BBC News

Newspaper headlines: People 'paid to quarantine' and ghost town UK 'needs saving'

By BBC News
Staff

Published
1 hour ago
image captionThe Daily Telegraph reports that people on low incomes who live in high-risk areas and test positive for coronavirus will be paid to self-isolate - and so will those they have come into contact with. It says the move comes amid signs that increasing numbers of people are refusing to quarantine because of financial worries.
image captionGermany has scrapped plans to discuss Brexit at a diplomatic meeting next week because there has not been "any tangible progress" in talks, according to the Guardian. The paper says Brussels has lamented a "completely wasted" summer.
image captionThe i newspaper claims Tory unrest is growing over the series of government U-turns. It also says the prime minister was accused of throwing the Department of Education's top civil servant "under a bus" after Jonathan Slater, the permanent secretary, was sacked.
image captionThe same story features on the front of the Financial Times, which says the sacking came as Boris Johnson sought to distance himself from the exams "fiasco". It reports that the PM told students their grades had almost been "derailed by a mutant algorithm".
image caption"Turtle chaos" is the headline in the Metro, which says the PM's reference to a mutant algorithm saw people on social media dub it the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Algorithm". Its front page features a picture of one of the superheroes from the TV show.
image captionThe Daily Mail leads on quotes from a senior business leader saying Boris Johnson needs to do more to get workers back into offices. Writing in the paper, Carolyn Fairburn, the boss of industry body the CBI, warns that commercial centres risk becoming permanent "ghost towns" and she argues the issue is as important as the return of pupils to schools.
image captionGirls Aloud singer Sarah Harding is pictured on a number of the front pages after she revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The Daily Mirror says she kept it secret from her former Girls Aloud bandmates for months, only telling them this week, as well as revealing that it had spread.
image captionThe Times focuses on new data which it says shows that the NHS has a "hidden waiting list" of 15.3 million patients who need follow-up appointments for health problems. The paper says the figure is four times higher than the official figure, which only shows how many patients are yet to have their first hospital appointment after a GP referral.
image captionScientists have found that an ingredient in a £10 insect repellent can kill the Covid-19 virus, reports the Daily Express. It says the discovery was made by experts at the government's military research facility Porton Down, in Wiltshire.
image captionAnd the Daily Star focuses on what it calls "a pitta bad news", with a warning for kebab lovers that there could be a shortage of doner meat over the bank holiday. It says there has been a surge in demand from "boozy staycationers".
"We must rescue ghost town Britain" is the headline in the Daily Mail.
Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, who is the head of the business organisation the CBI, argues in the paper that getting employees back into their offices, post-lockdown, is as important for the country as returning pupils to the classroom.
The paper contrasts the courage of front-line workers during the peak of the pandemic, with what it sees as the reluctance of most people to give up the habit of working from home.
"The professional classes," it says, "seem troublingly reticent follow the lead of these lion-hearts".
Similar sentiments are expressed by the Sun, which accuses firms that don't require their staff to return to the workplace of "strangling the golden goose of commerce, just as we need to stimulate an economic recovery".
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionSome companies have no plans to return staff to the office in the near future
Its opinion column points out that "the best companies create via teamwork in offices". It fears that, if working from home becomes the norm, "productivity and innovation will nosedive".
However, the i newspaper believes there are arguments for allowing people to have a say in where they do their jobs. "Blanket enforcement of one policy or the other will only leave swathes of the workforce unhappy."
The lead in the Daily Telegraph is the announcement that the government will introduce payments for people on low incomes who test positive for Covid-19, along with some of their contacts.
The payment - worth £13 a day - follows evidence that some people are refusing to self-isolate if they will be left out of pocket by doing so, the paper says.
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The Times suggests the NHS in England has what the paper calls a "hidden waiting list", with 15 million people on it who need follow-up appointments.
It says the total comes from freedom of information requests to NHS trusts, analysed by the healthcare technology firm, Medefer. It points out that the official figure - 3.9 million - only includes those waiting for their first hospital appointment after a GP referral.
An NHS spokesman responds by describing the study as "flawed and self-serving", saying it does not reveal "whether or not the appointments it refers to are actually overdue".
The lead in the Guardian is "Germany scraps Brexit talks after wasted summer of no progress". It suggests the Germans have abandoned plans to discuss Britain's departure at a diplomatic meeting next week.
The paper explains that the decision matters because German Chancellor Angela Merkel "was billed as a potential dealmaker when talks on the future UK-EU relationship reach a crucial stage this autumn".
image copyrightPA Media
On its front page, the Telegraph reports that high-level talks have begun between Britain and the US, about opening up quarantine-free air travel between London and New York.
It's being considered because New York's rate of infection is much lower than America's as a whole.
But a travel industry expert tells the paper that the US will only agree to such an arrangement if the government introduces "proper" Covid-19 screening at airports.
Finally, the Times is among several papers to publish photos of Boris Johnson jogging through St James's Park in London with Harry Jameson, whom it describes as a "celebrity personal trainer".
Mr Jameson, it says, has motivated the Love Island presenter Laura Whitmore, the former England footballer Wayne Bridge, and the film star Dolph Lundgren. Mr Johnson apparently admitted last month that he'd been "too fat" when he was admitted to hospital in April with Covid-19.
The paper gives details of what the PM could be in for during Mr Jameson's "body blitz". It includes brutal-sounding exercises like dumb-bell burpees and superman press-ups.