Need for parliament`s recall

With the country facing its biggest health crisis in a century, and with evidence clearly suggesting that "shutting down Britain earlier would have saved lives", it is incredulous that parliament is still in its Easter recess (Britain`s government is failing to protect its citizens, with lethal results,14/04/20). Why haven`t the opposition parties, as well as all aspects of the media, been demanding its recall, especially since it has been clear that the daily briefings with journalists have failed to hold the politicians to account? If Nicola Sturgeon could hold a video questioning session last week, one would have thought that even our antiquated parliament should not still be working on the plans for "how parliament can adapt its proceedings" ("Hybrid" virtual parliament plans to be put to MPs next week, 14/04/20)! 

   Under a truly democratic system, Starmer and a few others would be asking the questions in the televised briefings, and MPs would have already worked out how to debate and vote on legislation without having to break social distancing rules. Of course, the confusion suits a government determined to avoid scrutiny, but the lack of urgency evident in the other parties does not augur well!

n the biggest health crisis in over a century, the country`s parliament is still on holiday! As the daily briefings have shown all too clearly, there is, as Keir Starmer says, "no substitute for parliamentary scrutiny", but why has the "chorus of cross-party calls for the recall of parliament" taken so long (As virus death toll nears 10,000, parties unite to demand the recall of parliament, 12.04.20)? It`s not as though the government took the advice of the World Health Organisation on testing, dealt with the problems of insufficient protective equipment promptly, or even ordered the lockdown quickly enough!

 Excuses about the problems associated with social distancing in the House of Commons are irrelevant, as it is patently obvious that debates and questioning could have been taking place before Easter along the lines of the "virtual question time" held with Sturgeon in Scotland. Possibly then, this government could have been forced into both taking preventative rather than belated remedial measures, as in the case of care homes, and into debating an exit strategy which considered all aspects of the effects of lockdown, including those on mental health!