Skip to main content
The lack of a strict lockdown cost Britain dear
Despite the apparent return to 'business as usual' the coronavirus crisis is far from over — but neither is our resistance to deadly government policies, writes DIANE ABBOTT

THE coronavirus crisis always was a global crisis and remains so. It is comforting to believe that we are immune or at least shielded from these global trends — but that would be both dangerous and foolish.

The pandemic has spread globally and there is no reason to assume that we will escape further risks because we currently seem to be over the worst.

The global trend is clear. According to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) report there were well over 5,500 deaths in a single day and well over 200,000 new cases. These are new highs and there are a now a series of regional epicentres of the pandemic. These include the mid-Western, Southern and West Coast US, a large number of countries in Latin America as well as a continuous rise in cases in a number of South Asian countries.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Actress Liz Carr with members of the Glasgow Disability Alliance, demonstrating outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh in May last year
Features / 11 September 2026
11 September 2026

ELLEN CLIFFORD of Disabled People Against Cuts takes the Morning Star through the serious deficiencies which leave vulnerable people at lethal risk

STARMER’S CUTS MAN: Alan Milburn at a presentation of his interim Report into Young People and Work, at West Library Youth Employment Hub, north London, May 28 2026
Diane Abbott / 6 August 2026
6 August 2026

As a proportion of GDP the total welfare bill is lower than it was 15 years ago. The claim that it is spiralling out of control is mythmaking, argues DIANE ABBOTT

MADE IN THE USA: Funeral cortege for victims of the US strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh School on February 28 only recently identified through DNA testing, Minab, Iran last Tuesday / Pic: Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP
Labour / 25 July 2026
25 July 2026

The new Prime Minister must abandon decades of automatic support for US foreign policy, which makes us all less safe, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP

INVESTMENT WITHELD: Paternoster Square, City of London, on the right with the columns is the new home of the London Stock Exchange / Pic: gren/CC
Features / 31 January 2026
31 January 2026

If the government really wanted to address public finances, improve living standards and begin economic recovery, it would increase its borrowing for investment, argues MICHAEL BURKE