Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
The virus doesn’t know it’s Christmas
The government is ignoring the advice of the medical community by lifting restrictions over Christmas and forcing schools to remain open, warns HANK ROBERTS

AT a government briefing last week Health Secretary Matt Hancock, after stating that the level of coronavirus infections was “highest in secondary-aged pupils,” went on to say: “We need to do everything we can to stop the spread among school-aged children.”

Presumably further school closures is not a part of doing “everything we can to stop the spread.”

Under threat of legal action, schools are forced to stay fully open instead of going to online learning.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
MAKING PROGRESS: A conference organised by Barking and Dagen
Features / 21 March 2025
21 March 2025
HANK ROBERTS welcomes news that asbestos has been judged too dangerous to leave in situ in schools and public buildings, and issues a clarion call to readers to help make sure action is actually taken
An asbestos warning sign
Features / 8 November 2024
8 November 2024
HANK ROBERTS warns that new research predicts a catastrophic rise in asbestos-related deaths among former pupils and teachers as school buildings deteriorate, bursting the ‘it’s safe if not disturbed’ myth
Features / 24 July 2021
24 July 2021
HANK ROBERTS looks at the Prime Minister's record and concludes Dawn Butler may have had a point this week
Features / 5 April 2021
5 April 2021
HANK ROBERTS writes that his own experience of exposing a headteacher who had misappropriated millions in school funds and then spending almost a decade trying to bring him to justice shows how inherently corrupt the academies system is
Similar stories
CONSERVATIVE POSTER CHILD: School head Katharine Birbalsingh
Features / 10 March 2025
10 March 2025
As the government moves to rein in academy freedoms, former darling of conservative education reform Katharine Birbalsingh cries ‘Marxism.’ Education columnist ROBERT POOLE examines how academisation has failed our children while enriching executives and empowering ideologues at the expense of democratic accountability
Picketers decorate a Christmas tree outside Rossington Colli
Features / 23 December 2024
23 December 2024
With solidarity coming in from across Britain and the world, PETER LAZENBY speaks to the people who made Christmas 1984 a celebration of working-class resistance in Britain’s striking coalmining communities
Former health secretary Matt Hancock arrives to give evidenc
Britain / 21 November 2024
21 November 2024
An asbestos warning sign
Features / 8 November 2024
8 November 2024
HANK ROBERTS warns that new research predicts a catastrophic rise in asbestos-related deaths among former pupils and teachers as school buildings deteriorate, bursting the ‘it’s safe if not disturbed’ myth