them by drawing upon a wide range of sources and evidence, as well as the lived experience of people, including our own.
We hope that going forward, the report will be read carefully and considered in the round. Our experience since publication only reinforces the need for informed debate on race based on mutual respect. The 24 recommendations we have made will, in our view, greatly improve the lives of millions of people for the better if they are all implemented.
The speech made by Gavin Williamson, the Secretary of State for Education, on 3 April 2021.
Thank you very much for inviting me to join your conference today. I’m delighted to have this opportunity to speak to you personally.
You will often hear people say that the most important person in a classroom is the one that’s standing at the front of it. That has never been more true, even though over the past year, you may not always have had a classroom to stand in front of.
I have taken every opportunity to repeat my thanks for the way everyone in our teaching communities has responded to the covid pandemic and before I go any further, I want to do so again.
I want to thank you for the way you have kept schools open.
I want to thank you for the inspiring way you switched to remote learning. And I want to thank you for the huge lengths you have gone to, to keep everyone in your school and wider community safe.
This has involved overseeing some important safety measures, such as lateral flow tests, which have enabled all our school children and students to return to classrooms after this latest lockdown.
We have all faced many challenges over the past 12 months and often this has meant doing the day job but learning to do it in an entirely different way.
For those of us in education, it has meant coming together and working together, in ways we haven’t necessarily done before.
I always value talking to heads, to teachers, to carers and child minders, and of course to unions. But now more so than ever.
So I would like to pay particular tribute to Dr Patrick Roach. Our two roles don’t always lend themselves to easy conversations but we have been working hard together and I welcome the constructive engagement he has brought to our ongoing management of the pandemic.
I hope that this collaboration will continue to develop over the weeks and months ahead as we build back better.
I know that whatever job you do in our schools, whether you’re a teacher, a school head, a classroom assistant, the pandemic has undoubtedly made it much harder.
You all deserve support at every stage in your careers and making sure you get it when you need it, has been high on our list of priorities.
I see for myself, regularly, the dedication and professionalism of teachers right across the country and I want to assure you that making sure that you feel that you are supported at every stage of your career is something I care passionately about.
However it is particularly important in the first years of teaching when the learning curve is steepest. I know far too many teachers leave within the first five years of joining the profession.
Every teacher who leaves the profession is a loss that we can ill afford.
After all the disruption to our schools, including to teacher training, over the past year, investing in our next generation of teachers, and enabling them to deliver high quality teaching to inspire and motivate a new generation, is more important than ever and crucial to our long-term recovery plans.
It is also central to closing the attainment gap, which the pandemic has cruelly exposed between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
Our Early Career Framework reforms will directly support those at the start of their teaching careers and it is being backed by £130m per year when fully rolled out. When combined with Initial Teacher Training, new teachers will now be entitled to at least three years of support in the first years of their career.
From September, we are extending induction for early career teachers from one year to two years, providing a funded entitlement to a structured two-year package of high-quality professional development.
This will not only have a positive impact on the quality of teaching, but on the retention of new teachers. It will equip new teachers with the skills and confidence they need for a successful, rewarding long lasting career.
There will be a range of new National Professional Qualifications to give teachers and leaders at all levels training, support and practical guidance helping them to become more effective teachers and leaders inside and outside the classroom.
Teaching School Hubs which will be centres of excellence for delivering these teacher development reforms and our new Institute of Teaching will be the cornerstone of these reforms. Together these are going to set up career-long development from trainee teacher through to executive headship.
All of these are building blocks but the single most important factor in schooling, the one that everything hinges on, is the quality of their teacher.
We need to go further, faster, to improve the professional training we offer teachers – at all points of their career – and ensure every teacher benefits. This will be central to the recovery plan that I am working on with Sir Kevan Collins, and while I do not want to pre-empt his findings, let me say I am confident this is going to feature strongly.
I have said before that people now have a far greater appreciation of what you all do for our children. They have seen the way you have risen to the numerous challenges that Covid has caused.
These challenges are not over by a long chalk but I want you to know that I am always ready to work with you when they arise and I am confident that between us we are going to emerge stronger, more resilient and better equipped to deliver a world-class education for all our children as a result.
Thank you.
The comments made by Kate Green, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, on 2 April 2021.
The Conservatives’ stealth cut to school budgets shows disregard for children’s futures as we recover from this pandemic.
The Government’s mishandling of the Covid crisis has kept children out of school, missing out on learning and time with friends, and now they are cutting support that would help children most likely to have struggled with learning over the last year.
The Conservatives have neglected children through this pandemic and now risk leaving them behind in our recovery.